"What a fabulous book. Below, I have copied the table of contents because it is worth it for me to remember the kinds of detail Lumet provides.

If you watch the credits, it seems as if it takes an army to make a film. I had no idea that film making required hundreds of people. Every chapter provides insights that I had never considered. For example: that actors are often physically spent after their scenes; that lighting one set can take up to five hours; that the kind of lens used changes the meaning of a scene; how important clothes are; that sound and music require extraordinary amounts of attention; that the director's vision requires that the thousands of parts of the process all contain and move towards the whole; that these thousands of parts must be made to be invisible to the viewer; and that only the director knows how everything fits together. It is no wonder that films require millions of dollars to make.

I have already started paying attention to, for example, lighting, the angles and rhythms of shots, and the role of music. In a sense this is a pedagogical book. As my friend Chris Tolve points out, it is akin to A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life. Both books reveal processes. The difference is that Saunder's book makes me feel like I could learn to become a better writer whereas Lumet's book makes clear that I could never make a film. However, I think I can become a better viewer of films. Although I am not sure this is Lumet's primary intent.

You could think that a book that reveals so much might decrease or destroy the magic of films. I had the opposite experience: it is a miracle that any film gets made, its vision articulated, and its inner experience conveyed.

Table of Contents:

The director: the best job in the world
The script: are writers necessary?
Style: the most misused word since love
Actor: can an actor really be shy?
The camera: your best friend
Art direction and clothes: does Faye Dunaway really have the skirt taken in in sixteen different places?
Shooting the movie: at last!
Rushes: the agony and the ecstasy
The cutting room: alone at last
The sound of music: the sound of sound
The mix: the only dull part of moviemaking
The answer print: here comes the baby
The studio: was it all for this?"