Joseph V. Mascelli (1917–1981)

This is one of the most respected books on film making ever published. With the aid of hundreds of photographs and diagrams, it clearly and concisely presents the essential concepts and techniques of motion picture camerawork and the allied areas of film making that they interact and impact with. Branching out from five central subject areas, the five Cs -- camera angles, continuity, cutting, close-ups, composition -- Mascelli offers film makers a detailed and practical course in visual show more thinking. Included are discussions cinematic time and space; compositional rules; point-of-view; camera height and angle; master scenes; types of editing; screen direction. show less

This is a classic book (1965) about camera rules in cinematography. You can learn in this book all about axis and 180-degree rule. A lot of photos makes easy to understand all. But this is not a book about direction techniques. If you are interested in camera techniques, you must read this book, but also you must read other books about direction, montage, script etc. This is indispensable but not enough.

These books are very interesting about direction: "Film Directing Fundamentals" by show more Nicholas Proferes, "Cinematic Storytelling" by Jennifer Van Sijll and "Hichcock" by Francois Truffaut (an absolute classic). About Script I recommend: "The Writer's Journey" by Christopher Vogler, "The Art Of Dramatic Writing" by Lajos Egri, "The Anatomy Of Story" by John Truby and "Writing your screenplay" by Cynthia Whitcomb. show less

This was my introduction to the craft of making film imagery. An older book but still outstanding.

Amazon: The 5 C's of Cinematography cover camera angles, continuity, cutting, close-ups and composition. This book is an technical power-house that is clear, descriptive and easily understood to one who frequently watches movies and has a visual mind. It explains the psychology of the eye and how we are trained and used to watching movement and cuts. It promotes off the cuff method of filming as well as standard composition to not confuse and distract the audience. Mascelli provides the best show more explanation of the axis line I've ever read and his diagrams are simple, yet very helpful. This is a guy who clearly wanted to share his knowledge. the single most helpful book on filmmaking I came across (John Alton's "Painting with Light" is great also, on cinematography). This is the grammar book of the language of classical cinematic style. It sets out the rules used by generations of directors, cinematographers and editors for expressing drama, feelings and ideas. show less