Filmmaking for Teens: Pulling Off Your Shorts

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review




This Book Will Save You Time!, January 21, 2008
By Leah Warshawski (Seattle, WA, USA)
Keep this book in your backpack, duffel bag, or purse, and bring it with you on your filmmaking adventures! Filmmaking For Teens is an essential manual for people just starting their film career or seasoned professionals. Let this book save you from the headaches of production so you can focus on producing your film!

Leah Warshawski, Executive Producer, "Film Festival: Rwanda", [...]



Great book for getting started, December 12, 2007
By Rick R. (Garden Grove, CA United States)
The book really help me as I started an after school group with students making their own films. I gives easy instructions for things that seemed so difficult. It is a must read, for teen or adults that want to make their own videos.



oddly unbalanced, November 29, 2007
By 9876 (SF Bay Area, CA)
This would have been a great book entitled something like "Moving Beyond Home Video", but under its current title I found it oddly unbalanced. It opens with some good advice directed toward someone who has never written a screenplay, but then goes on to discuss assembling a crew including not only cast, but also an assistant producer and assitant director; the necessity of filming using manual focus; and mics with XLR connectors. If you have never tried to write a screenplay or finished a short film, you are not going to make your first foray into film with a large crew and a 3 chip camera, learning manual focus and lighting over your (recommended) 3 day shoot. On the other hand, if you are comfortable with trying out this kind of equipment, you have most likely tried your hand at screenplay writing before.

I would not recommend this book for a teen or anyone else trying to make their first attempt at filming a story of their own writing. It is, however, a fine book for those who have made a few home films with a sub $500 consumer camera and are looking to take the next step into a more sophisticated shoot with prosumer level equipment. In that light, it has very good overview material of the possiblities of equipment and accessories and has good advice on rehersals and crew.

I would welcome a recommendation from anyone who knows of a good book that is really aimed toward teens who really have never written or filmed anything and who are looking to try to put something together with a few friends with consumer level home equipment.



A Must Have for the Young Filmmaker, March 28, 2007
By Kenneth Hess (Tulsa, OK)
I bought this for my 13-year-old step son and he loves it! I read through it and discovered that it is very inspiring to young filmmakers. There are some great references in the back.
I bought him a small digital all-in-one video camera and he has done some very clever things with it after reading through the book. His best one was a little stop motion video about two rocks that had a fight with each other. One winner. One loser. Pretty funny.
I appreciate authors like Troy Lanier who can hold a teenage attention span for a couple hundred pages.



Young filmmakers will relish the opportunity to turn their dreams into reality , July 25, 2006
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
Young filmmakers will relish the opportunity to turn their dreams into reality - the reality of a finished short film - using the tips and insights of FILMMAKING FOR TEENS: PULLING OFF YOUR SHORTS. Chapter packed with insights on everything from brainstorming a solid, workable plot and setting to producing a first film, scheduling, shooting, and then marketing the finished results. Teens - and many a post-teen - will find all the passion of the new filmmaker translated into a series of practical chapters covering all aspects of one's first film endeavor - and should make this book a 'bible' of introductory steps to turning such a dream into reality.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch