Why read The Way Hollywood Tells It?

Book cover of The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies

Book description

Hollywood moviemaking is one of the constants of American life, but how much has it changed since the glory days of the big studios? David Bordwell argues that the principles of visual storytelling created in the studio era are alive and well, even in today's bloated blockbusters. American filmmakers have…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Way Hollywood Tells It as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

David Baboulene

Author

Bordwell is an academic who is encyclopedic on Hollywood.

He has written several definitive works on Hollywood and despite their depth and learnedness, they are very readable and enjoyable to absorb. So when he turned his attention to ‘classical’ Hollywood story telling, I knew it would be a good one, and I was not disappointed.

Most story theorists have an approach that they are arguing for. Bordwell is analysing from a pure perspective, without ‘skin in the game’, so the result is balanced, critical, and highly enlightening for the aspiring writer.

From David's list on how stories work and how to write your story.