Make Your Own Movies: a Beginner’s Guide to Filmmaking with Whatever Equipment You Have

A guide to making movies at home with whatever equipment you have, learning the basics of cinematographic and storytelling techniques.

Filmmaking, we are told in the introduction, is the “reverse engineering of dreams… a spell that brings dreams and visions to life.” This book is a comprehensive primer on the craft of filmmaking, and is ideal for amateur filmmakers, film students, film lovers, hobbyists, and anyone else interested in making movies and bringing their cinematic dreams and visions to life. In this ultimate guide to introductory filmmaking, the author, an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker based in NYC who teaches acting, directing, writing, and editing at the New York Film Academy, provides readers with the bare bones information they need to help them get started in making movies with whatever equipment they already have at hand. Essentially a book about craft, in straightforward layman’s terms, the author explains the different stages in the filmmaking process, shedding light on storytelling methods for a visual medium. Readers learn what makes a good story and, through detailed examples and useful diagrams, how to construct a narrative in a compelling way, in addition to being introduced to such aspects of filmmaking as types of shots, directing actors on a set, choosing locations, lighting, linear and non-linear editing, and sound effects.