This week I am reading On Filmmaking: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director, a book of collected essays and lectures by Alexander Mackendrick. In the introduction Paul Cronin writes: For Mackendrick, the very word ‘director’ implied being in control of other people’s skills just as much, if not more, than the exercise of one’s own craftsmanship. As he explained, ‘The true role of a director involves more than having practical experience in various technical skills – it means functioning […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film

I have had several discussions this week about the elements of filmmaking and what makes a film work. Of course it is subjective and each person I spoke with had a different point of view – but Gil Bettman in the opening chapter of his book basically nailed it for me. The first time director must understand and take to heart the fundamental truth that if the audience is transported into the drama of the film, they will sit there […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film

This week on my “spring break” I am reading Oliver Sacks’ An Anthropologist on Mars. In the introduction he refers to the inevitable creative ways in which people who cope with disease or development disorders learn to not only exist in the world but thrive. Thus while one may be horrified by the ravages of developmental disorder or disease, one may sometimes see them as creative too – for if they destroy particular paths, particular ways of doing things, they may […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film

Today I leave you with a quote that I came across from scraps of paper in a binder I recently cleared out for a project I needed to put together in paper form. Wait – what’s that, you ask  – paper? I thought we got rid of that in the 21st century. . . that and film . . . aren’t all those things digital representations now? Jean Epstein, For a New Avant-Garde: Each of us, I suppose may possess some […]

Categories: Jennifer Dean, ZiR • Tags: film