Our rating 3 stars***
I really wanted to like this book, it gets such enthusiastic reviews from many commentators. However, as hard as I tried, it didn’t really do it for me in the way I expected. I wanted to find out about film and movie making.
I felt like I was in a history lesson at University. I had to wade through page after page of film history when I only wanted to find out how to make a short film, which I though was the point of the book. Clifford’s view appears to be that to make a short film you need to know what happened in the days long gone. I wanted to find out what I needed to do today.
It’s not the only book to describe the whole process of making a short film, but it does include an excellent set of links around the internet and even if some may have been removed by the time you get there, there’s enough on offer to be of real value.
Clifford’s ‘Eight point guide to making short films’ in the script section is wonderful; exact and succinct, exactly as I expected the whole book to be.
Reviewing a few short films and then including the relevant scripts is a great idea. You can find the films mentioned on ‘Youtube’ so completing a full circle look at the making and the result can be seen, enjoyed and analysed. The fact that this promotes his short film, Grete May, is a good marketing ploy. You should note that around one third of the book concentrates on the short film interviews and scripts.
The information in the book will help you get your short film made. If it’s the only book you get on this subject, then as long as you enjoy a lot of history, you’ll be able to get from A-Z. I read it over a couple of weeks rather than a couple of days. I expected to then go back over the best parts to reiterate what I’d need to do to make the short film, but I hesitate because I might have to get stuck in times past again.
It’s not that I don’t like or want to know about the times gone by, but if I did, I’ve have purchased a different book. This is no longer the only ‘bible’ on the subject as I found Nathan Parker’s ‘Short Films … how to make and distribute them’ a much better read and more informative, but Clifford Thurlow’s book has links and information you can’t do without, so I guess you need both books.
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