Average customer rating:
- An Excellent Intro to Film Study
- I've looked at clouds from both sides now
- TWO THUMBS DOWN
- fine, blessedly concise guide
- Intelligence and accessibility
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A Short Guide to Writing about Film (Short Guides Series)
Timothy Corrigan
Manufacturer: Longman
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0321412281 |
Book Description
Doubling an introduction to film study and a practical writing guide, this brief text introduces students to film terms and the major film theories, enabling them to write more critically.
Examples from newer movies provide a fresh list of references for students introduced to film study and writing films. The author presents several approaches to film analysis and writing about film–auteurs, genres, ideology, kinds of formalism, and national cinemas, and introduces students to a range of film terms and film theories.
Recent movies are used to fresh examples. Multiple approaches to writing about film as well as theories about film are given.
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Customer Reviews:
An Excellent Intro to Film Study.......2007-09-10
Timothy Corrigan, in the preface to "A Short Guide to Writing About Films, sixth edition," says, "Writing essays about films is, in short, one of the most sophisticated ways to respond to them." In this concise book, he lucidly explains how to write screen reports, movie reviews, as well as theoretical and critical essays on films.
Here's a sample of his lucid writing. Defining terms often used in film study: mise-en-scene -- "the arrangement of the so-called theatrical elements before they are actually filmed; these include sets, lighting, costumes, and props"; shot/reverse shot -- "an editing pattern that cuts between individuals according to the logic of their conversation"; jump cut -- "a cut within the continuous action of a shot, creating a spatial or temporal jump or discontinuity within the action."
Moreover, this updated edition explains the supplementary features often included in DVDs such as story boards, behind-the-scene documentaries, and interviews with the cast and crews.
Even if you don't intend to write about films, reading this blessedly brief book will enhance your enjoyment of watching films. Five shining stars.
-- C J Singh
I've looked at clouds from both sides now.......2003-08-08
One thing I can say is I enjoy a good film. O.K. if it moves I'll watch it. But until I read this book I really was just looking with out seeing.
It is nice to have this guide confirm what one knows as common sense. Probably because the guide is designed to take you from ground zero to a level of appreciation and allow you to convey your opinion intelligently.
If you have an earlier edition you will still get the essence of the book. Newer editions add different resources and research information.
Some of the highlights are:
* A shot-by shot analysis of a sequence from the film "Potemkin"
* Suggestions on using the Internet
* Sample student writing
Some contents:
Writing about the Movies
Preparing to Watch and Preparing to Write
Film Terms and Topics
Six Approaches to writing about Film
Style and Structure in Writing
Researching the Movies
Manuscript Form
This guide is an eye opener.
TWO THUMBS DOWN.......2001-01-28
I am currently a film major who is being forced to read this book. Let me say that so far I am only to chapter three and have suffered through every page of it. It is filled with basic, common sense, (i.e., the best way to write about film is to take notes during the screening. and if you can, it's good to see the movie more than once), which is explained in several pages. Give me a break. Not only does he present basic knowlnedge but he repeats himself in so many words. The truth is, the only way to successfully analize film is to develop an eye for symbolism. No book, I don't care who writes it, can teach you that. It is something that must be personally developed. Why someone would waste their time writing a book trying to teach people how to do that blows my mind. I give it one star, cause after all, everyone deserves a little comething for at least trying.
fine, blessedly concise guide.......2001-01-07
I'm writing to second mitry's opinion of the book and to add to mitry's comment about kenosha's complaint of textual errors. I have the second edition of the book, and Corrigan speaks of Captain Willard and refers to Marlowe as "the other Captain Willard" (p. 43). It's clear from the context that he is comparing the film character with Conrad's protagonist. I doubt Corrigan would have revised the 2nd edition text here to make an error in the 3rd edition. Don't get turned off by an erroneous review!
Intelligence and accessibility.......2000-08-02
This a marvelous book, packed with information and much more accessible than far more expensive books. It's the perfect companion for almost any film course since it not only introduces students to the language and methods of film analysis (including how to take notes) but does so while guiding students through the work of writing a good essay (with great suggestions for doing research). The writing is clear and accurate (with none of the errors referred to by the Kenosha reviewer). I recommend it without hesitation to all students of film.
Customer Reviews:
I've looked at clouds from both sides now.......2007-04-09
One thing I can say is I enjoy a good film. O.K. if it moves I'll watch it. But until I read this book I really was just looking with out seeing.
It is nice to have this guide confirm what one knows as common sense. Probably because the guide is designed to take you from ground zero to a level of appreciation and allow you to convey your opinion intelligently.
If you have an earlier edition you will still get the essence of the book. Newer editions add different resources and research information.
Some of the highlights are:
* A shot-by shot analysis of a sequence from the film "Potemkin"
* Suggestions on using the Internet
* Sample student writing
Some contents:
Writing about the Movies
Preparing to Watch and Preparing to Write
Film Terms and Topics
Six Approaches to writing about Film
Style and Structure in Writing
Researching the Movies
Manuscript Form
This guide is an eye opener.
Amazon.com
This engagingly eccentric biography by German playwright and television scriptwriter Klaus Eidam performs the valuable service of knocking off the dust accumulated around Bach (1685-1750) by generations of writers more concerned with their own musical, religious, or political theories than the particulars of the composer's life. Eidam has as little use for Marxist scholars declaring Bach "the musician of the Enlightenment" as he does for their precursors who declared the composer to be so devout that he viewed his art only as a means to praise God. His aim is to restore Bach to the general public as a musician first and foremost, well versed in the techniques and instruments of his day, deeply immersed in his artistic goals.
To this end, Eidam spends a good deal of time quarreling with previous biographers about everything from whether or not Bach's second marriage was a love match to the precise circumstances under which he departed his post at Weimar. Although it's accessibly written and thorough, this is not really the book for readers seeking a recital of the accepted facts about Bach's life. Biography connoisseurs, however, will relish Eidam's marvelous bluntness, as when he comments of an alleged Bach authority's ideas, "Such claims provoke me to so much head-shaking they make me suspect I suffer from Parkinson's disease," and his valuable reality checks on predecessors' insufficiently documented speculations. (Translator Hoyt Rogers has maintained the author's contentious tone in English.)
Locating Bach firmly in the context of the gritty intrigues by which composers got and kept musical positions in 18th-century Germany, Eidam also manages to convey appreciation for his timeless genius. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
This comprehensive biography contrasts 250 years' worth of legend with the real facts of Bach's life as uncovered through the author's extensive research.
In this new biography of Johann Sebastian Bach, Klaus Eidam brings the icon of Baroque music into focus as never before.
Customer Reviews:
Finally, Bach as a real person.......2003-11-17
Although I do not have a musicological background, I have loved the music of Bach for years and have read many of the extant biographies: Boyd, Wolff, Spitta, etc. Of all the biographies, I found Mr. Eidam's to be the best at creating an understanding of the man who created such divine music without perpetuating myths or attempting to explain Bach's personality based upon his musical art. Mr. Eidam admirably highlights the irony inherent in the fact that Bach produced such sublime art in the face of continual opposition from lesser intellects.
I did not find the language of the english translation to be distracting and found the work to be refreshingly free of musical theory that while interesting does not increase one's understanding of the man himself. Instead, the reader is left with a deep and abiding appreciation for Bach's untiring efforts, in the face of incredible opposition, to share with the world a miraculous music that only he could hear.
Not a biogaphy, a critique.......2001-10-28
I divide this book in two parts. An interesting view of Bach's life, quite different from the "standard", and a book review to complain of the other biographies. If he concentrated in his view on Bach's life it would be an interesting book. His comments about the other biographers belong in the end notes. They are not a part of the story of Bach. I read foot notes, mind you, but including them in the text only detracts from the flow of the story.
His comments about the music per-se are very interesting. They served my purpose, in buying this book. But once again, if I bought the author's book it is because I would like to know what he thinks ... not why other musicologist are wrong in their evaluation. Mine might be wrong, and that is why I want other's opinion, not their opinion on other people.
Shame on you Basic Books!.......2001-08-10
What a shame! That a respected publisher like Basic Books would release a text in such a sorry state. As a translator, I don't like to criticize my colleagues, but the language of this translation is appalling. It reads as though the translator, in many places, just put English words in place of the German. When I ran some of the sentences by some colleagues, they all agreed that they could see the German syntax through the English text.
While the translator is at fault, the publisher is guilty of not taking the blue pencil to this text. This gives such gems as:
Legend has praised one of the Bachs to the skies in particular:
... they made music that was not to be sneezed at.
That the sons would also become musicians was taken for granted.
Of their childhood there was nothing left.
Though time-consuming in any event, the experience was nonetheless rewarding...
To Luther's Reformation belonged above all the lively participation of the congregation in the worship service, especially the German hymns that were sung together, and therefore the cultivation of church music.
These sentences, all taken from the first couple of chapters, stand out like potholes in the road of reading. I couldn't go any further than page 18.
Save your money...
Eccentric revisionism, entertaining.......2001-07-26
This comprehensive biography clears up 250 years' worth of legend with a new reading of the documentary evidence around Bach's life as uncovered through the author's extensive research. Engagingly and eccentric in opinion it makes us wonder that much of what we think we know of the composers and their music is more fiction and fancy that biography and social history, enough so that I wonder along with the author about the lives of other composers. The picture of Bach is one of a struggling musician who made some serious career move mistakes which if it did not noticeably affect his art at least cause injury to his social standing and livelihood. Well worth a read for the context it puts the creation of his music in to.
Amazon.com
If you love chess puzzles, this massive tome is for you. It's simply one chess challenge after another. With problems fit for beginner and grand master alike, Polgar's collection will feed your craving for years. Better yet, it's a major bargain. When I first pulled it off the shelf I was expecting a price tag three times higher.
Book Description
The biggest book of chess challenges ever--1,120 pages! 5334 fully diagrammed problems, games, and endgames (with easy-to-follow solutions in the back). Includes every known checkmate position. Covers a complete range of levels, from beginning to master. Offers what both serious and casual chess players want most--thousands of absorbing problems with which to hone their skills and have fun.
Customer Reviews:
Target practice at its best.......2007-02-03
I own the oversized hardbound edition. I'm still around the 678th position and counting and don't intend to stop!
Despite the terrifying title... 5,334 problems ?!, ... it's one enjoyable chess gym. The 2-D diagrams use one of the nicest modern Staunton fonts around and are clearly printed and illustrated. It contains an introduction, piece properties, mates in 1, mates in 2, mates in 3, combinations, simple endgames, combinations, critical positions in some of the Polar sister's games, and a solutions key (only the first move per problem). It's a simple and effective format for an outstanding effort in putting so much material in an organized manner. Many of the positions are implicitly aggregated by theme which does not give away any clues but allows the reader to better develop pattern recognition. No hints, just practice.
The softbound version makes a great gift; the hardbound is hard to find and more of a personal library book. Only a tactical practice database or software can improve on this book. I can only wish it were available as a database!
I gave up near puzzle #1500..........2006-12-29
I had the firm objective of solving all puzzles in this book, to improve my chess tactics skills.
As I progressed through the puzzles, I could definitely see improvements, to the point of reaching average solving times of 5 to 20 seconds.
Unfortunately, at about #1450, the book switches to puzzles that seem to be taken from newspaper columns (the author and year of publication is given for each one), and the level of difficulty rises by a huge amount. My average solving times fell to 20 to 30 minutes, if I was lucky to spot the solution at all!
Another problem I see with this book is that it contains only checkmate puzzles. It would be nice to have tactics leading to material gains, which are much more frequent in chess games.
Massive Monster - Some Good/Some Filler (real junk problems).......2005-09-08
Instead of giving a more limited number of problems to solve with the most important tactical patterns, the author set out to do "quantity instead of quality" and becomes a "compliler" instead of a teacher directing a student to learn what is most important with perhaps a limited time to study like the average chess player.
This mass compilation of problems contains a lot of junk filler along with some very nice important tactical themes to learn. So, the book refuses to show you what is important, and what should be tossed out with the garbage - the postions which would not likely occur in real games you would play.
I would like a book with 100 to 500 of the MOST IMPORTANT TACTICAL THEMES TO LEARN. Not so many that you cannot tell what is important from filler to make a book so big.
A beautiful book..........2005-06-24
5334 Chess puzzles is a lot, and there is no way anyone is going to get them all! (Well maybe Kasparov). The book itself is HUGE and leather bound and is an exquisite coffee table book. I do have one slight problem with it however. It is full of Mates in 1, 2,or 3. - and these are great. I would have liked to have seen a section on "White to move and win" or "Black to move and win" - without knowing what it is that I the reader am looking for. This is more akin to a real chess game, where one knows there is a win somewhere, but is not sure what kind to look for. Anyhow, that is a small complaint for an otherwise gorgeous book.
Four and a Half Stars.
Relic113
Wow!.......2005-04-12
This book is like going to McDonald's and saying SUPER SIZE IT! There are so many problems to work on you will not need another book on tactics ever! Buy it and you will like it!
Book Description
This giant collection, finally available in paperback, features enough chess challenges to keep even the most avid player occupied for a long, long time.
The biggest book of chess problems ever published is now available in a paperback edition, featuring more than five thousand fully diagrammed problems, games, and end games for players at all levels. Chapters are organized by problem type, and each problem, combination, and game is keyed to an easy-to-follow solution at the back of the book, so users— whether they are beginners or highly accomplished players—can learn as they go. In all, this volume is a most extensive and thorough chess reference, sure to help hone skills while providing hours of fun. The more affordable paperback edition will give players at all levels reason to rejoice.
Customer Reviews:
For beginners.......2007-10-05
I think this book is more suitable to beginners up to Class C players. The book is indeed huge in size and contains many problems. The level of the problems is however limited to Mate in three........just not good enough.
Four Stars * * * * not 1 star.......2007-09-08
The book will serve you well, some errors pop up every so often. You start learning mate in 1, then 2 then 3. You learn a few combinations, and study some problems that were designed by the Polgar sisters. In the back are a few of their games. It is a gem, but just contains errors. And for some reason this review shows 1 star and I can't seem to change it. It's almost a perfect book, drop a star for the errors.
Useful book you can enjoy anywhere.......2007-08-29
Polgar's "Chess" is an excellent and useful book that can be enjoyed anywhere you go, from "sitting on the toilet and multitasking" to taking it to the park. It's enormous though, at 3 inches thick and 1000 pages, so I suppose it could function as an impromptu barbell too.
The book is entirely diagrammatic, which is one of its strengths. I've read through a bunch of chess books on strategy and even on combinations, and often the tactical descriptions in these books are 10 or more moves deep, with long variations that are also 10 moves deep, and lengthy descriptors of what is going on. As wonderful as it is to see Spielmann or Alekhine doing this sort of thing and having it explained point-by-point by someone like Alekhine himself, mere mortals like me can get lost, and it ends up being less useful than it sets out to be by virtue of the fact that I'm a long ways off from seeing what they did at the board, and because it's tedious to reset the board to the original position in order to go through yet another variation. I'm no grandmaster, and I never will be, so take this as you will as an example of my own inability to get much from those books. Worse, it is unlikely that I'll remember exactly what those guys saw or anything like it even a day after reading through their masterpieces.
This book is simple. It shows a picture of a position, and you get to use your own mental faculties to figure it out. You don't even need a board. Most of them are two-move mate problems (You move, opponent moves, you move and mate on the move). I can't stress enough how important it is not to cheat and peek at the answer. Look long enough, even to the point of exasperation, and you will eventually be rewarded.
It's funny because without actually going through them, a person might think a two-move problem would be easy. It's not always easy. I've agonized over a few of them for hours until I spotted the move. A few of them are sort of hokey, for lack of a better word. I was transfixed on one for something like 2 days, convinced it was faulty, until I finally realized my king and rook were still in pre-castling position. This problem (#1558) was in one of those endgames where nearly everything is obliterated save 5 pieces, and the king hasn't castled yet? I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but that kind of problem is a little less than useful, as it seems a bit gimmicky to me more than anything tactically important. Likewise, watch out for the en passant puzzles. There are a couple of those too, and plenty of "underpromotion" puzzles, which are indeed useful. There are also a few I've spotted with more than one solution (#612, for example), which isn't a big deal since you only need to see one of them to win.
In general, though, the book has improved my tactical ability to see the board tremendously, and that's half of what you want out of a great chess book, with the other half being something more on the strategy side.
One reviewer noted the preponderance of Queen sacrifice mates, and I agree. It becomes something you look for, but isn't that the point? So many times in games before getting this book, I would not even be looking at things that would get one of my big guns taken outright by a lowly pawn. I can't say that's true now.
A huge volume of the mates deal with set-ups for what are termed "Swallowtail" mates or semi-swallowtails, where the queen is in a square directly adjacent to the king, and the two squares behind him that she can't cover are covered by another piece or pieces, often the opponent's own. I now recognize this pattern almost instinctively, and I've been able to get a lot of surprising wins with it. Right there alone I can say this book has helped me in a measurable way, and Mr. Polgar has my immense gratitude for it.
My big criticism is mostly about the fact that if you know you have 2 moves to get mate, you can search for any possibility where after your move your opponent can check your own king, which would cause you (in most cases) to lose a move getting out of it. If your opponent can indeed check your king, then you know that most of the time you'll have to get a check yourself on his king at the outset, and you can pretty much toss out any idea of a waiting move or a repositioning move as the correct answer, which makes the solution much easier as it narrows the possibilities for piece movement. There are a few where getting out of the opponent's check in some way is simultaneously the checkmate move, so this point isn't written in granite or anything, but for the most part it's a fundamental dictum of the easy way to get through a problem. In a real game, you don't have the luxury to know that sort of thing outright, and so the "2 moves to win" thing doesn't apply unless you see it yourself, but that's none of it the fault of the puzzle-maker; it's the fault of chess puzzles by their very nature.
Anyway, this is my favorite chess book by far. I hate to be a product shill, but some things are worth it. Get it.
huge mating problems.......2007-06-26
Indeed this book is very thick, but it only deals with mating attacks, which isn't good to my opinion.
personally, I prefer other more assorted books.
Chess: 5334 Problems.......2007-03-31
Excellent storehouse of chess knowledge and problems for the beginner to advanced players. Thousands of mate-in-2 problems, hundreds of combinations, and 600 miniature games of masters at your fingertips. As a coach, I can almost exclusively use this book for material. The only thing lacking is graphic description of the many tactics which erupt therein.
Average customer rating:
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A Nasty Piece of Work/the Art and Graft of Spitting Image
Roger Law ,
Lewis Chester ,
Alex Evans , and
Edward Booth-Clibborn
Manufacturer: Gingko Pr Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1873968000 |
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