Scarecrow Press
Pages: 244
Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
978-0-8108-8126-6 • Hardback • October 2011 • $92.00 • (£71.00)
978-0-8108-8127-3 • eBook • October 2011 • $87.00 • (£67.00)
David A. Ellis is a freelance journalist who has contributed articles to British Cinematographer magazine.
Many of the names of the men interviewed in this book will not be familiar to the general public, but the movies they have choreographed through their cinematography will be. They play a key role in bringing movies to life by conveying both the visions of the director and the screenwriter through cinematography. Among the 13 interviewed are Chris Menges (e.g., The Killing Fields, The Reader), Freddie Francis (e.g., The Elephant Man, Glory), and Gilbert Taylor (e.g., Dr. Strangelove, Star Wars). In the interviews the author touches on such topics as memorable experiences on the sets of famous movies, what it is really like to work with famous directors, and how they broke into and moved up in the film industry. With the wide interest in cinematography and film making today, this will be a useful and popular title in a wide range of libraries, including those that serve film students, film scholars, and professors.
— American Reference Books Annual
In Conversations with Cinematographers, David has interviewed many of the most influential and highly regarded movie cameramen and Directors of Photography in the business. The interviews cover nearly 70 years of film-making, with the earliest films in the filmography…spotted dating back to 1940….These cinematographers recount their experiences on sets and reveal what it was like to work with some of the most acclaimed directors of all time, including Alfred Hitchcock, Fred Zinnemann, Carol Reed, John Huston, David Lynch, and Steven Spielberg. The book provides valuable insights into the craft of moviemaking, and this collection of interviews will appeal to anybody with an interest in the cinema industry as well as to film academics and students.
— Cinema Technology Magazine