The Portable Film School: Everything You'd Learn in Film School (Without Ever Going to Class)

by D. B. Gilles

Overview

The Portable Film School is a private tutorial from an instructor at one of the nation's most prestigious film schools. D.B. Gilles explains the fundamental skills and techniques of screenwriting and making a short film arming you with the two calling cards you'll need to break into Hollywood – without having spent the tuition or a minute in a classroom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466833906
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/01/2005
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	605,601
File size:	352 KB

About the Author

D.B. Gilles, author of The Screenwriter Within, has taught in the Undergraduate Film&Television Department at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for fifteen years. He has also taught in NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing and in the Graduate Film Department at Columbia University. Many of his former students have been finalists in screenwriting contests, gotten deals, sold scripts and directed films. He has written for the stage, screen and TV and is a member of the Writers Guild of America.

Editorial Reviews

DIY film literature grows with these two additions to the genre. Drawing on many years of experience as a screenwriting professor and story analyst, Gilles (NYU Tisch Sch. of the Arts; The Screenwriter Within) now attempts to venture into a broader topic: the experience of going through film school. Readers hoping for a comprehensive encapsulation will be disappointed. Direction is only touched on and technical aspects are barely considered in favor of a focus on writing (not a bad strategy for film beginners to adopt). Included are essays on finding script ideas, writing exercises, writing short scripts, and rewriting, as well as extensive guidance on treatment writing and outlining and advice about working with agents. Filmmakers Mark and Michael Polish employ a drastically different style and method, culling their experience writing, producing, and directing three moderately successful feature films-Norfolk, Jackpot, and Twin Falls Idaho. Chronicled here is the entire filmmaking process, from conception and fund-raising to shooting and finishing to selling and marketing one's film. Overall, the Polish brothers, joined by Jonathan Sheldon, head of their company's development, write in a way that illuminates the details more clearly than most technical scribes. While this approach doesn't raise Declaration above some of the genre's standards, e.g., Lenny Lipton's Independent Filmmaking, the authors' narrative form will certainly appeal to aspiring filmmakers. Meanwhile, what Gilles really offers is explicit guidance on film writing; that isn't to say that his book doesn't have a place in the growing canon of filmmaking books for neophytes, just that the title is misleading. Both works are recommended for general collections and especially for film libraries and performing arts collections.-Michael Tierno, New York Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal