When I was teaching filmmaking, there often wasn’t enough time in class to watch a whole film to illustrate some of the things we were working on. We would watch short scenes, but in graduate film school, you do both: watch lots of movies, and make lots of movies. This book is the list of films I wanted to give my students when they’d ask, “what are some of the good classic movies to watch?” They wanted movies that weren’t too slow, and they wanted ones that had great examples of exceptional filmmaking.
In What Are We Watching? you’ll find great films, but also extra information to help you dig deeper into various aspects of moviemaking so your own films will become better as you practice the techniques.
If you want to find out more, check out these pages:
- Click WHAT ARE WE WATCHING to read about the book.
- Click WHO to find out more about who might enjoy this book.
- On the WHY page, learn why I wrote the book, and why it’s organized the way it is.
- WHERE lets you know where you can find some of the films and other resources
- WHEN is when you want to know more: links to sites I like.
- ABOUT ME is a bit about my background and how to contact me
- Click EXCERPT to get a peek at the first few pages of the book.
This blog, while less detailed than the book What Are We Watching?, also contains super helpful information about classic movies, including movie titles, moviemaking techniques, storytelling techniques, short book reviews, links to sites I like for learning about movies and moviemaking, quotes, and anything I can think of to help young filmmakers on their journey.
If you’re a parent or educator who supports kids in their moviemaking adventures, I hope this site helps you find great ideas for teaching, inspiring and working with our young filmmakers and story-tellers.
Happy watching!