Cinematography -- Third Edition

[David Mullen ASC]

Haven't seen it listed yet on Amazon.com, but the Third Edition of the textbook "Cinematography", by Kris Malkiewicz and myself, should be out soon. I saw it listed on these two sites:

 

http://shopping.yahoo.com/

http://www.elise.com/store/074326438X/Cine...rd_Edition.html

 

You'd have to do a search under Yahoo shopping because when I pasted the link, it did not work. But you can see a photo of the cover at this Elise.Com site.

 

It covers basic cinematography with an emphasis on 16mm production (as before) but updated to discuss new post issues, shooting situations, etc. It does NOT cover digital video cameras.

[Jordan Brade]

I owned the second edition of this book and loved it!

 

It just so happens that I lost it though :( Oh well, gives me an excuse to by this one :)

[Kevin Zanit]

I look forward to reading it.

 

I have the first and second editions. These are pretty famous books as far as cinematography books are concerned (and are the text books at some schools), so congrats David on being a part of this.

 

 

 

Kevin Zanit

[Dominik Muench]

oh you cant be serious, i just bought the older version two days ago :(

[David Mullen ASC]

I just retried that Elise.com link and the book disappeared -- I got a blank page. Oh well, seemed like a weird site for the book anyway (cooking books mostly).

[Tim Tyler]

I just pre-ordered mine on Amazon here

 

How come Kris Malkiewicz doesn't hang out in the forum?

[David Mullen ASC]

How come Kris Malkiewicz doesn't hang out in the forum?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I don't think hanging around on the internet is a habit that Kris ever picked up. He's got other interests these days, spending part of the year in Krakow, Poland. He was, however, on the jury of CameraImage last year.

 

I think the fact that I'm more tuned into the current trends is why he wanted me to collaborate on the new edition.

[Robert Edge]

A couple of questions:

 

How does the third edition differ from the second? How substantial a re-write is it?

 

Does it cover material that is different from what is contained in the current edition of the American Cinematographer Manual?

 

Thanks.

[David Mullen ASC]

It's about a quarter new stuff -- I added things on NLE editing, filming TV screens, special processing effects like skip-bleach, digital intermediate, etc.

 

We also updated some of the lighting set-up examples. I added some more text about soft lighting techniques, etc. I discussed different types of diffusion filters, something Kris never did because he didn't think that you should use diffusion on 16mm being lower-rez (made more sense in the 1970's when he first wrote the book.)

 

The bulk of it is the same except that I went through an updated all the references and occasionally tried to improve the way information was explained or how it was organized. The last edition was written in the late 1980's so there was a lot of little things to correct or new items to mention in lists, like the PL-mount, Arri-SR3, Aaton A-Minima, etc. Plus some of the grip and electric items have changed a little. I tried to make the updates with the student and low-budget filmmaker in mind, in terms of what types of equipment they might need to know about.

 

So whereas I don't think there is much I didn't adjust while editing the text, the heart of the book is the same.

 

People reading the first few chapters on lenses, f-stops, shutters, etc. are not going to see a big difference from the previous edition except hopefully it reads slightly smoother. I usually threw in an additional sentence here and there when I thought a point had to be made.

 

However, I added a small chapter called Image Manipulation which wasn't there before, and I deleted most of the do-it-yourself optical printing information and limited discussions of optical printing to what a typical filmmaker would encounter (blow-ups, printer efx like dissolves and freeze-frames, etc.) CalArts used to have a 16mm optical printing class which is why that material was there before, but not many people are going to have access to their own 16mm optical printer anymore.

 

I did keep the material on cutting & splicing your own original since it seems all other textbooks have dropped that stuff and someone might like to know. However, I can easily see dropping all of that for the Fourth Edition someday and just tell people to find an old edition if they really want to do their own conforming.

 

I only mention the general details of non-linear editing since I didn't want to discuss the differences between FCP and Avid, plus that stuff dates so quickly.

 

In fact, that's the biggest problem with incorporating digital info -- that stuff will date within a few years, whereas much of the basic photography info (optics, f-stops, shutters, etc.) is sort of traditional and eternal.

[David Mullen ASC]

I just got some advance copies in the mail and it looks good, except for the photo reproductions which have washed-out blacks, mainly due to the type of paper they are printing on. Also, I never seemed to get into their heads that the day-for-night example had to look dark. It's not dark enough here. But it doesn't help that the blacks are gray either.

[Robert Edge]

I just got some advance copies in the mail and it looks good, except for the photo reproductions which have washed-out blacks, mainly due to the type of paper they are printing on. Also, I never seemed to get into their heads that the day-for-night example had to look dark. It's not dark enough here. But it doesn't help that the blacks are gray either.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Congratulations. You've just discovered the frustrations that come with having a book published that contains photographs. You're at the mercy of the printers unless you deal with them directly and see the proofs. I'm currently working on a book that will contain a large number of colour photographs. We're spending a lot of time on the photos, but it will be for nought unless there is follow-through on paper selection and quality control at the press run.

 

If you intend to persist in moonlighting as an author, and aren't already familiar with bookmaking mechanics, you might find it useful, if only to hold your own in discussions with publshing people, to read the new edition of Marshall Lee's Bookmaking: Editing, Design, Production: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846

 

There are also a number of books out there on colour management in the publishing context.

 

Congratulations on the book. My bet is that you are looking at the illustrations a lot more critically than will your readers.

Edited June 1, 2005 by R. Edge

[J Costantini]

this is probably the best cost-effective book on cinematography ever.