15 Documentaries on How to Make Movies
To get hooked on cinema is sort of a slow disease. It starts with simple Tom & Jerry flick before going to bed. And ends up watching an 8,5-hour Filipino war drama at Berlinale. Or with making your own movie, which is like 8,5-hour war drama every day. For those with terminal stages of film-disease — here are my favorite documentaries about struggles and triumphs of cinema’s best.
Tales From The Script (2009)
An ultimate “talking heads” documentary for people who are dead serious about writing. Famous scriptwriters share their woes and frustrations, and most of the things they tell sound discouraging. Like a bitter pill aspiring scriptwriters need to take. Of course this documentary would win from animation of what’s in the writer’s mind. But as it is, Tales From The Script describes screenwriter’s life in all its monotonous glam. Unless you are Barton Fink or one of Stephen King’s alcoholics, this is what it’s going to be like.
These Amazing Shadows (2011)
With just over 100 years of age cinema is still considered “a baby” compared to other forms of art. This documentary has a formal side — that is, a story behind creating a national registry of valuable movies. But what’s more important (and less boring) — it holds accounts of great filmmakers describing their first experiences and inspirations. A good way to raise your spirits (after Tales From Script).
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ’N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)
If you want to learn about changing eras of Hollywood without going through full history of cinema course, this one’s perfect.
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls exposes the fracture of 1950s Hollywood machine and its following invasion by young daring artsy New York types. Polanski, Lucas, Coppola, create new model of addictive cinema.
For a more technical view on the subject, of course, A Decade Under the Influence (2003) is better, but who wants to learn about French new wave montage if you can watch extracts of Polanski’s scandalous press conference instead.
Empire of Dreams: The Story of the ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy (2004)
There are two great docs on George Lucas, first one is on how Lucas made it — second, on how he destroyed it as presumed by the sci-fi nerd court.
For a film maker the Empire of Dreams would be more instrumental. We are shown how the sci-fi cult can grow out of rejections and failures. How actors made fun of young Lucas, leading him to near tears, how old stars and studio executives saw it as a joke, and every shoot on nature came with apocalyptic weather conditions. In this sense it’s most inspirational. The second documentary, The People vs. George Lucas (2010) , spills some light on film reception, thus will be interesting for young critics and media students.
The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)
One of the fullest comprehensive guide to the history of cinema, The Story of Film is great for two things. First, it’s visual rather than talk show. The narrative is slow, and sometimes authors leave you eye-to-eye with a three-minute scene of Tarkovsky’s character staring in the pool of water. It does create the mood of grandeur and philosophical side of the camerawork. The second angle that I liked here — Odyssey does travel all over the world. And if you knew nothing about Australian or African films — here’s a chance to catch up.
Casting By (2012)
This documentary can break any screenwriter’s heart. Because no matter how much you write into the script, there’s this thread called casting and the whole movie hangs on that thread. For an amateur it’s an exciting look behind the curtain of how faces we know oh so well were picked for their first roles, and what it takes to have that special eye for talents. Features everyone from Woody Allen to Travolta, and makes a clear explanation on how picking “pretty faces” evolved to looking for “memorable characters”.
Dreams on Spec (2007)
Dreams on Spec tells a biting story of three writers on their way to Hollywood success. And it covers all the basics. A family man finds inspiration in the story of his disabled daughter. A woman tries to crowdfund her script with the help of friends (everybody’s been there). A guy who’s got his first script in production faces rewriting and confrontation with director. “It’s so Hollywood”, says one of the heroes, “to cry driving through L.A. with a camera pointed at you from a passenger seat”.
Project Greenlight (2001–2015)
Project Greenlight is an ultimate guilty pleasure for anyone who dreams to struggle their way through cinema business. In four seasons the series managed to show all the range of first-time directors: a stay at home dad with two kids making a flick on his childhood woes; two comedians trying to shoot a screenplay of a young woman with a completely different style; an ageing horror director living at home casting half his family. 2015 returned with an artist refusing to sacrifice his vision and shoot on digital to end up with a generic comedy.
The Chair (2014 — )
Logical continuation of Project Greenlight is The Chair. Here two first-time directors are given the same scripts to shoot two different movies. YouTube star with an army of teenage followers against a group of mature hipsters from New York make for a fascinating show. Watch and learn.
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001) + Pretty as Picture: The Art of David Lynch (1997)
I would heartily advice to combine watching Project Greenlight and Chair with any documentary on Lynch or Kubrick. This way you will get the full picture of what it takes to become a director.
From young director’s asking who should edit their movie to Kubrick’s months of research and Lynch making his own furniture for the set, this combination will push an ultimate question of whether you should be guided by genius, artistic vision or simply learn to be a solid pro in the biz. Which one of these to choose, lucrative, intellectual or artistic, is entirely up to you.
Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013)
This documentary could well be another round of Project Greenlight if the director was of magnitude of Kubrick or Lynch. In short, it’s a story of the most epic failure in movie history. A cult Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky once had a dream to make a movie on Frank Herbert’s Dune. With Pink Floyd, Salvador Dali, Orson Welles and, you know, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g most expensive ‘in the entire universe’ (quote). It’s a great story of an epic artist’s appetite facing cold reality of film industry.
Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner (2007)
Like Jodorowsy’s Dune this documentary tells a story of a nearly apocalyptic film-making process. Only this story has a happy ending. It seems that Ridley Scott knew what he did deliberately spoiling Harrison Ford’s mood to make the actor loose his happy-go-lucky image of Inidiana Jones and Han Solo.
The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (2004)
Here’s an example of a complicated technical subject shown in a fun and easy way. Jumping through the movies together with Tarantino, Scorcese or Lucas we learn the basics of editing along with some interesting anecdotes. Such as Cameron’s attempt to save money by cutting 1 out of 24 frames in Terminator 2, and how it plays out.
Side by Side (2012)
Keanu Reeves asking film directors what they think about digital turn in movie-making, this is a story of a new war going on. Film versus digital, old versus new, tradition versus a step into unknown. And, of course, money. Unlike many others, this documentary is not so much about past as it is about future. And entering the world of filmmaking, you’re bound to get involved.
