"HI. I love media/arts. Lets build a database of books and info" Wed Jun-27-12 10:45 AM by kayru99
we have a wealth of knowledge and talent in this forum. No bullshit, OKP has some really REALLY smart folks that post here, and also some...well, yeah...
But anywho, we know a lot of shit collectively right? How's about a good database of great books and info on our favorite topics in here.
Here's what I'm thinking: each reply can be a field of media creation (writing, cinematography, acting). Under those replies, drop a recommended book.
28. "Inventing the University by David Bartholomae (essay link)" In response to Reply # 2
far and away one of the most useful essays about composition that I ever encountered. applies mainly to essay writing, not creative writing, every first year college comp course that fails to teach this should be canceled (which, yes, would cover 100% of my first year college comp courses):
29. "E Unibus Pluram: TV and US Fiction by DFW (essay link)" In response to Reply # 2
and this is where we get into the difficult nature of "advice to writers." it really, really depends on what you're trying to write and what your aesthetic is. the main universal advice that I know works is "read a lot." so here, here's perhaps the most widely respected writer of our era givin what I consider essential advice to any creator, read a lot:
11. "Acting in Film - Michael Caine" In response to Reply # 3
Not acting theory, by any means. It's a very practically minded guide on how to act on camera. I would recommend anyone planning to act for film or TV read this book immediately.
12. "An Actor Prepares - Konstantin Stanislavski" In response to Reply # 3
This is like a playwright reading Shakespeare. You don't have to do everything Stanislavski does (in fact, he himself said that no method is sacred and unchanging). But he has a lot of incredible stuff to offer the actor.
25. "The Art of Acting by Stella Adler...." In response to Reply # 3 Wed Jun-27-12 01:56 PM by Sponge
Brando and De Niro were the most famous of her famous students. She's the only American acting teacher to have actually met and studied with Stanislavski.
The most famous Method Acting teacher is probably Lee Strasberg (Hyman Roth in Godfather Part 2) and even he didn't study with Stanislavski.
9. "It's actually pretty good...a bit dated but that's where " In response to Reply # 8 Wed Jun-27-12 11:58 AM by kayru99
The second one, Reinventing Comics comes in.
Pretty good read too, and very interesting to see how accurate or inaccurate he was in his predictions from 2000
EDIT:
Also, is there any publisher that regularly releases sample full scripts of comics? There isn't a lot of discussion of the formal component of the artform
10. "you can occasionally get scripts in good "complete" or "omnibus" sets" In response to Reply # 9
the person I've seen who's shed the most light on that for me is Brian Michael Bendis. his first "Complete Powers" set has either all the scripts or just some of the scripts and they were very useful to review for me.
he also teaches a class about comics at Portland State University, so he's very transparent and frequently shares "craft" secrets in the backup pages of his floppies or online. never mind what you think about the merit of his work, he's a great creator and very dedicated to sharing with others.
there were exactly three classes that I took that were worth a damn in undergrad, and my freshman media criticism class at Morehouse was one of them. Great book
While the title seems hella provocative, the book itself isn't, and in many ways it's absolutely literal. The book outlines the creation of the major Hollywood studios by Jewish immigrants at the beginning of the last century. While that's an amazing story, what's far more interesting is how those same studio moguls also were heavily, HEAVILY involved in the idea of America as an immigrant's paradise through film.
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