Book Wrangler

September 19, 2005

By Bob Patterson

While preparing to write this week's Book Wrangler, we were humming a C. W. McCall tune about a dog named Frank and thumbing through the September issue of American Cinematographer when we noticed an ad for a book that immediately made us think of our need to find a great Christmas gift for a guy in Washington named Karl.  The book was titled "Image Control."  Upon further inspection, the book was designed to appeal to folks who are cinematographers.  If you get a great image the audience says: "We hear you!"  A very graphic composition can do wonders for image control.  Our Christmas shopping may be completed.

Subsequently, we learned that apparently there is a rather large market for books for cinematographers.

Here are some new (and some not so new) books that fill that need:

Image Control: Motion Picture and Video Camera Filters and Lab Techniques, Second Edition (Spiral-bound) by Gerald Hirschfeld  ($49.95 ASC Press)

Reflections: Twenty-One Cinematographers At Work by Benjamin Bergery  ($79.95 paperback ASC Holding Corp.)

Making Pictures: A Century of European Cinematography by Sven Nykvist, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Marcello Mastoianni  ($65 Harry N. Abrams)

Masters of Light: Conversations With Contemporary Cinematographers by Dennis Schaefer, Larry Salvato  ($24.95 paperback University of California Press)

Cinematography: Image Making for Cinematographers, Directors, and Videographers by Blain Brown ($44.99 paperback Focal Press)

The Five C's of Cinematography:  Motion Picture Filming Techniques by Joseph V. Mascelli  ($29.95 paperback Silman-James Press)

It's a Wrap! by Andrew Laszlo  ($37.95 paperback ASC Press)

Every Frame a Rembrandt: Art and Practice of Cinematography by Andrew Laszlo and Andrew Quicke  ($44.95 paperback Focal Press)

DVD - Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography (1993)  ($24.99)  For folks interested in the subject of cinematography this film is highly recommended.  If you are not specifically interested in the topic of cinematography, we can only say that this particular documentary will help the average moviegoer develop a deeper appreciation of films.

Orson Wells produced many good quotes but the one that we'll quote for this column is: "A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet."

Now, if the disk jockey will play Ringo's song "Act Naturally," we'll exit stage right.  In the coming week, we are going to submit a request to the Just Above Sunset accounting department for the funds to travel to New York City and see Miracle Brothers (A New Musical by Kirsten Childs, Directed by Tina Landau) which opens September 18, 2005 - so that we can expand the scope of the Book Wrangler column and do reviews of live theatrical productions.

Tune in again next week to see what will be the focus of that column.  Until then have a "ride into the sunset" week.

Copyright © 2005 – Robert Patterson

Email the author at worldslaziestjournalist@yahoo.com