Book Description
Spanning a century of screen wizardry-from the early innovations of the pioneering French fantasist Georges Méliès to the first synthetic TRON images to the cutting-edge technology used in the most recent Star Wars and The Matrix-this fabulous volume pays homage to dazzling visual pyrotechnics and the artists of illusion who created them. This detailed look at the history of these great illusions is presented through interviews with 37 international masters of the art and science of special effects and more than 1,000 spectacular illustrations, nearly all in color.
The monster spewing flames in Godzilla, the flying bicycle in E.T. , the rampaging dinosaurs in Jurassic Park-these are just a few of the cinematic magic moments that have held audiences spellbound over the years. The inventors of such screen legerdemain reveal the huge variety of techniques they employ, from animation, animatronics, makeup, and model-making to the most astounding computer trickery possible today. The book encompasses not only film and television but also theme parks and attractions. As a bonus, the author includes his selection of DVDs with not-to-be-missed special effects. AUTHOR BIO: Pascal Pinteau is a journalist, screenwriter, and special effects designer who has created special effects for commercials, TV shows, and theme parks. Since 1985, he has visited with special effects masters throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia.
Customer Reviews:
Game of telephone anyone?.......2006-02-20
Most of the book is pretty good, I have a number of specialeffects books in my collection and have subscribed to CINEFEX magazine for many years. However there seem to be facts that are not checked and therefore some inaccuracies. The best example I can think of is the description of how Robby the Robot was constructed. The books describes fairly precisely the prosses know as Vacu-Form though never labels it. Which is odd because from all other accounts Robby was Fiberglass and there was only one made. If he was Vacu-Formed, a simple prosses once set up and molds made the studio doubless would have made at least three, if for no other reason that he would have be fragile. I may be nit picking. An I could be wrong
Mind Bending Eye Candy.......2005-09-23
As a charter subscriber to Cinefex magazine, the 25-year industry bible for visual effects, I'm no stranger to this topic. But flipping through Pinteau's book yielded some exciting revelations and mostly, It did not disappoint. The book promises interviews with masters "spanning 100 years" although it skews pretty heavily to the past decade (not a surprise). But I bought it for the pictures and they made it worth the time and money. The pics are well-chosen and even familiar old films are illustrated with scenes seen less often. I also like the durable hard/soft cover---because I'll be picking this one up frequently.
A great book about SFX for everyone.......2005-05-18
If you like special effects, you'll have a blast reading this book which was obviously written to please movie fans of all ages. A previous review onAmazon said "good, but not the best" and went on praising another book,which is in fact a very technical reference book for special effects pros or film students. I think it is a bit unfair to criticize a book because it is different from what you expected. "Special effects: an oral history" is not a dictionary. It is entertaining and fun to read precisely because it is not a boring catalog of techniques, props and apparatus. It manages to tell the history of special effects as a human adventure, involving many wonderful artists and also explain clearly how they've created miracles in movies, animated feature films or in TV series and theme parks rides (special chapters devoted to animation, makeup, television and theme parks effects, are each over 100 pages long, which is great, since all other FX books I've read so far are devoted to movies only) . Famous special effects geniuses like Ray Harryhausen, Stan Winston, John Dykstra, John Lasseter (and many others) tell great anecdotes about their work and about their creativity. You can buy this book, you won't be disappointed and your kids will love it from the first page to the end! And the 1500 photos and illustrations are simply stunning!
Good, but not the best.......2005-02-09
I liked this book a lot. The best thing about it is the pictures, they are well researched and some are quite rare. Unfortunately the text does not live up to the quality of the images and the book's sumptuous feel. The author attempts to explain how techniques work, often relying on interviews with experts who often say WHAT they did but not really HOW. Unfortunately this often leads to slightly baffling and incomplete explanations. I dont think it helps that it has been translated from French. If you want to read about how effects are achieved with REALLY CLEAR EXPLANATIONS and helpful diagrams you still can't beat Richard Rickitt's book 'Special Effects: The History and Technique' which is a real class act- I recommend it to all my FX students. But this book comes a close second (though I did find one or two factual errors). It has some unusual examples and it's interesting to see some of the stuff about TV and theme park effects.
Wonderful work..........2004-12-11
Anyone even slighty interested in this subject will like this book - end of story. From Stan Winstons 'Terminator' to Nimba Creations full size animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex, this is a cracking book filled with great photos that is the best of it's type.
It covers everything from the beginning of filmmaking right up to present day and leaves nothing out, hence the vast 600 page count; this thing is thicker than a phone book!!
No complaints, it's a wonderful piece of work.
Customer Reviews:
FIRST RATE BOOK ON MOVIE POSTERS.......2000-01-03
Very highly recommended! An excellent selection of beautiful rare movie posters, all illustrated in color, very nicely printed on fine paper, and at a surprisingly affordable price!
Next best thing to owning the posters........1999-11-15
The next best thing to owning the posters. Wonderful colors and presentation. I own every book that Bruce Hershenson has published. They make a great series on the history of movie posters.
A beautiful collection of full-color movie poster images........1999-11-08
Having tried one of Bruce Hershenson's books, I've since bought EVERY one. They're a terrific value and a wonderful way to bring movie history to life -- through excellent-quality reproductions of movie posters.
Book Description
In this historical survey of the role of music in film, Roger Hickman explores a century of artistic techniques and technological developments. Reel Music profiles composers and examines their contributions to this ever-changing art. Exceptional scenes are scrutinized in detail, and representative masterpieces are analyzed in their entirety.
Customer Reviews:
Genius!.......2006-02-03
Easy to read, wonderful film selections. Accessible analysis for non-musical people. This book is one of a kind!
Customer Reviews:
This book is a mess...........2004-01-19
Somewhere, buried in this book, is some interesting, little-known information. This author would seem to have a lot of the inside dope on the subject - he's obviously followed the subject for many years. So it's worth a read if you are REALLY interested and can manage the author's, uh... "style."
Because this author can't write worth beans. Everything previously reviewers have alleged about him is true, and more. If there was *any* copy editing or checking involved, it's not obvious. This book IS rambling, discursive, contradictory, aimless, and badly organized.
A passion for pointless footnotes masks not only all this literary chaos but also a very weird, murky, attitude that can only be described as self-loathing. It's like the old crime magazines that used to glorify sex and violence by publicly deploring it - in lengthy and graphic detail. Why somebody who so clearly despises his topic should spin his wheels so furiously about it escapes me.
If you can find this book at a library, yard sale, or etc. it might be worth reading once over lightly. But pay full hardback price for it only if you've got money to burn.
As somebody has already written: surely there must be a better basic source on the subject?
Surely there's a better history?.......2002-12-29
The PW review really summed it up -- this book is poorly edited, incoherent, meandering, and filled with shameful generalizations about the nature of men, women, and sex (and Jews, and...). If it weren't about the only book out there that even bothers to attempt to review the history of porn movie making (with most of its focus on the California era of the 70's through the 90's), it would deserve one star -- or less.
As it is, its facts are wrong, its gossip misleading, and its author clearly conflicted about his love and loathing of sexually explicit entertainment. But it is an interesting enough read (perhaps in the train wreck sense) that I finished the book. I didn't learn much more than I already knew, however. The shame of it is, this could have been a really good book, had some editor taken Ford firmly in hand and made him shape his chapters into a coherent form. It's not for nothing that the man has earned fame as a porn industry watcher; Ford has a trashy tabloid style that certainly grabs the attention (and there's nothing wrong with trashy tabloidism in its place!). But instead of guidance, he was handed a book contract and allowed to ramble without rein. The result is sad and unworthy of being clad between two covers. Blog-like ramblings on a website are one thing; I expect more rigorousness from a book I'm supposed to pay for.
RIVETING!!.......2002-09-30
I can't recall when I've read a more interesting book on the adult industry. Luke Ford has definitely done his homework. His writing style amazed me and held me spellbound through each and every page. Bravo, Mr. Ford!
An Important Work on an Important Topic from Jechu Prospect.......2000-07-07
Mr. Ford has crafted one of the most important tomes of his generation in this jeremiad against pornography. In clinical detail, Ford rips the scab off the underword of porn like no other thinker dare do today and reveals the dirt that lies at the heart of this moral stain upon all that is human and decent in the world of decent people who do not ignore natural law unlike those who act in or sell or like porn.
All in all, one of the most influencial books I have ever read. It got me very very very excited. I especially liked the photograph of Mr. Ford on the cover.
He's No Gene Ross.......2000-06-16
The book is ambitious in its scope, but gets bogged down in the minutia of the business side of the pornography industry. Ultimately it lacks what porn fans truly crave...graphic photos of women in humiliating sex acts. Overall a decent first effort.
Average customer rating:
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Brown Sugar: Over 100 Years of America's Black Female Superstars (New and Updated Edition)
Donald Bogle
Manufacturer: Continuum International Publishing Group
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Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood
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Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films
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Trav'lin' Light
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The Real Thing: Words And Sounds Vol. 3
ASIN: 0826416756 |
Book Description
This newly designed, typeset, and updated edition of Donald Bogle's classic study and celebration of America's "dark divas" now takes readers up to the present. Originally published in 1980, Brown Sugar was also the basis for the four-hour, four-part, documentary that appeared on PBS as well as on German Education Television, all also written by Bogle.
Lavishly illustrated, Brown Sugar is a pioneering book - for example, in Bogle's application of the operatic term "diva" to pop goddesses. The first edition traced America's black female superstars from the beginning of the 20th century to 1980. This new edition will have three new chapters on the 1980s, the 1990s, and the first half of the present decade.
Brown Sugar is not only about music stars. It is an unexcelled examination of the lives, careers, and sometimes-contradictory images (those public poses and private anxieties!) of African American goddesses of pop culture: the movies, television, music, and theater. An interpretive history, Brown Sugar is not only about the accomplishments but also the sometimes heart-wrenching struggles and tragedies of highly talented and ambitious women who set out to announce themselves to the world - and while doing so, surmounted extraordinary obstacles, both professionally and personally.
Included are profiles of Ma Rainey, Josephine Baker, Ethel Waters, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Marian Anderson, Dorothy Dandridge, Pearl Bailey, Eartha Kitt, Leontyne Price, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Aretha Franklin, Pam Grier, Donna Summer, Whitney Houston, Halle Berry, Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Bassett, Oprah Winfrey, Lisa Bonet, Jasmine Guy, Lauren Hill, Queen Latifah, Beyonce, and many others.
Amazing to see is how today's superstars, with their big cars and palatial homes, hark back to the giddy, glamorous era of Josephine Baker and the young Ethel Waters.
Customer Reviews:
Soul Survivors.......2007-07-25
I really enjoyed the PBS series that came out of the first edition of this book 20 odd years ago and I am thrilled to see that it has finally received it's well-deserved update...so much has happened since then! Donald Bogle provides a thorough and insightful account of the last century of black female superstars and the book is full of illustrations to help you put faces to names...one on every page. Very recommended.
Average customer rating:
- Great for Disney fans!
- Great Disney Book Loaded With Photos and Info !!
- No details
- Excellent
- An excellent overview of Waltýs life and of the Disney Co
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Disney: The First 100 Years
David Smith , and
Steven B. Clark
Manufacturer: Disney Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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WALT DISNEY: AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL
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Inside the Dream
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Disney A to Z (Disney a to Z)
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Disney Films, The (Disney Films)
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Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, The
ASIN: 0786864427 |
Book Description
Disney: The First 100 Years details the genesis of Mickey, Donald, and the rest of the gang; the development of the first animated features; the onset of television; the creation of Walt Disney World; and the companys recent standing as one of the most technically innovative and synergistic corporations in the world.
Customer Reviews:
Great for Disney fans!.......2005-09-20
Catch up on your knowledge, or review what you know. Fun series of all that's Disney.
Great Disney Book Loaded With Photos and Info !!.......2004-07-14
This 213 page book is just full of an endless supply of full color photos of everything Disney for the past 100 years. You'll learn all about Walt's early life and how his ideas created worldwide Disney worlds. Each chapter covers a decade from 1901 to 2001 !! Many of these pictures are archival and never made available before. The book provides many memories for "children" of all ages. It's a keeper. Enjoy !
No details.......2002-04-17
This is a great book about Disney Company. It goes chronologically from 1901 to 1999 and beyond. Every event in the company's history is put in the book, but without much detail.
Since he maintains Disney Archives, Dave Smith could have done a litle better, like he did with Disney's Encyclopedia.
Excellent.......2002-01-31
This book was excellent! It had terrific pictures and it told from 1901 when Walt was born until 2001. It is a great keepsake. I purchased mine at Walt Disney World during the 100 Years of Magic celebration.
An excellent overview of Waltýs life and of the Disney Co.......2000-08-01
I really enjoyed this book. It is packed with lots of great photographs and artwork from Walt Disney and the Disney Company. It also has a really nice overview of the life of Walt Disney and the work of the Disney Company in text.
I appreciated the organization of the book. The book is arranged chronologically, which helped me to understand the flow of events better. This book has a very upbeat, positive tone and paints a very bright and exciting future for the Disney Company.
This book does not contain nearly as much information about Walt Disney as some of the biographies that I have read, but I don't think that was the goal of this book. This book does a very nice job of chronicling the art and the work of this great American icon and then continues the chronology with the work of the Disney Company in the post Walt era.
This book starts with very early Disney and takes the reader all the way through to Fantasia 2000. This is an excellent coffee table book. I highly recommended it to anyone that loves Walt, his work and the continuing work of the Disney Company.
Average customer rating:
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Encyclopedia of Opera on Screen: A Guide to More Than 100 Years of Opera Films, Videos, and DVDs
Ken Wlaschin
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0300102631 |
Book Description
This bountiful book is a comprehensive guide to the thousands of films, DVDs, and videocasettes featuring operas and opera singers from 1896 to the present. From ABC Television to Franco Zeffirelli, the encyclopedia is a storehouse of fascinating information for film and opera aficionados and casual browsers alike. Find answers to such questions as: * What were the first operas filmed? * Why did they make silent films of operas? * Why was a pseudo-opera written for Citizen Kane? * What was Maria Callas' only film? Organized alphabetically with more than 1900 fully cross-referenced entries, the book casts a wide net that covers not only expected topics-operas, operettas, zarzuelas, composers, singers, conductors, writers, and film directors-but also the unexpected and offbeat--animated opera, first operas on film, puppet opera films, silent films about opera, and many other lesser-known topics. The Encyclopedia of Opera on Screen illuminates the many intersections between opera and film as never before.
Customer Reviews:
Marjan Kiepura.......2004-11-08
This book is a "must buy" for any person interested in opera, operetta, singers, conductors, writers and numerous related topics and its profound effect on the film medium. Whether a connoisseur or professional in the field of opera or screen, this book has it all. You may use this book as a definitive reference, but you will also find it fascinating, entertaining and brilliantly written. There are lots of illustrations. Buy it. You'll love it.
Average customer rating:
- 100 years of american film
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100 Years of American Film (Twayne Filmmakers Series, 1)
Manufacturer: MacMillan Reference Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 0028653807 |
Customer Reviews:
100 years of american film.......2000-10-06
100 Years of American Film is an excellent and comprehensive addition to an existing reference coollection covering film art in the United States.
Great overview as well as excellent bibliographic and filmographic information.
Average customer rating:
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100 Hundred Years of Filmmaking in New Mexico
New Mexico Magazine
Manufacturer: New Mexico Magazine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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New Mexico
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ASIN: 0937206547 |
Book Description
New Mexico's diverse landscapes and extraordinary light have attracted filmmakers since 1898 when Thomas Edison sent camera crews to Isleta Pueblo to shoot a short film entitled Indian Day School. In the 1990s alone, more than 100 movies and television series have been shot on location in New Mexico. This survey of the industry's presence in the state, put together by industry insiders, includes information on such classic made-in-New-Mexico films as The Milagro Beanfield War, Easy Rider, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. New Mexico was the first state to form a film commission, and its story is told here by Max Evans, whose novel The Hi Lo Country was released as a major motion picture starring Woody Harrelson. Also included are a detailed chronology of more than 300 films set in New Mexico including key players and locations, information on the unique architecture of the state's historic movie theaters, and a tribute to Greer Garson, New Mexico's first lady of film.
Average customer rating:
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100 Years of European Cinema: Entertainment or Ideology?
Manufacturer: Manchester University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0719058724 |
Book Description
Cinema is entertainment that also communicates a set of values and a vision of the world. This book explores the complex relationship between entertainment, ideology, and audiences from the Stalinist musicals of the 1930s through cinematic representations of masculinity under Franco, to recent French films and their Hollywood remakes. It covers film from the former Soviet Union, Germany East and West, Czechoslovakia, France, and Spain, and the relationship between Europe and Hollywood.
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