Most people at Columbia don’t have a lot of free time for reading, but if you get a moment and are interested in film or just how the entertainment industry works I’d recommend Making Movies by Sidney Lumet. This is an older book, originally published in 1996, but the information for the most part is still valuable. Aside from a few tips Lumet gives specifically about film cameras and the older ways of editing/sound mixing, Lumet’s portrait of how a film is made from start to finish holds up.
Sidney Lumet walks readers through this process from the perspective of a film director. He worked on classics such as Dog Day Afternoon, 12 Angry Men, Network, and many other great films that he regularly uses to provide anecdotal recounts of the process he writes about. Some of these anecdotes about working with cinema greats like Al Pacino and Boris Kaufman are interesting and entertaining enough that it’s easy to forget that you’re reading a guidebook.
Lumet divides his book into chapters exploring different facets of the filmmaking process. There’s a chapter on being a director, a chapter on sound mixing, on screening, etc. that take you from the original idea to the final theatrical release of a film. As I mentioned earlier, some of these chapters, like the one specifically on film cinematography, are less practically useful now than others, but they serve to provide a sort of history of film as told by an author who’s been a part of the industry for decades. Lumet’s written voice is pleasant enough that you won’t mind the sections that exit the realm of usefulness, and you’ll pick up on some nice film trivia like how the process of flashing works or the ways in which John Dolby revolutionized film sound.
I got my copy of Making Movies from the Strand, but I’ve seen them around. They’re pretty cheap to get used online, too, and it’s a book that will give you a new appreciation for some classic movies that Lumet talks about at length. It’s not too long, it’s not too technical, and it’s fun. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Noah Harouche is a sophomore in Columbia College.