Gaffers, Grips and Best Boys: From Producer-Director to Gaffer and Computer Special Effects Creator, a Behind-The-Scenes Look at Who Does What in Th

by Eric Taub

Book Overview

Gaffers, Grips, and Best Boys goes way beyond the usual Hollywood glamour and hype to explain every aspect of who does what in the making of a motion picture--from conception and casting to production, postproduction, advertising, and marketing here and abroad. A veteran film-industry insider, Taub takes readers through the labyrinthine world of today's studio system, sharing the candid and revealing interviews he's conducted with some of Tinseltown's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312112769
• ISBN13: 9780312112769
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Good, but...

A very good overall description of all the jobs associated witrh filmmaking. I thought that there would be a little more depth to the descriptions, but...

Essayistic

As far as I know there are two books on the subject, the other being William E. Hines' "Job Descriptions for Film, Video & CGI". From those two this book is certainly more prosa. Every major field of movie production is described through kind of essays written from industry insiders. Although the book is by no means an encyclopedia, the reader gets a good idea what those jobs really are about. If you want some insights instead of concise descriptions, buy this book.

Really helps explain what everyone does to make a movie

I really enjoyed this book. I never knew what gaffers and grips and producers actually did, but this book explains all those jobs. The book is written in the order that each person comes into a film, so you first learn about how an idea is generated, what happens with it, who gets involved next, and so on.One thing I really liked was all the personal anecdotal information that each interviewee gave. For example, John Lithgow talks about working on the World According to Garp, and Charles Joffee talks about what it was like producing specific movies for Woody Allen.A great book for someone who wants an enjoyable way to understand the intricacies of the filmmaking process.