Thinking in Pictures
Subtitle: The Making of the Movie Matewan
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: July 1, 2003
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780306812668
Subjects: Film & Video - Direction & Production; Performing Arts; Pop Arts / Pop Culture; Performing Arts/Dance
First sentence: A STEAM ENGINE thunders towards us, belching black smoke.
Description: What choices{u2014}creative, practical, and technical{u2014}make a movie what it is? Here a gifted writer and filmmaker takes us behind the camera and provides a full description of the movie-making process.When John Sayles turned from writing fiction to making movies, he did so with little help from Hollywood: Return of the Secaucus Seven, Sayles's first movie as director and writer, was produced with $60,000 of his own money. Many films later, he still works outside the studio system and guides every phase of his productions.Now Sayles has written an illuminating book about the complex choices that lie at the heart of every movie. Using the making of his film Matewan as an example, he offers chapters on screenwriting, directing, editing, sound, and more. Photographs, sketches, and the complete shooting script illustrate this engaging account of how Sayles's curiosity about a coal miners' strike in the town of Matewan, West Virginia, became a screenplay{u2014}and then a movie.