Keenly aware that advancements in digital tools have literally
revolutionized every technological aspect of cinema over the last
twenty-five years, Francis Ford Coppola is convinced that this same
transformation will profoundly alter the way films are conceived and
directed, bringing changes as momentous as those when moviemaking
shifted from the silent era to talkies. Already such a prototype exists
in sports, where advanced digital technology and multiple cameras all
filming at once have produced live sporting events of extraordinary
sophistication that are regularly viewed on one's television screen. But
the time is not far off, Live Cinema and Its Techniques demonstrates,
when a director or a collaborative team of filmmakers working across the
internet will create live movies that will be sent instantly via
satellite for viewing throughout the world.
Yet the creative demands posed by airing live sporting contests, as
impressive as the final product is, pale in contrast with the ambitions
of cinematic auteurs, who are inspired by great directors, like Serge
Eisenstein, Max Ophuls, or Alfred Hitchcock, among many others. As
daunting as the challenge is, the process of integrating the highest
artistic standards of previous generations into the medium of live
cinema can, Coppola explains, be achieved, thus creating an entirely new
art form for the so-called screen. Tapping into his own encyclopedic
knowledge of twentieth-century film history, Coppola threads his vision
of this burgeoning cinematic medium with autobiographical and historical
vignettes gleaned from the past, recalling his own boyhood obsession
with film and his early fascination with the Golden Age of Television,
when 1950s viewers were treated to live productions of classics, like
Days of Wine and Roses and Requiem for a Heavyweight.
Especially exciting is the exhilaration and drama that results from
retraining actors and using a multitude of cameras to create a film that
has the in-the-moment energy of a live event. Having already tried out
this new medium with proof-of-concept workshops at Oklahoma City
Community College and at UCLA, Coppola has created an invaluable guide
for students and teachers alike. Filled with discussions of how to
rehearse actors, how to choose scenery and location, and how to overcome
theatrical, as well as technical, obstacles, Live Cinema and Its
Techniques reveals how the spontaneity of this new genre can ultimately
transport filmmaking into a new era of creativity still unimaginable
today.
Featuring chapters on:
- A Short History of Film and Television
- The Actors, Acting, and Rehearsal
- The Question of Style in the Cinema
- Obstacles and Other Thoughts on Live Cinema No Matter What They May Be
- Equipment: Now and in the Near Future
