Notes On Making Movies
by Sidney Lumet
A wonderful journey through the making of movies. Other places online list snippets from the book, so instead I just want to note how it may have changed how I think about my own making of movies.
Movies involves a lot of people. Movies involve a lot of problems to solve. It's a powerful art form, but its power is more than equalled by the enormous logistical struggle it is to achieve something in that art form. Each step in the process of making a movie involves new people to convince, new people to hire, new people to avoid, new people to help do their best work, new people who's influence must be restricted, and so on, all the while trying to thread a needle through the chaos to hopefully knit what people consider a "good movie". It's a wonder anything good ever gets made. And Lumet seems to agree. But it's worth it. When it works, it really is magic.
Lumet, above everything else, seems to be a great leader of people. Not leader in the MBA sense, but a person not afraid of new people, not afraid of complexity, and not afraid of pushing for his ideas in the midst of new people and lots of complexity. That appears to be what makes a director a good director; maintaining clarity of vision in overwhelming chaos and complexity. Each step is just another opportunity for it to run off the rails: a prickly writer, an overbearing financier, an awkward location, an irritable and overworked crew, an insecure actor, an insecure studio executive, and an always unpredictable audience. Ideas are fragile. To see an idea through from inception to celluloid requires an unbelievable dedication and resolve.