Whether you're just learning how to frame a shot or simply looking for a refresher, the third edition of Grammar of the Shot gives you the tools you need to build a successful visual story that flows smoothly and makes sense to your audience. Understand the basic building blocks essential for successful shot composition, screen direction, depth cues, lighting, screen direction, camera movement, and many general practices that make for richer, multi-layered visuals. Expand your visual vocabulary, help jumpstart your career in filmmaking, and watch visual examples and further instruction on the companion website, www.focalpress.com/cw/bowen. Designed as an easy-to-use reference, Grammar of the Shot presents each topic succinctly with clear photographs and diagrams illustrating the key concepts, and is a staple of any filmmaker¿s library. * A simple and clear overview of the principles of shooting motion pictures¿timeless information that will improve your work * The companion website offers video instruction and examples to bring the book's lessons to life * Together with its companion volume Grammar of the Edit, Third Edition these books are exactly what the beginning filmmaker needs New to this edition: * A full chapter devoted to lighting * More script coverage, complete with a sample script * Suggested exercises and projects for you to practice your skills * End-of-chapter quizzes to test your grasp of key concepts * New visual examples

People 'read' pictures as they do words, and pictures, like sentences, have their own grammar. A picture maker must be able to use the grammar correctly so that the visual story to be told will be clear and easily understood by all the audience. Grammar of the Shot is a manual for novice shooters (or anyone who needs a refresher) on the basic principles of putting together a coherent film or video piece, shot by shot. This book describes in no uncertain terms what absolutely must be in every shot--so that the successful film-maker can build a story that flows smoothly. It's designed as an easy-to-use reference, with each topic covered succinctly and accompanied by clear photographs and diagrams. Simple, elegant, and easy to use, Grammar of the Shot is a staple of the filmmaker's library.

If you want to get to grips with editing, this book sets down, in a simple, uncomplicated way, the fundamental knowledge you will need to make a good edit between two shots. Regardless of what you are editing, the problem of learning how to be a good editor remains the same. This book concentrates on where and how an edit is made and teaches you how to answer the simple question: 'What do I need to do in order to make a good edit between two shots?' Simple, elegant, and easy to use, Grammar of the Edit is a staple of the filmmaker's library.

For beginners

A unique guide to the visual narrative techniques that form the "language" of filmmaking. This language is basic to the very positioning and moving of players and cameras, as well as the sequencing and pacing of images. It does not date as new technologies alter the means of capturing images on film and tape. The guidelines offered here will inform almost every choice that the director, the cinematographer, and the editor will make. Through lucid text and more than 1,500 illustrations, Arijon presents visual narrative formulas that will enlighten anyone involved in the motion picture and television industry (including producers, writers, and animators).--From publisher description.

The newly-revised and updated fourth edition of Grammar of the Shot teaches readers the principles behind successful visual communication in motion media through shot composition, screen direction, depth cues, lighting, camera movement, and shooting for editing. Many general practices are suggested that should help to create rich, multi-layered visuals. Designed as an easy-to-use reference, Grammar of the Shot presents each topic succinctly with clear photographs and diagrams illustrating key concepts, practical exercises, and quiz questions, and is a staple of any filmmaker’s library. New to the fourth edition: an expanded companion website at www.routledge.com/cw/Bowen, offering downloadable scenes and editable raw footage so that students can practice the techniques described in the book, and instructional videos showcasing examples of different compositional choices; new and expanded quiz questions and practical exercises at the end of each chapter to help test readers on their knowledge using real-world scenarios; updated topic discussions, explanations, illustrations, and visual examples. Together with its companion volume, Grammar of the Edit, the core concepts discussed in these books offer concise and practical resources for both experienced and aspiring filmmakers.

We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? A look at most neighborhood signage tells a different story. Through sloppy usage and low standards on the internet, in email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, this lively history makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with.