Here are 100 books that The Power of Film fans have personally recommended if you like
The Power of Film.
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Leadership is the key ingredient that moves the needle. Each of us has the rightâand dutyâto be a leader of our life and family, organization and society, and to inspire others for something bigger than ourselves, something that has not been done before. But why am I so passionate about leadership? Why is it the focus of my books, my teaching, my company? It all started in my youth: The defining moment came after my sisterâs death to a heroin overdose. I stood at my sisterâs grave and decided I would never be a victim of circumstancesâI would pursue self-determination. Leadership is the exact opposite of victimhood.Â
Any book by Michael Lewis is fun and educational, but this one I couldnât put down. In 2002, for the first time, the Nobel prize for economics did not go to an economist but to a psychologistâDaniel Kahnemanâwho had single-handedly (with his genius collaborator Amos Tversky) disrupted the economics profession and its core theoriesâmuch like Einstein had transformed our understanding of reality and Freud of ourselvesâand created an entirely new field called behavioral economics.
This is the story of a remarkable partnership of two eminent scientists who brought about this revolution. Tversky and Kahneman had such a close relationship that even their wives became jealous. This book might make you laugh and cry. And you might learn much about cutting-edge economics and our chronic biases.
'Michael Lewis could spin gold out of any topic he chose ... his best work ... vivid, original and hard to forget' Tim Harford, Financial Times
'Gripping ... There is war, heroism, genius, love, loss, discovery, enduring loyalty and friendship. It is epic stuff ... Michael Lewis is one of the best non-fiction writers of our time' Irish Times
From Michael Lewis, No.1 bestselling author of The Big Short and Flash Boys, this is the extraordinary story of the two men whose ideas changed the world.
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky met in war-torn 1960s Israel. Both were gifted youngâŚ
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to runâŚ
My passion for story began while I was still in elementary school. I was an avid reader, taking the tram to the library whenever I could. I read biographies, short stories, comic books, and novels of all kinds. In college, I studied comparative literature, focusing on 19th and 20th-century novels in English and Spanish. I met many authors and was inspired to write my own stories. Eventually, this led to screenwriting as a career and then teaching and writing about screenwriting. I never abandoned my love of novels, publishing one of my first novels as a magazine for which I sold advertising to pay for printing.
This was my first introduction to the structure of films. It gave me a place to start as a screenwriter and helped me focus on what was important in organizing a screenplay.
I really liked how specific and simple it was in explaining what the author found in the thousands of screenplays he had read. I used it as a guide to create my first full-length screenplay, which got the attention of directors and production companies and kickstarted my career.
Hollywood's script guru teaches you how to write a screenplay in "the 'bible' of screenwriting" (The New York Times)ânow celebrating forty years of screenwriting success!
Syd Field's books on the essential structure of emotionally satisfying screenplays have ignited lucrative careers in film and television since 1979. In this revised edition of his premiere guide, the underpinnings of successful onscreen narratives are revealed in clear and encouraging language that will remain wise and practical as long as audiences watch stories unfold visuallyâfrom hand-held devices to IMAX to virtual reality . . . and whatever comes next.
In sixth grade, I got into an argument with my neighbor, Billy. We were in his backyard, looking at the stars through his new telescope. âI see Orion,â said Billy. âWhat do you see?â âA bunch of stars.â âI aimed it at Orion. See him?â âI see a bunch of stars.â âDonât you see his belt? His sword?â Billy got more agitated. âEverybody knows thatâs Orion. I canât believe you canât see him.â âItâs not actually Orion â it was just a bunch of stars until someone told a story about it and gave it meaning.â That compelled me to write, to construct a meaning for what I experienced, and try to make sense of it.
I love books that cause me to view things in ways I never had before. Connections did that over and over again.
Burke views history through the lens of technical innovation. What his book revealed to me was that everything has its antecedents; things that came before that were the building blocks of what was to come. The more I read, the more I noticed that I was looking at things differently, not only seeing links but thinking about what could come next based on where something came from and the direction our culture was moving. This is a transformative book.
How did the popularity of underwear in the twelfth century lead to the invention of the printing press? How did the waterwheel evolve into the computer? How did the arrival of the cannon lead eventually to the development of movies?
In this highly acclaimed and bestselling book, James Burke brilliantly examines the ideas, inventions, and coincidences that have culminated in the major technological advances of today. With dazzling insight, he untangles the pattern of interconnecting events: the accidents of time, circumstance, and place that gave rise to the major inventions of the world.
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother hadâŚ
I have always loved asking the big questions. What is justice? What is freedom? How should we live? Iâve been lucky to turn these questions into a career teaching philosophy, and Iâm always inspired by authors who ask âWhy?â in ways that shift our paradigms and broaden our minds. Iâm also passionate about women who ask these questionsâfor too long, women were excluded from philosophy and not taken seriously when they wanted to know why. I loved writing a biography of Lydia Maria Child. So my list includes books by and about women like her: smart, witty, powerful women who ask why. Hereâs to asking more questions and finding better answers!
This book is simultaneously so exhilarating and creepy that it had me yelling at my carâs sound system as I listened to it! OâGieblyn uses biography, history, and current events to ask why humans are pursuing artificial intelligence and what it means for the value of being human.
She weaves her life story, including losing her fundamentalist faith and spiraling into addiction, into a riveting analysis of artificial intelligence with all its promise and peril. I loved that she gave historical background about our search for artificial intelligence while also explaining what is at stake as AI infiltrates our very understanding of what it is to be human.
I finished the book feeling better informed about AI and better grounded in why being human is valuable, no matter what technology does next.
A strikingly original exploration of what it might mean to be authentically human in the age of artificial intelligence, from the author of the critically-acclaimed Interior States.
"Meghan OâGieblyn is a brilliant and humble philosopher, and her book is an explosively thought-provoking, candidly personal ride I wished never to end ... This book is such an original synthesis of ideas and disclosures. It introduces what will soon be called the OâGieblyn genre of essay writing.â âHeidi Julavits, author of The Folded Clock  For most of human history the world was a magical and enchanted place ruled by forces beyond ourâŚ
In sixth grade, I got into an argument with my neighbor, Billy. We were in his backyard, looking at the stars through his new telescope. âI see Orion,â said Billy. âWhat do you see?â âA bunch of stars.â âI aimed it at Orion. See him?â âI see a bunch of stars.â âDonât you see his belt? His sword?â Billy got more agitated. âEverybody knows thatâs Orion. I canât believe you canât see him.â âItâs not actually Orion â it was just a bunch of stars until someone told a story about it and gave it meaning.â That compelled me to write, to construct a meaning for what I experienced, and try to make sense of it.
I loved this book because I remembered loving it. But why did I remember? What do I forgetâand why? What is the function of memory? How do we unknowingly change our own narrativeâand why?
I have always been fascinated by cognitive neuroscience. Thinking about how we think, what we think about, why we remember what we remember, and why we forget what we forget has always fascinated me. These are all things that we take for granted until something happens that changes our perception. We are constantly creating and editing our own narrative. From fond memories to trauma, memory is affected, as is our life narrative. Itâs too early to tell if this book will be memorable to me, but I loved reading it.Â
'Not only will every reader remember better afterward, they'll also never forget this life-changing book.' SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE
'Ranganath turns much of what we think we know about memory on its head.' DANIEL J. LEVITIN
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We talk about memory as a record of the past, but here's a surprising twist: we aren't supposed to remember everything. In fact, we're designed to forget.
We talk about memory as a record of the past, but here's a surprising twist: we aren't supposed to remember everything. In fact, we're designed toâŚ
My passion for story began while I was still in elementary school. I was an avid reader, taking the tram to the library whenever I could. I read biographies, short stories, comic books, and novels of all kinds. In college, I studied comparative literature, focusing on 19th and 20th-century novels in English and Spanish. I met many authors and was inspired to write my own stories. Eventually, this led to screenwriting as a career and then teaching and writing about screenwriting. I never abandoned my love of novels, publishing one of my first novels as a magazine for which I sold advertising to pay for printing.
I found this book to be the best explanation of how to focus a screenplay on a theme, which Egri calls premise. Itâs also the best summary of how to develop characters in a screenplay, even though it was written as a guide to creating stage plays.Â
I use Egriâs method in everything I write, and I have used it as a foundation book in my screenwriting classes. Â
Lajos Egri examines a play from the inside out, starting with the heart of any drama: its characters. For it is people - their private natures and their inter-relationships - that move a story and give it life. All good dramatic writing depends upon an understanding of human motives. Why do people act as they do? What forces transform a coward into a hero, a hero into a coward? What is it that Romeo does early in Shakespeare's play that makes his later suicide seem inevitable? Why must Nora leave her husband at the end of A Doll's House? TheseâŚ
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man sheâŚ
My passion for story began while I was still in elementary school. I was an avid reader, taking the tram to the library whenever I could. I read biographies, short stories, comic books, and novels of all kinds. In college, I studied comparative literature, focusing on 19th and 20th-century novels in English and Spanish. I met many authors and was inspired to write my own stories. Eventually, this led to screenwriting as a career and then teaching and writing about screenwriting. I never abandoned my love of novels, publishing one of my first novels as a magazine for which I sold advertising to pay for printing.
This book opened my eyes to alternative ways to structure a screenplay and to a way to think as a screenwriter. Based on a memo Vogler wrote while working at Disney, which influenced hundreds of movies, the book gives a clear summary of how to structure a screenplay using the universal mythic structure first explained by Joseph Campbell.
I liked its clear, concise use of examples citing familiar films (Star Wars!). It was thought-provoking and immediately applicable to my writing. I cite it often in screenwriting classes. Â
My passion for story began while I was still in elementary school. I was an avid reader, taking the tram to the library whenever I could. I read biographies, short stories, comic books, and novels of all kinds. In college, I studied comparative literature, focusing on 19th and 20th-century novels in English and Spanish. I met many authors and was inspired to write my own stories. Eventually, this led to screenwriting as a career and then teaching and writing about screenwriting. I never abandoned my love of novels, publishing one of my first novels as a magazine for which I sold advertising to pay for printing.
I loved the practicality of Cudenâs book, which analyzes forty classic movies, thus revealing what makes them work and what makes them classics. I also appreciated his tips to aspiring screenwriters and found them right on.
His clear writing style made it easy for me to read and a valuable resource for my students.Â
Steve Cudenâs Beating Hollywood examines, piece by piece, how writers, directors, and producers create stories for extraordinary movies by breaking down forty classic films into narrative beats, plot points, and movements to uncover how magic was made.
More than a simple look at what others have done, this book also serves as a comprehensive guide to how you, too, can craft a memorable story for the screen. From Cudenâs 150 invaluable tips, youâll learn how to:
Master storytelling fundamentals
Create unforgettable characters, dialogue, and scenes
Build solid story structure
Develop plot
Break your story into what Cuden calls eight essentialâŚ
One reason I became a professor of humanities, teaching subjects like film, theater, and literature, was to share my enthusiasm for the great works of imagination which have inspired people for centuries. Stories shape our lives and pass on our most important values and beliefs to future generations. In my academic career, I have directed plays and have written two novels, but teaching film has been my major passion for the last several years.
Using multiple helpful examples to illustrate her points, the author examines the various ways that films tell their stories visually through the use of cinematography.
Techniques of lighting, editing, movement, color, and camera placement are effectively discussed, making this a helpful and practical resource for film-making students as well as those who simply want to appreciate the art of filmmaking.Â
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the worldâs most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the bookâŚ
Iâve
been a student of story structure for decades. As a novelist, this initially
started as a means to learn as much as I could from those with more experience
than myself, but quickly grew into a passion. I read everything on the subject
I could get my hands on and eventually began analyzing the plots of novels and
movies for myself, amalgamating what I had learned with my own theories and
insights which coalesced into a wholly new structural paradigm. Since then,
Iâve had the privilege of working with many talented screenwriters and
novelists to help them shape their stories using Six Act Structure.Â
Most
of the books on this list arenât strictly about story
structure but instead combine unique storytelling insights with innovative
structural concepts. Topping the list in that regard is Film Crit Hulkâs Screenwriting
101. Equal parts writing guide and manifesto against overused storytelling
techniques like 3-Act Structure and the Hero's Journey, his emotional approach
to structuring stories is perhaps the most thought-provoking Iâve encountered.
Unfortunately, the book is currently out-of-print, though I have heard that
Hulk (a pseudonym, obviously) intends to release a second edition in the
future. Fingers crossed.
This is currently out of print, but a new edition is expected soon.
