We don’t normally do book reviews here at TAPA, but I happened to have read two great ones in the last week, and I wanted to share.{{1}}
Cinema Speculation
Full disclosure: I’m a big Quentin Tarantino nerd. I love all his movies.{{2}} I was pretty disappointed when his novelization of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood turned out to be… not very good. Despite the fact that I think of Tarantino primarily as a writer, the prose here felt amateurish, or first draft-y. There’s a lot of unnecessary repetition, stock phrases, and florid dialogue attributions that smack of a sometime actor desperately afraid you won’t know how to read the line right. His screenwriting talent just didn’t carry over.
After that experience, I was a little bit worried about Cinema Speculation, his film theory and criticism of the formative films of his youth, primarily from around the 1970s. Listening to Quentin Tarantino talk about movies can be exhausting, partly because his spits out words like bullets from a machine gun, but mostly because he’s all over the place and it’s hard to follow his train of thought. Was this going to be poorly-written hodgepodge of random recollections from his adolescence?
Turns out, no. Cinema Speculation is thoughtful, thorough, and insightful. It’s well known that Tarantino has an encyclopedic knowledge of film history, and he puts that on full display here. He writes with an authority and clarity that few film critics can manage.
And while it’s clear and precise, it loses none of the enthusiasm you associate with this cinephile. (Almost) every chapter focuses on a single movie, and I’ve seen about half of them. After reading, I immediately set out to track down the rest.
In addition to the film stuff, there are few autobiographical chapters interspersed throughout. Ironically, these are more novelistic and engaging than his actual novel.
It’s rare to read serious film appreciation from a filmmaker himself; alongside Hitchcock/Truffaut and Who the Devil Made It, I think this is destined to be a classic of film studies.
Keys to the Production Office
From the theoretical to the practical.
Keys to the Production Office is a fun and informative look at one of the most overlooked departments on any production. It’s written by UPM/line producers Gilana Lobel and Jennifer A. Haire, who have a combined 40 years’ experience working in and running PO’s both in New York and LA.
This book should genuinely be required reading at every film school in the country. Everyone works in a production office at one time or another, and it can be a confusing, overwhelming experience. You’re the central meeting place for every department, from the writers at one end to the editors at the other, and everyone in between. Keys explains everything that’s expected of you (which is a lot), and how to get it done.
Even if you’ve been around the block a few times, the book is a great reference. Forgot how to fill out a purchase order? They’ve got you covered. What’s the fastest way to make sides? That’s in here, too. Which unions covers which jobs? That’s a complicated question, and they give you a thorough answer.
Part of the confusion is because there are different rules in different parts of the country. Luckily, our authors are bi-coastal, as stated above, and the book explains the different conditions and demands in the two biggest filming centers in the country.
The book is full of real examples, too, from call sheets to crew lists, production reports to schedules. Plus, there are fun illustrations, offering an example layout of the PO, and even outlining the day in the life of a PA. One of the best of these, something I’ve never actually done well before, is this org chart of the entire crew, from PA to producer, and all the steps in between.
In short, I cannot recommend this enough.
If you buy the book on the publisher’s website instead of Amazon,{{3}} you can enter the promo code ESA22 at check out for 20% off.
[[1]]Don’t worry, these aren’t paid promotions. (There are affiliate links, if that matters to you, though.) The authors of Keys gave me a copy, but I told them up front I wouldn’t promote the book if I didn’t like it.[[1]]
[[2]]Yes, even Death Proof.[[2]]
[[3]]I get an affiliate bonus on Amazon, not Routledge, but that’s okay, save your money.[[3]]
