Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out: Five Keys to the Art of Making Inspired Movies and Television

Five keys to creating authentic, distinctive work, whether you are a student, professional or simply love making films on your own

For Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out, three professors at the renowned University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television interviewed fifteen outstanding filmmakers, then distilled their insights into the "Five I's" of creativity. Learn how to:

• Uncover your unique creative voice (Introspection)

• Work from real-life observations and experience (Inquiry)

• Draw on your nonconscious wells of creativity (Intuition)

• Strengthen your creative collaborations (Interaction)

• Communicate at the deepest level with your audience (Impact)

This comprehensive approach provides practical exercises that will enrich and transform your work, whether you are looking for a story idea, lighting a set, editing a scene or selecting a music cue.

The participating filmmakers, who have collectively won or been nominated for 39 Oscars and 27 Emmys, are:

Anthony Minghella, writer-director (The English Patient); Kimberly Peirce, writer-director (Boys Don't Cry); John Lasseter, writer-director-producer (Toy Story); John Wells, writer-producer (ER); Hanif Kureishi, writer (My Beautiful Laundrette); Pamela Douglas, writer (Between Mother and Daughter); Renee Tajima-Pena, director-producer (My America...or, Honk If You Love Buddha); Ismail Merchant, producer (The Remains of the Day); Jeannine Oppewall, production designer (L.A. Confidential); Conrad L. Hall, cinematographer (American Beauty); Kathy Baker, actor (Picket Fences); Walter Murch, sound designer-editor (Apocalypse Now); Lisa Fruchtman, editor (The Right Stuff); Kate Amend, editor (Into the Arms of Strangers); and James Newton Howard, composer (The Sixth Sense).

At the end of each chapter, the authors outline suggestions and exercises to evoke the reader's own creativity and abilities.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that is either interested in filmmaking or is already involved in a film career, as it is always fascinating to see how successful people approach their own creative problems. Creativity is the one commodity which Hollywood is always looking for, but for which there are no formulas.


Inspiring!   May 5, 2003
Michelle I. Fellner (Los Angeles, CA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Inspiring! This book reminds you that the most important thing you have to contribute as an artist is already within you. Essential reading for anyone in any creative endeavor. Buy this book and fly!


A fantastic, completely original approach   February 28, 2003
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

This book is a hybrid of interview collections and workbook exercises, designed to help filmmakers with their creative processes, not using the dumbed-down how-to-manual approach that so many filmmaking books employ, but in an intelligent and subtle way that engages and challenges the reader. These authors have assembled a formidable list of filmmakers -- the brains and souls behind The English Patient, Toy Story, E.R., Boys Don't Cry, many more -- and asked them more than the usual-suspect kind of questions, and by doing so have managed to go deeply into the creative process. The book interweaves the interviews with anecdotes, proverbs, and a group of creativity exercises which are several levels above the kind of artists' self-help books that have sometimes insulted our intelligence in the past. Ever wonder how Anthony Minghella thought of the opening shot for The English Patient? Or how Merchant Ivory get those stellar casts? This book actually tells you things you want to know, and then challenges you to go out and make a movie.