film art an introduction david bordwell kristin thompson

While I'm not particularly interested in film criticism, either consuming it or producing it and this book is geared towards a pedagogical inculcation of formalist principles of film criticism, there is much that everyone who is interested in watching movies, or making movies can glean from this textbook. Now I know this, I have better idea of what in mind to look for when sorting out new releases to view.

Also, modern movies are made with television and DVD releases in mind, making camera work focus more on close-ups and a set form of easily partitioned scenes rather than grand-tableau long-shots and theatrically inspired middle shots. Now I know it's because the pace of cutting between cameras has doubled over the past few decades, leaving everything, even non-action movies, having something of a frenetic ADD sort of feel. Through reading this book I've discovered why modern movies leave me cold, compared to past ones something I've never really really been able to put my finger on in a technical way. I'm rather glad I did because this was an excellent introduction into the field, with a nice balance of both application and theory and wide range of content covered from mainstream Hollywood to obscure experimental films, and from silent classics to modern digitally recorded cinema.

Film art an introduction david bordwell kristin thompson