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As a boy growing up in occupied Hungary, Kovacs fell in love with the movies. After he was accepted into Budapest's Academy of Drama and Film Art he saw "Citizen Kane" (1941). The film "changed my visual vocabulary," he said, and he decided to become a cinematographer -- the director of photography who does the photographic work on movies. He escaped Hungary in 1956, bringing with him 30,000 feet of film of the Hungarian resistance against Communism, which later was used in a documentary. Arriving finally in Los Angeles in the early 1960s, he worked on National Geographic TV specials. And in 1969, he filmed his breakout movie: Easy Rider, putting his own stamp on the motorcycle trip film based on his own bus ride from New Jersey to the west coast. Other seminal films included Five Easy Pieces, What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, Ghost Busters, Shattered, My Best Friend's Wedding -- more than 70 in all. "He was one of the great wave of cinematographers in the 1970s who basically changed the way movies had looked up until that time," said Richard Crudo, a former president of the American Society of Cinematographers. Kovacs died at home July 21, apparently from cancer. He was 74. From This is True for 22 July 2007 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Richard Williams List Price: $30.00 Amazon Price: $19.80 Editorial Review: The definitive book on animation, from the Academy Award-winning animator behind Who Framed Roger Rabbit?Animation is one of the hottest areas of filmmaking today--and the master animator who bridges the old generation and the new is Richard Williams. During his more than forty years in the business, Williams has been one of the true innovators, winning three Academy Awards and serving as the link between Disney's golden age of animation by hand and the new computer animation exemplified by Toy Story. Perhaps even more important, though, has been his dedication in passing along his knowledge to a new generation of animators so that they in turn could push the medium in new directions. In this book, based on his sold-out master classes in the United States and across Europe, Williams provides the underlying principles of animation that every animator--from beginner to expert, classic animator to computer animation whiz --needs. Urging his readers to "invent but be believable," he illustrates his points with hundreds of drawings, distilling the secrets of the masters into a working system in order to create a book that will become the standard work on all forms of animation for professionals, students, and fans.  By: Jennifer Van Sijll List Price: $24.95 Amazon Price: $16.47 Editorial Review: What the industry's most succcessful writers and directors have in common is that they have mastered the cinematic conventions specific to the medium.  By: Diana Weynand List Price: $39.99 Amazon Price: $23.99 Editorial Review: The only Apple-certified guide to Final Cut Express 4, this book delivers the techniques you need to make movie magic with DV, HDV, or AVCHD footage. Each chapter presents a complete lesson in an aspect of video editing and finishing, with hands-on projects to complete as you go. All the files you need are on the included DVD-ROM. You’ll learn how to make effective edits and adjust them precisely; create polished transitions and sophisticated composites; add audio tracks, titles, and speed and motion effects; then color-correct and finish your video for export to DVD or the Web. Whether you’re a student, a devoted amateur who’s serious about digital video, or a professional who needs a comprehensive editing program, you’ll find everything you need to learn Final Cut Express 4 within the pages of this book. DVD-ROM includes lesson and media files for over 20 hours of training.  By: Walter Murch List Price: $13.95 Amazon Price: $11.16 Editorial Review: In the Blink of an Eye is celebrated film editor Walter Murch's vivid, multifaceted, thought -- provoking essay on film editing. Starting with what might be the most basic editing question -- Why do cuts work? -- Murch treats the reader to a wonderful ride through the aesthetics and practical concerns of cutting film. Along the way, he offers his unique insights on such subjects as continuity and discontinuity in editing, dreaming, and reality; criteria for a good cut; the blink of the eye as an emotional cue; digital editing; and much more. In this second edition, Murch reconsiders and completely revises his popular first edition's lengthy meditation on digital editing (which accounts for a third of the book's pages) in light of the technological changes that have taken place in the six years since its publication.  By: Joseph V. Mascelli List Price: $29.95 Amazon Price: $19.77 |
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