Live Cinema and Its Techniques

by Francis Ford Coppola

Overview

From a master of cinema comes this “gold mine of a book . . . a rocket ride to the potential future” of filmmaking (Walter Murch).

Celebrated as an “exhilarating account” of a revolutionary new medium (Booklist), Francis Ford Coppola’s indispensable guide to live cinema is a boon for moviegoers, film students, and teachers alike. As digital movie-making, like live sports, can now be performed by one director—or by a collaborative team online— it is only a matter of time before cinema auteurs will create “live” movies to be broadcast instantly in faraway theaters. “Peppered with brilliant personal observations” (Wendy Doniger), Live Cinema and Its Techniques offers a behind-the-scenes look at a consummate career: from Coppola’s formative boyhood obsession with live 1950s television shows and later attempts to imitate the spontaneity of live performance on set, the book usefully includes a guide to presenting state-of-the-art techniques on everything from rehearsals to equipment. A testament to Coppola’s prodigious enthusiasm for reinvigorating the form, Live Cinema is an indispensable guide that “reenergizes . . . the search for a new way of storytelling” (William Friedkin).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631493737
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	09/26/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Francis Ford Coppola, the Academy Award–winning director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, is creating a four-part "live cinema" movie based on his own family’s multigenerational history. He lives in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Preface: Why This Book xi

Personal Introduction 1

1 Proof-of-Concept Workshops 5

2 A Short History of Film and Television 18

3 The Actors, Acting, and Rehearsal 33

4 Equipment and Technical Specifications 43

5 Scenery and Location 48

6 The Shame of Things to Come: Madison, Wisconsin 63

7 One from the Heart: Its Lessons 69

8 Rip Van Winkle 78

9 The Question of Style in the Cinema 81

10 The Stumble-Throughs, Technical Rehearsals, and Dress Rehearsals 92

11 Marks and Other Smaller Unresolved Problems 98

12 Obstacles and Other Thoughts on Live Cinema No Matter What They May Be 103

13 Equipment-Now and in the Near Future 106

Afterword Why Am I Doing This? 115

Appendix Journal Notes During OCCC Live Cinema Production: May/June 2015 121

Glossary 159

Credits of the Live Broadcasts 165

Acknowledgments 191

Index 193

Editorial Reviews

05/15/2017
Legendary filmmaker Coppola, director of such films as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, turns to a new form he terms “live cinema.” He describes the creation of a film in real time as a lifelong dream. Coppola recounts two recent proof-of-concept workshops, both rehearsed like plays, with cameras finding their blocking as the actors perform and the final product beamed out to theaters at the end of the process. These are not the teleplays of the 1950s golden age of television (though they are certainly inspired by them) but intentionally cinematic ventures, aiming at the kind of artfulness for which Coppola is renowned. Live cinema is possible, or so he contends, through advances in technology thus far only deployed by live sports broadcasts and 24-hour news networks. Coppola’s natural abilities as a storyteller, regardless of the medium, are evident here. Sections deal with his relationship to the prehistory of live cinema are as personally revealing as they are fascinating. A few areas are perhaps overly technical, though the book is referred to in places as a handbook of sorts. Nonetheless, this consummate filmmaker’s enthusiasm for cinema is infectious. Readers will find themselves rooting for Coppola to one day write a full-fledged memoir. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Invoking intimate details of his childhood, some that he’s never shared before, Coppola conjures up the magic world of television in the 1950s.  Readers interested in the new technology will find this an eminently user-friendly book, but it is also peppered with brilliant personal observations about the most basic principles and techniques of filmmaking that will also fascinate readers who have no interest in making live cinema but simply loved The Godfather."

Wendy Doniger

"This is a gold mine of a book, intensely personal, and a rocket ride to the potential future of cinema/theater/television.  It is simultaneously an intimate confessional and a magic key to the storehouse of Coppola’s hard-won sixty years of wisdom about writing, directing, actors, rehearsals, and groundbreaking technique, and his visionary hopes for the cinematic language."

Walter Murch

"A curious and exhilarating account of a master in his field wrestling with a new way to convey his vision. The book begins with an exploration into the history of television in its infancy, when nearly every program was brought to audiences live, and it is peppered throughout with personal asides about how this technique has dogged his entire career. . . . As in his films, Coppola knows how to tell a compelling story. Live cinema, in its new incarnation, and everyone it attracts, will benefit from his insights."

Booklist - Michael Ruzicka

"In this surprising new book—part memoir, part diary, part guide—Francis Ford Coppola reenergizes himself and the reader with his search for a new way of storytelling. Live Cinema and Its Techniques blends elements of Coppola’s autobiography, his encyclopedic knowledge of film and television, and his creative process toward a new language of cinema."

William Friedkin

2017-06-12
The award-winning film director makes the case for a new kind of cinema.Despite all of Coppola's (The Godfather Notebook, 2016) accomplishments and awards, one thing has eluded him: "I never got to try my hand at Live Cinema." After he finished Apocalypse Now (1979), "probably the most daunting and terrifying experience, both artistically and financially, I have ever had. It was clear that I had flown, like Icarus, too close to the sun," he decided to quickly do another film, a comedy set in Las Vegas, One from the Heart (1982), which would "fulfill my life's dream to do Live Cinema." However, it failed critically and financially while Apocalypse Now began to make money. So what is Live Cinema? It meant doing the piece live and then beaming it out to theaters while making it available for home viewing as well. It demands "far more precision than movies, theater, or television." For Coppola, it was "exhilarating and exciting to work in this new form." In 1987, he worked with Shelley Duvall's Faire Tale Theatre, and each show was shot with continuous continuity but not broadcast live. Coppola's "Rip Van Winkle" was his "lone commercial foray into something close to the live television medium." Most of the book deals with technique. Coppola calls it a "manual," a guide to how LC might be done, focusing on the actors, rehearsing, and the use of sophisticated technology. One-third of the book includes the author's journal notes for a LC experimental workshop conducted in Oklahoma City in 2015. Fans hoping for a personal book about Coppola and his work will be disappointed, but there are a few nuggets scattered about they will enjoy: his admiration for John Frankenheimer's live TV work (a forerunner of LC); The Thief of Bagdad is his favorite film; and he's always been a fan of Jerry Lewis' movies, which were "eccentric and did unexpected things." Technical and prescriptive, this will appeal primarily to hard-core aficionados.

Kirkus Reviews