$30 Film School

[HankCastello]

Thirty Dollar Film School is written by a guy who admittedly hasn?t much experience - unless you want to count items on his resume like a ten minute film he made in high school with another student or a five minute ?film? of his father?s eightieth birthday - and that is exactly how this book reads, like it was written by an enthusiastic but very green videographer ?wannabe?.

For a book that calls itself a ?film school? I expected that the basics of film production would be covered, but Dean uses references like ?three act format? and ?linear structure? without any attempt to define the terms, let alone to teach them.

This continues throughout the book where in the section on Lighting, for instance, he doesn?t bother to explain the basic three lighting setup, key lights, fill, etc.  How can you possibly call a book ?Thirty Dollar Film School? if you don?t teach three act format for screenplays or the basic lighting setups?

It soon becomes obvious that the title was not meant to describe the book?s contents, but only to sell the book.  Shame on Dean. Shame on the publisher and shame on any bookstores that keep this fraud on their shelves!

[On a Roll]

Hank,

Did you read the original, or the second edition? Looking on Amazon, the recently released 2nd edition doesn't have as many negative reviews as the original, and I'm wondering if the author figured any crap out and corrected it.

From what I read though, I probably know more than the author, and the fact that he has a book both saddens me, and at the same time makes me wonder why I'm not out there peddling my little bit of know-how.

[HankCastello]

Jim, this is the 2003 edition, ISBN: 1-59200-067-3

It would take more than a new edition to make this book live up to its title - it would take a total rewrite and a new author.

I invite the author to come onto this forum and defend his work - but he probably already knows that it is indefensible.  I hope he sticks to his band-playing in the future.

[On a Roll]

Well, from what I read in one Amazon review, he (the author) has a habit of deleting negative reviews about his book from Amazon, so you never know. He may pop his head in here. It wouldn't surprise me if that really were the case, as there were only a handful of negative reviews (which all said mostly what you said), and a lot of gooey "What an inspiration!" type reviews. All in all, I don't plan on getting it.

On the bright side, it is encouraging in a way. If this guy can write a book and get it publishd, I should be able to do the same. After all, he wrote the book with only one "real" project to his name, and I have hundreds! Sure, none of mine are on imdb.com (yet!), but they're all Oscar-worthy, at least according to the folks who are paying for them.

[HankCastello]

Jim - I have no doubt you could write a heck of a book.  That's one reason I want to get you involved in our wedding video course (video & manual).  You could list that contribution on your fly page credits list.

To give the devil his due, this guy promoted himself darn well - which is something you need to do to get those books to fly off the shelf.