Books about Short film from Amazon.com

A beloved, bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana—the book that inspired the equally classic Yuletide film.

The holiday film A Christmas Story, first released in 1983, has become a bona fide Christmas perennial, gaining in stature and fame with each succeeding year. Its affectionate, wacky, and wryly realistic portrayal of an American family’s typical Christmas joys and travails in small-town Depression-era Indiana has entered our imagination and our hearts with a force equal to It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.

This edition of A Christmas Story gathers together in one hilarious volume the gems of autobiographical humor that Jean Shepherd drew upon to create this enduring film. Here is young Ralphie Parker’s shocking discovery that his decoder ring is really a device to promote Ovaltine; his mother and father’s pitched battle over the fate of a lascivious leg lamp; the unleashed and unnerving savagery of Ralphie’s duel in the show with the odious bullies Scut Farkas and Grover Dill; and, most crucially, Ralphie’s unstoppable campaign to get Santa—or anyone else—to give him a Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle. Who cares that the whole adult world is telling him, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid”?

The pieces that comprise A Christmas Story, previously published in the larger collections In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories, coalesce in a magical fashion to become an irresistible piece of Americana, quite the equal of the film in its ability to warm the heart and tickle the funny bone..
Price: $6.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Write a great script and get it into the hands of the Hollywood players!

So you want to be a screenwriter? Whether you want to write a feature film or a TV script or adapt your favorite book, this friendly guide gives you expert advice in everything from creating your story and developing memorable characters to formatting your script and selling it to the studios. You get savvy industry tips and strategies for getting your screenplay noticed!

• The screenwriting process from A to Z -- from developing a concept and thinking visually to plotline, conflicts, pacing, and the conclusion
• Craft living, breathing characters -- from creating the backstory to letting your characters speak to balancing dialogue with action
• Turn your story into a script -- from developing an outline and getting over writer's block to formatting your screenplay and handling rewrites
• Prepare for Hollywood -- from understanding the players and setting your expectations to polishing your copy and protecting your work
• Sell your script to the industry -- from preparing your pitch and finding an agent to meeting with executives and making a deal

Open the book and find:

• The latest on the biz, from entertainment blogs to top agents to box office jargon
• New story examples from recently released films
• Tips on character development, a story's time clock, dramatic structure, and dialogue
• New details on developing the nontraditional screenplay -- from musicals to animation to high dramatic style
• Expanded information on adaptation and collaboration, with examples from successful screenwriting duos

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Price: $10.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Packed with illustrations that illuminate and a text that entertains and informs, this book explains the methods and techniques of animation preproduction with a focus on story development and character design.

Story is the most important part of an animated film-and this book delivers clear direction on how animators can create characters and stories that have originality and appeal. Learn how the animation storyboard differs from live action boards and how characters must be developed simultaneously with the story. Positive and negative examples of storyboard and character design are presented and analyzed to demonstrate successful problem-solving techniques. Artwork from an international array of students and professionals supplement the author's own illustrations. Three never-before-published interviews with well known development artists and a comprehensive glossary are also included.

·Written and illustrated by a renowned animator with 30 years experience as producer, designer, and story artist.
· Storyboard and character design examples from an international array of students and professionals.
· Positive and negative examples illustrate the techniques..
Price: $25.05 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This hip and irreverent guide takes young would-be filmmakers from the moment of inspiration to a finished short film and beyond..
Price: $10.57 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Trick 'r Treat delves into the four stories that make up the feature film, Trick 'r Treat releasing in October 2007. It reflects Dougherty's personal take on the filmmaking process, details how the ideas and art came together, and presents it with exclusive special features in a unique format. The genre encompasses drama, horror, thriller...mixed with a good dose of twisted humor.

Set in a small suburban town, Trick 'r Treat explores Halloween traditions while following a group of people trying to survive the most terrifying night of the year. From a serial killer who specializes in poisoning candy; to a group of mischievous kids who unearth their town's dark secret; to a young woman hunted by masked stalker at the local festival; to a cantankerous old hermit confronted by a demonic trick-or-treater, the film is filled with horrifying surprises, nervous laughs and strange creatures of every variety--human or otherwise.

The atmosphere Dougherty creates on film mirrors the flavor of his art--whimsical, yet eerie. It seems welcoming from a distance, but the closer you look, the more you see the twisted, dark side of Dougherty's mind. Dougherty's third-grade teacher once remarked on a report card that his behavior exhibited "early evidence of what may be an extraordinary morbid ingenuity." Years later, his drawings and doodles of the youthful, eerily pumpkin-headed character, Sam--a kind of ghost of Halloweens past--along with a number of other creepy, unforgettable characters, have made it to the big screen. There, Dougherty's art and storytelling promise to take a fresh twist. At the launch of his career he's already got a loyal following eagerly awaiting his next spooky project..
Price: $27.92 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The aristocratic vampire that haunts the Transylvanian countryside has captivated readers' imaginations since it was first published in 1897. Hindle asserts that Dracula depicts an embattled man's struggle to recover his "deepest sense of himself as a man", making it the "ultimate terror myth"..
Price: $11.88 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Jerry Maren is perhaps the most famous little person alive. When he came from Boston to California's Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios to work as the Lollipop Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz, he was just over three feet tall. Short and Sweet is his memoir of a sixty-plus-year career -- from The Adventures of Superman to Seinfeld -- in which he carved his own niche in Hollywood

Short and Sweet is a lavishly illustrated treasury of old Hollywood that will amaze and entertain anyone who loves popular culture. It features candid commentary, mostly unpublished photographs, and a tell-all attitude. Maren writes of:

• How he ended up in Hollywood to make The Wizard of Oz while still in his teens
• Life on the set with Judy Garland and 120 little people
• The truth about rumors of drunken orgies and wild parties at the Culver Hotel
• What it was like to work with the Marx Brothers and to have dinner at Groucho's home
• USO tours during World War II with the midget wrestling act
• Being hired to dress up as a baby and pee on Jimmy Stewart at the actor's bachelor party
• Touring as Little Oscar in the Weinermobile
• His experiences as Buster Brown on television in the 1950s
• Working in television and radio in the Our Gang comedies and with Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, Lucille Ball, Edgar Bergen, Andy Williams -- even Tiny Tim
• Performing at the White House dressed as Freddy the Frog

...and much more..
Price: $15.63 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"Making Short Films: The Complete Guide from Script to Screen" is a practical and inspirational guide to students and independent film-makers. This new edition of what has become a bible for film-makers internationally is completely rewritten, expanded and redesigned. This is the only book to describe and explain the whole process - from creating an original or adapted script, to producing and directing, to managing budgets and people, to financing, marketing and distributing your film. Whether you are embarking on your first YouTube project or planning a more ambitious, collaborative film, "Making Short Films" gives you the low-down on everything you need to know."Making Short Films" includes: a detailed, structured guide to the whole filmmaking process; information on new, digital and internet technology; interviews with key film-makers; a range of complete scripts for award-winning shorts with commentaries by the film-makers; insider tips on making deals, renting equipment, securing funding and getting your short shown; details on all the major film festivals; a glossary of film terms; and an accompanying website with supporting information and access to the key films discussed..
Price: $13.57 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Stephen King revisits five of his favorite short stories that have been turned into films: The Shawshank Redemption (based on the novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption") was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and best actor for Morgan Freeman. 1408 starred John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson and was a huge box office success in 2007. The short story "Children of the Corn" was adapted into the popular Children of the Corn. The Mangler was inspired by King's loathing for laundry machines from his own experience working in a laundromat. Hearts in Atlantis (based on "Low Men in Yellow Coats," the first part of the novel Hearts in Atlantis) starred Anthony Hopkins.

This collection features new commentary and introductions to all of these stories in a treasure-trove of movie trivia..
Price: $7.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

While Pixar Animation Studios was creating beloved feature-length films such as Monsters Inc. Ratatouille and WALLïE it was simultaneously testing animation and storytelling techniques in dozens of memorable short films. Andre and Wally B proved that computer animation was possible; Tin Toy laid the groundwork for what would become Toy Story; and Mike's New Car exposed Pixar's finely tuned funny bone. In The Art of Pixar Short Films animation expert and short film devotee Amid Amidi shines a spotlight on these and many more memorable vignettes from the Pixar archive. Essays and interviews illuminate more than 250 full-color pastels pencil sketches storyboards and final rendered frames that were the foundation of Pixar's creative process..
Price: $26.40 [Notify me when price goes down.]