The road of the novice filmmaker is paved with thorns. There is an extremely apt metaphor used in the last edition of film school confidential:

“Far more people are making low-budget independent films today than the market for such films can sustain. It is said that during the California gold rush of 1849 few of the gold miners struck it rich, but the businessmen who transported the miners, who clothed them, fed them, and sold them supplies, did very well. There’s virtually no money to be made in making independent films, but countless businesses turn a healthy profit by providing goods and services to filmmakers who, like the forty-niners, are pouring every penny they have ever earned – or will ever earn – into making their dreams come true.”

A sage warning to all those who want to make films; there’s no money and no more future Spielbergs. When looking through Amazon at books on filmmaking, I always cringe at the range of books and services catering to filmmakers. I often feel like a forty niner.

This book is worth its weight in gold to the novice filmmaker. The first book on filmmaking that I, in my infinite wisdom, bought was Chris Gore’s Ultimate Film Festival Guide. I figured that I was already brilliant enough to skip over all the technical details like how to tell a story or why you should NEVER make a short film about someone who commits suicide (for more of these clichés I highly recommend D.U.M.P.S. or Directing Unsuccessful Motion Picture Shorts). The film that resulted from my extensive study never did make it to Cannes like I thought, although someday it will  be available on this website.

If I could go back to those carefree days I would have picked up this book first. Before Aristotle, before Egri. Mackendrick, who was an accomplished filmmaker before becoming the dean of Calarts, not only offers amazingly useful advice on filmmaking. He also offers a compendium of novice filmmaker pathologies. If you have some experience, reading this book will remind you of the many “brilliant ideas” of your filmmaking youth. If you are starting out, this book mention charts out the rocky terrain of storytelling.

Read it and do your best to avoid the hucksters on your way to California, fame and poverty.