Directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of the Contemporary Hollywood BlockbusterAlthough the blockbuster is the most popular and commercially successful type of filmmaking, it has yet to be studied seriously from a formalist standpoint. This is in opposition to classical Hollywood cinema and International Art cinema, whose form has been analyzed and deconstructed in great detail. Directed By Steven Spielberg fills this gap by examining the distinctive form of the blockbuster. The book focuses on Spielberg's blockbusters, because he is the most consistent and successful director of this type of film - he defines the standard by which other Hollywood blockbusters are judged and compared. But how did Spielberg attain this position? Film critics and scholars generally agree that Spielberg's blockbusters have a unique look and use visual storytelling techniques to their utmost effectiveness. In this book, Warren Buckland examines Spielberg's distinct manipulation of film form, and his singular use of stylistic and narrative techniques. The book demonstrates the aesthetic options available to Spielberg, and particularly the choices he makes in structuring his blockbusters. Buckland emphasizes the director's activity in making a film (particularly such a powerful director as Spielberg), including: visualizing the scene on paper via storyboards; staging and blocking the scene; selecting camera placement and movement; determining the progression or flow of the film from shot to shot; and deciding how to narrate the story to the spectator. Directed By Steven Spielberg combines film studies scholarship with the approach taken by many filmmaking manuals. The unique value of the book lies in its grounding of formal film analysis in filmmaking. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Origins of the Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster | 7 |
Poetics of Film Directing | 29 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of the Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster Warren Buckland No preview available - 2006 |
Directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of the Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster Warren Buckland No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
30 minutes Agatha Anderton audience background begins blockbusters Bordwell Brody camera movement camera position chapter chase circle of action Close Encounters Columbo creates credibility deep focus Devils Tower dinosaurs director dramatic DreamWorks Duel editing effective episode film's filmmaking foreground Grant graphic match high camera angle Hollywood Hooper Hynek Indy's involves Jillian Jurassic Park Katz long shot long take Lost Ark low camera angle low camera height main characters Mann medium close-up middle ground Minority Report mise-en-scène movie moving murder narrative Nyoka off-screen presence off-screen space omniscient narration on-screen opening scene organic unity percent Poltergeist POV shots precogs Precompositional Raiders restricted narration reverse angles Roy's Salem's Lot Satipo Sattler screen left second range sequence serial setups shark Shot duration shot scale spectator Spiel Spielberg Spielberg's film Steven Spielberg story studio stylistic techniques tion Tobe Hooper truck velociraptor visual whodunit Witwer zone
References to this book
Empire of Dreams: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Films of Steven Spielberg Andrew Gordon Limited preview - 2008 |