A guide to a visionary new form of filmmaking discusses how advances in digital technology have made it possible to create a "live" film that can be sent instantly via satellite for viewing around the world. "Keenly aware that advancements in digital tools have literally revolutionized every technological aspect of cinema over the last twenty-five years, Francis Ford Coppola is convinced that this same transformation will profoundly alter the way...

"Develop your creative voice whilst acquiring the practical skills and confidence to use it with this new and fully updated edition of Mick Hurbis Cherrier's filmmaking bible, Voice and Vision. Providing a solid grounding in the tools, techniques, and processes of narrative film, this comprehensive manual covers all the essentials whilst foregrounding artistic vision throughout. Gustavo Mercado joins HurbisCherrier to walk the reader through every...

Here's a reason hit songs offer such guilty pleasure--they're designed that way. Over the last two decades a new type of hit song has emerged, one that is almost inescapably catchy. Pop songs have always had a "hook," but today's songs bristle with them: a hook every seven seconds is the rule. Painstakingly crafted to tweak the brain's delight in melody, rhythm, and repetition, these songs are highly processed products. Like snack-food engineers,...

"1968: Actress Gemma Turner once dreamed of stardom. Unfortunately, she's on the cusp of slipping into obscurity. When she's offered the lead in a radical new horror film, Gemma believes her luck has finally changed. But L'Etrange Lune's set is not what she expected. The director is eccentric, and the script doesn't make sense. Gemma is determined to make this work. It's her last chance to achieve her dream-but that dream is about to derail her life....

In the golden age of documentaries, who benefits? Subject reveals the unintended consequences good, bad, and complicated of having your life shared on screen. Featuring the protagonists of acclaimed documentaries, The Staircase, Hoop Dreams, The Wolfpack, Capturing the Friedmans, and The Square, as well as the filmmakers of An Inconvenient Truth, Cameraperson, MLK/FBI, and more.

"Open the door... Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play Witching Night, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It's enormous, old, and ever-so eerie--the perfect place...

"Shelby Springfield has spent the last ten years trying to overcome her past, sanding it away like she does the rough spots on the vintage furniture finds she makes over. But as a former child star, it's hard to forget a mediocre pop career, a meltdown widely documented by the paparazzi, and a huge public break with her former co-star Lyle Jessup. It's also hard to forget her other co-star and childhood sweetheart, Cameron Riggs -- the one who got...

The leading lady is recovering from a nervous breakdown, another performer is soused on the set, unions threaten to walk, shooting must finish before the insurance lapses and a cat can't hit its mark. Is this any way to make a film?

"On March 17, 2005, Spamalot debuted on Broadway to rapturous reviews for its star-studded creative team, including creator Eric Idle, director Mike Nichols, and stars Hank Azaria, David Hyde Pierce, Sara Ramirez, John Cleese, and more. But long before show was the toast of Broadway and the winner of three Tony Awards, it was an idea threatening to fizzle before it could find its way into existence. Now, in The Spamalot Diaries, Eric Idle shares authentic...

"In this new guide, two veteran theater directors steer away from providing a how-to recipe for staging a production and instead share the advice and tools that emerging directors need in order to nourish their skills and develop their own staging process. As Bob Moss, founder of notable New York theater Play wrights Horizons, notes in the introduction: "One doesn't learn directing from a book. One acquires experience." But by focusing on five crucial...