Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics

Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics, Second Edition is a comprehensive manual that teaches the essentials of filmmaking from the perspective of the director. Ideal for film production and directing classes, as well as for professionals with sights on the director's chair, Directing covers all stages of production, from idea development to final cut. Thoroughly covering the basics, Directing guides the reader to professional standards of control and goes to the heart of what makes a great director. All the 'how-to' information is unified by a theory that naturally links personal experience and vision to the director's decision making and stresses that understanding one's own emotional and perceptual processes is the key to individuality on the screen and to success with audiences.

This new edition is extensively revised in structure and expanded in content. It contains new sections on screen grammar, the basics of screen production, and story editing. Blocking and camera movement get more attention, and there is more information about how actors control the inner lives of their characters. Greater emphasis is given to how a director must think, feel, and act in order to create a work for the screen with a unified voice and point of view. Directing also includes an expanded guide to international film schools and a career guide. Since the why is as important as the how, Directing contains many practical exercises and projects, each with its own conceptual instructions, technical and artistic goals, and judgment criteria to help both student and teacher monitor strengths and weaknesses.

Michael Rabiger has worked in the cutting room in feature films, as an editor and director in documentaries, and as a production and aesthetics educator for many years. He has directed or edited more than 35 films and is director of the documentary center at Columbia College, Chicago.. Most recently, he has led a multinational European documentary workshop for CILET, the World Consortium of film schools, and has taught narrative writing, directing, and production as Visiting Professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Michael Rabiger has directed or edited over 35 films, founded the Documentary Center at Columbia College, Chicago, and was Chair of its Film/Video Department. Now Professor Emeritus, Rabiger has also been presented with the Preservation and Scholarship Award by the International Documentary Association. He has given workshops in many countries, led a multinational European documentary workshop for CILECT, the international association of film schools. As Visiting Professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, he taught idea development, directing, and advanced production. When he retired 2001 to write full-time, Columbia renamed its documentary center "The Michael Rabiger Center for Documentary.” In 2002 he was made Honorary Professor at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina; in 2003 awarded the 2003 Preservation and Scholarship Award by the International Documentary Association in Los Angeles; in 2005 the Genius Career Achievement Award by the Chicago International Documentary Festival, and also in 2005 was made Professor Emeritus by Columbia College Chicago. He is the author of the enormously successful, Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics (Focal Press), now in its fourth edition, and Directing the Documentary (Focal Press), now in its fifth edition. He is also the author of Developing Story Ideas (Focal Press), currently in its second edition. He is currently writing a biography of Thomas Hardy.