On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director

A priceless examination of the filmmaker's craft, from the renowned director of Sweet Smell of Success

After more than twenty years in the film industry as a screenwriter, storyboard editor, and director of memorable films such as The Ladykillers, Alexander Mackendrick turned his back on Hollywood and began a new career as the Dean of one of the country's most demanding and influential film schools. His absolute devotion to the craft of filmmaking served as a powerful impetus to students at the California Institute for the Arts for almost twenty five years, with a teaching style that included prodigious notes, neatly crafted storyboards, and handouts containing excerpts of works by Kierkegaard, Aristotle, and others. At the core of Mackendrick's lessons lay a deceptively simple goal: to teach aspiring filmmakers how to structure and write the stories they want to tell, while using the devices particular to the medium of film to tell their stories effectively.

In this impressive volume, edited by Paul Cronin, the myriad materials that made Mackendrick's reputation as an instructor are collected for the first time, offering a chance for professionals as well as students to discover a methodology of filmmaking that is challenging yet refreshing in its clarity. Meticulously illustrated and drawing on examples from such classic films as North by Northwest, Citizen Kane, and Touch of Evil, Mackendrick's elegant lessons are sure to provide inspiration for a new generation of filmmakers.

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review




One of the very best books on filmmaking, April 11, 2008
By Nathan Jongewaard (Los Angeles, CA USA)
I have read many books on filmmaking and I have a film school degree (from CalArts, as it happens, where Mackendrick once taught). You can't learn filmmaking from a book or from school, only by making films. Nevertheless, "On Film-making" comes as close as any book I've ever found to explaining precisely and beautifully the work of a film director. Whether you want to make films or are simply a film fan, this book will be an immensely rewarding and illuminating experience.



the master speaks, December 18, 2007
By Dondo Ernst (Gloucester)
Great book by a great filmmaker and a great teacher. Anyone serious about how to create meaning in the cinema by using the "grammar," the form, should read this book. Ditto for the creation of story along classical lines --



He changed me, April 13, 2007
By Pirate Fan (Santa Clarita, CA USA)
When Sandy MacKenrick told my CalArts MFA Thesis committee that my thesis film script was, "long, much too long, and very much too long" and, "doomed to never be completed", I was shocked and terrified.

Sandy was one of the most brilliant and irritating people ever to tell a story or to browbeat an egotistical young film student. His films and lectures convey that contradiction -- his every work is a pearl.

If you were not lucky enough to get Sandy's notes while at CalArts, you must buy this book.

Odds are good, you won't have the genius of Sandy MacKendrick, but you will appreciate how much you could grow as you strive to attain what he found so simple.

I was proud to invite Sandy to the first screening of my thesis film, "Pirate's Dagger", and it still hurts that he was too ill to attend. I wouldn't have gotten it done without his special form of encouragement.



Great man, great book., January 12, 2007
By Patsy Fagan
Too intelligent to be a director, to make compromises in the craft of film making with the studio system of his time, Alexander Mackendrick only left us a glimpse of his own potential in his body of work. He did however pass his vision and passion for creativity onto the next generation in his teaching. In this book his voice is loud and clear, without being dogmatic. It's like having a drink with a friend in a bar and having him sort out all your problems with scripts, actors and life. No director should be without a copy. From the beginner to the established star everybody can find something in this book and all conveyed in the manner both intense and unpatronising that was uniquely his.



Very, very good, June 28, 2006
By Joseph Dempsey (New York, NY USA)
Unlike most how-to directing and writing books, Mackendrick was an accomplished director with decades of professional experience. He speaks from hard-won experience, not dubious armchair notions of what makes a successful film or director. He is wise enough to know there are no "secrets" or immutable laws of storytelling, only rules of thumb. Every time I go back to it, I learn something new, and with every film I make, I am struck by points in the book which ring ever more true. This book will not make you a great director by reading it, but Mackendrick has the good sense and candor to know that a book or a course never will, only lots and lots of hard work and dedication.