Its been a while since college, I went to film school over 15 years ago. But there are lots of times I find myself referencing ideas and thoughts that I learned during classes and out of my textbooks. Getting an education and training is important, but I believe most important of all is the learning. Especially learning how to learn!

For those interested in a few resources, I just wanted to list a few books that I used when I was in school, many of which I still reference today. Others, I’ve acquired over the years and have just thought them good reads. Learning techniques is great, it can be extremely helpful, but in most cases, its even more helpful to learn theory. Its the “why” that matters. Why are you telling your story in a certain way? Why did you choose your camera, or lens choice? Why do you want to move the camera?

There are plenty of books out there, but here are a few I really enjoyed and got a lot out of.

The 5 C’s of Cinematography – This is probably one of the books I go back to the most. It’s almost a textbook style learning of the process of
filmmaking. Going over the 5 C’s gives everyone a detailed look at lots of the theory and technique behind films of the time. This book was first published in the mid 60’s and is still studied by students of film today. I have read this book multiple times and still enjoy looking through it.

American Cinematographer Manual – I must admit, this book was over my head when I first looked through it. I struggled a bit and learned enough to pass my Cinematography class. We actually learned on Film Cameras, and we learned to load film in a mag in a dark changing bag. But unless the new revisions have changed drastically from the one I used, this book mainly deals with using actual film and film cameras (16mm 35mm and plenty more).

The Screenwriter’s Bible – I remember being told, “if you don’t think its important enough to learn the proper font, layout and margins, a production company won’t think its important enough to read, and they’ll just toss it in the trash.” Unless you have connections that will be able to green light your project from a treatment you wrote on a napkin, you probably want to learn the correct formatting for your script!

The Complete Film Production Handbook – When it came to preproduction, this book really helps with script breakdowns, and budgeting and forms and sheets. This is the part where most people want to skip. But it is invaluable to be organized and prepared. This is a huge part of the preproduction process and you should not skip this step or just take it lightly! “For every three weeks of preproduction, there is one week of production.”  I’ve lived by this 3 to 1 ratio and have learned from it immensely! Skipping preproduction really puts your project to a screeching halt, and can really magnify the time it will take you to finish a project.

Rebel Without A Crew – This was not required reading for any of my classes! But I thoroughly enjoyed it, and read it because it is very encouraging to go through this one. It’s more of a diary of a young filmmaker as he goes through preproduction, production and post, until he goes on to win the Sundance Film Festival and becomes a major Hollywood player.  It’s great to go through this book with an average guy with determination and see him succeed.

I have a lot more books that I haven’t listed, but I’ll continue to come back to this page, and add more resources, books and links. I hope that this can be of help to any of you who really are interested in filmmaking and storytelling. Let me know below what you think of any of these books or if you have recommendations of other books or resources as well.

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