Gaffers, Grips, and Best Boys [antikvár]

Introduction The motion picture business is one of the most talked about, debated, and critiqued industries in the world. It is also an industry about which people know almost nothing. What people do know is gleaned from the popular media: scandalous rumors about actors, tidbits about studio executives' enormous power and astronomical salaries, notes on where the Hollywood elite are eating this week. But the fact is that filmmaking, the prolonged and extraordinarily intricate process of preparing, producing, and promoting a motion picture, remains a murky business at best. Eveiyone knows that motion pictures involve people known as writers, directors, and film editors; and some obsessed moviegoers, unwilling to relinquish their seats until the last credits roll up and off the screen, have even heard of gaffers, grips, and best boys. But few have any idea what these jobs are, what acting, directing, photographing, or pushing a dolly around a motion picture set actually entail. This book attempts to answer those questions, to get beyond the glamour of motion pictures, to demystify the inner workings of what may be the most mystifying industry in the world. The reader will notice that there are certain credits that appear in films that are not discussed in these pages. That's because the purpose of this book is not to serve as an encyclopaedia of job descriptions for people looking for movie careers. Its purpose is to give students of motion pictures.