Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Mythology & Cinematic Storytelling



The title of this post sounds great huh? Sounds like I have some earth shattering discovery to reveal about making movies. Actually those are the titles of two excellent books I purchased online and recently received.

Mythology by Alex Ross is a very nice collection of his DC Comics art. His work is beautiful to say the least. It has a very noble and classic style to it. The version I got is the paperback version that was released recently. Some people may prefer the hard cover format, as I often do, but it is significantly more expensive and the paperback version has some added artwork that wasn't in the original hard cover release. It's worth seeking out and taking a look at.

The other book I ordered is titled Cinematic Storytelling by Jennifer Van Sijll. An excerpt from the book states, "Cinematic storytelling is the difference between documenting and dramatizing, between employing the potent storytelling tools in the medium or leaving them silent." I have not read through the whole book yet but from what I have seen of it seems like a great resource and handy reference for those interested in filmmaking. The book is broken down into sections like Frame: Composition, Editing, Camera Lenses, Camera Position, and lighting. Then within each of those categories conventions are presented with a description, its dramatic value, a script excerpt and frames from a film employing said cinematic tool. I am looking forward to mining this book for insight and employing these tools through practice so that I can one day reach my goal of becoming a 3D Layout Artist for Feature Animation or Pre-Visulation Artist for Visual Effects.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I will have to take a peek at that Alex Ross book of yours before I decide to purchase that one considering I just picked up the Ep.3 book but it looks really good from the cover alone.