Wake! For the Sun, who scattered into flight
Posted in Books on November 25th, 2004 by avi – 1 CommentToday, at dinner, I finished Sidney Lumet’s Making Movies. It was quite good — it’s partially an autobiography and partially an explanation of film terms, concepts, and techniques. While generally books in this vein are aimed at people who know quite a bit less about film making than I do, I find that I generally pick up new information. He discussed a lot of very interesting things he had done in certain films: for example, in 12 Angry Men, the first 3rd of the film is shot with a midrange length lens, the 2nd third short with a moderate zoom lens and the final third with an extreme telephoto lens. He also moved the angle of the camera in those three thirds — first having the camera above eye-level, then at eye-level and finally well below eye-level. So when the film begins, it’s fairly conventionally shot, things look open and the people look in control. By the end, everything is very compressed and claustrophobic, and since the angle is so low, you can see the ceiling, so it looks like that is closing in too. None of these are things that you notice consciously while watching the film, but they certainly affect the mood of the audience, and he does a great job with stuff like that. I would recommend this book to anybody who enjoys movies (making or just watching).
At the same meal I started reading Jane Eyre. We’ll see how this goes.