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Pulling Focus - Filmmaker's Library

Pulling Focus Podcast, brought to you by Skyline Indie Film Fest and The Scene Snobs in Winchester, Virginia, brings you the best conversations and discussions about movies and filmmaking including new, undistributed independent films from around the corner and around the world.

Now, partnered with our favorite independent bookstore, the Winchester Book Gallery, we've compiled a list of the best filmmaking books in one collection.

The 21st-Century Screenplay is a comprehensive and highly practical screenwriting manual. An eagerly anticipated successor to the author's internationally acclaimed book Scriptwriting Updated, it covers classic to avant-garde scripts, from The African Queen and Tootsie to 21 Grams, Pulp Fiction, Mem ... Read More about
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Since its release in 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell's revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In these pages, Campbell outlines the Hero's Journey, a universal motif of adventur ... Read More about
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Syd Field
Previous price: $20.00 Current price: $18.00
Hollywood’s script guru teaches you how to write a screenplay in “the ‘bible’ of screenwriting” (The New York Times)—now 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 tel ... Read More about
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William Goldman
Current price: $23.09
Enter Hollywood's inner sanctums in this gosippy and honest book, named one the top 100 film books of all time by The Hollywood Reporter, by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter and bestselling author of The Primcess Bride.  No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman ... Read More about
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This is the only screenwriting guide by two guys who have actually done it (instead of some schmuck who just gives lectures about screenwriting at the airport Marriott); “These guys are proof that with no training and little education, ANYONE can make it as a screenwriter” (Paul Rudd). Robert Ben Ga ... Read More about
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David Mamet
Previous price: $15.00 Current price: $14.00
The purpose of theater, like magic, like religion . . . is to inspire cleansing awe. What makes good drama? And why does drama matter in an age that is awash in information and entertainment? David Mamet, one of our greatest living playwrights, tackles these questions with bracing directness and aph ... Read More about
Robert McKee's screenwriting workshops have earned him an international reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress and putting major screenwriting careers back on track. Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton, Gloria Steinem, Julia Roberts, John Cleese and David Bowie are just a few of his cel ... Read More about
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The Hollywood Standard describes in clear, vivid prose and hundreds of examples how to format every element of a screenplay or television script. A reference for everyone who writes for the screen, from the novice to the veteran, this is the dictionary of script format, with instructions for formatt ... Read More about
My Story Can Beat Up Your Story is the same powerful, easy-to-learn system that industry insiders have used to generate millions of dollars in script sales and ?assignments. In a clear, step-by-step fashion, this book is a fun, eye-opening, ?brain-expanding, and often irreverent guide to writing st ... Read More about
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Here's what started the phenomenon: the best seller, for over 15 years, that's been used by screenwriters around the world Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny and candid look inside the movie business. "Save the Cat" is just one of many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable an ... Read More about
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The Screenwriter's Bible's 6th edition marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most popular, authoritative, and useful books on screenwriting. A standard by which other screenwriting books are measured, it has sold over 300,000 copies in its twenty-year life. Always up-to-date and reliable, it cont ... Read More about
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"If you're ready to graduate from the boy-meets-girl league of screenwriting, meet John Truby . . . [his lessons inspire] epiphanies that make you see the contours of your psyche as sharply as your script."—LA Weekly John Truby is one of the most respected and sought-after story consultants in the ... Read More about
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John Yorke
Previous price: $19.00 Current price: $18.95
In the exciting and wholly original Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story, John Yorke not only shows that there is truly a unifying shape to narrative—one that echoes the great fairytale journey into the woods, and one, like any great art, that comes from deep within—he explains why, too.  “ ... Read More about
In the Blink of an Eye is celebrated film editor Walter Murch's vivid, multifaceted, thought -- provoking essay on film editing. Starting with what might be the most basic editing question -- Why do cuts work? -- Murch treats the reader to a wonderful ride through the aesthetics and practical concer ... Read More about
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Sidney Lumet
Current price: $17.85
ONE OF THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S 100 GREATEST FILM BOOKS OF ALL TIME • “Invaluable.... I am sometimes asked if there is one book a filmgoer could read to learn more about how movies are made and what to look for while watching them. This is the book.” —Roger Ebert, The New York Times Book ReviewWhy ... Read More about
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David Mamet
Current price: $17.85
A masterclass on the art of directing from the Pulitzer Prize-winning (and Oscar and Tony-nominated) writer of Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed the Plow, The Verdict, and Wag the Dog Calling on his unique perspective as playwright, screenwriter, and director of his own critically acclaimed movies like Hou ... Read More about
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Named One of The Hollywood Reporter’s “100 Greatest Film Books of All Time” Famed independent screenwriter and director Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spy Kids, Machete) discloses all the unique strategies and original techniques he used to make his remarkable debut film El ... Read More about
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Akira Kurosawa
Previous price: $18.00 Current price: $17.00
Translated by Audie E. Bock. "A first rate book and a joy to read.... It's doubtful that a complete understanding of the director's artistry can be obtained without reading this book.... Also indispensable for budding directors are the addenda, in which Kurosawa lays out his beliefs on the primacy o ... Read More about
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Master Shots gives filmmakers the techniques they need to execute complex, original shots on any budget. By using powerful master shots and well-executed moves, directors can develop a strong style and stand out from the crowd. Most low-budget movies look low-budget, because the director is forced t ... Read More about
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Christopher Kenworthy
Current price: $34.60
Building on the success of the best-selling 'Master Shots', this book goes much deeper, revealing the great directors' secrets for making the most of the visual during the usual static dialogue scene. ... Read More about
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A highly visual exploration of the best shots, moves, and set-ups in the industry. This books reveals the secrets behind each shot's success, so it can be adapted to the director's individual scenes. ... Read More about