|
|
 |
|
|
|
Movie Books |
|
|
Art of Finding Nemo - by Mark Cotta Vaz, John Lasseter |
|
|
|
|
Pixar Animation Studios, the Academy Award®–winning creators of Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life, and Monsters, Inc., are bringing a new animated movie, Finding Nemo, to the screen this summer. This visually stunning underwater adventure follows eventful and comic journeys of two fish—a father and his son Nemo—who become separated in the Great Barrier Reef. The underwater world for the film was conceptualized and developed by the creative team of artists, illustrators, and designers at Pixar, resulting in a lush landscape rich with detail. The Art of Finding Nemo celebrates their talent, featuring concept and character sketches, storyboards, and lighting studies in a huge spectrum of media, from five-second sketches to intricate color pastels. This behind-the-scenes odyssey invites the reader into the elaborate creative process of animation films through interviews with all the key players at Pixar. |
|
|
Finding Nemo: The Essential Guide - by Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Glenn Dakin |
|
|
|
|
Disney/Pixar Studios, the vanguard film production company responsible for the revolution in computer generated animation, brings us its latest creation in Finding Nemo. This underwater adventure stars a shy clownfish on a mission to save his son, Nemo, who has been taken from their home in the coral reef.
DK and Pixar have teamed up again to bring animation fans an essential visual guide to the film, detailing the creative process behind the scenes and showing readers everything they might want to know about the characters, story, imagery, and magic of the next hit family film from the creators of Monsters, Inc., Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and A Bug's Life. |
|
|
The Art of the Matrix - by Spencer Lamm (Editor), Andy Wachowski |
|
|
 |
|
"The corner has been turned, where the impossible becomes possible," writes film editor Zach Staenberg in his introduction to the high-octane science fiction sensation that captured four Oscars less than a year ago. Illustrating the arduous production process, this hefty tribute showcases everything from Steve and Andy Wachowski's original stick figure sketches to the conceptual designs and dynamic, scene-by-scene storyboards (drawn and commented on by Geof Darrow, Steve Skroce and Tani Kunitake) that convinced Warner Bros. to green-light the project. Although some stunts, like Trinity's dive into a window from the top of a moving El train, were aborted because of safety and budgetary concerns, the movie closely mirrors the seamless narrative of the storyboards. In addition to the visuals, this comprehensive volume includes a final draft of the shooting script as well as scene notes and deleted script excerpts provided by Phil Oosterhouse, assistant to the Wachowski brothers. |
|
|
The Matrix: The Shooting Script (Newmarket Shooting Script Series) - by Larry Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, William Gibson |
|
|
 |
|
For the first time in the acclaimed Newmarket Shooting Script® series format, the screenplay for one of the most successful films in history. A surprise box-office hit when it opened in theaters in the spring of 1999, The Matrix has proven to be nothing short of a phenomenon, setting records for DVD sales, winning four Oscars®—Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing—and spawning two sequels for release in 2002 and 2003. The extraordinary vision of writers/directors Larry and Andy Wachowski is captured in its purest form with the film's shooting script. The tale of Thomas Anderson, aka Neo (Keanu Reeves), a computer hacker forced to confront his special destiny in the salvation of mankind, challenges our perceptions of reality and expands our expectations of what a movie can be. |
|
|
The Art of the Fellowship of the Ring - Gary Russell (Author) |
|
|
|
|
The third tie-in volume to Peter Jackson's smash film adaptation of the fantasy epic spotlights the hundreds of paintings, sketches, and models used to construct the film's sets, design costumes, build props, and more. Essentially, this is a catalog of roughly 500 striking images of the conceptual art juxtaposed with the finished item used on film, whether it be a house, a cloak, weaponry, or any of the assorted beasties. The book covers all facets of the physical creation of Tolkien's world on film. The illustrations are accompanied with captions written by British writer/editor Russell and based on interviews conducted with the numerous painters, sculptors, costume designers, prop makers, and others responsible for converting the story from page to screen. Because of the price, the film's legions of fans might not want to pop for the book themselves, but they will gladly borrow it, so it's worth the investment. Recommended. |
|
|
The Art of The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings) - by Gary Russell |
|
|
|
|
A companion to The Art of The Fellowship of the Ring, this authoritative and insightful book is packed with more than five hundred full-color images — many exclusive to this volume — and shows the development of the imagery in The Two Towers from concept drawings to wide-screen glory. With illuminating captions telling the story of the images in the words of the artists and designers responsible for the look of the film, including the renowned artists Alan Lee and John Howe, and contributions from Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, Grant Major, Ngila Dickson, Paul Lasaine, and others, this book is a must for all fans of The Lord of the Rings. In this essential reference to the architecture and costumes of Jackson"s onscreen Middle-earth, the stunning large-format art, from sketches to paintings to three-dimensional maquettes and digital art, is lovingly reproduced with lavish production values to create a spectacular keepsake for the film"s millions of fans. |
|
|
The Fellowship of the Ring Visual Companion - by Jude Fisher (Author) |
|
|
|
|
Jude Fisher's Lord of the Rings Visual Companion is a real treat for Tolkien fans and brings readers up close to some of the amazing detail they will find in the big-screen version of this fantasy classic. Not just a straightforward movie guide, this is more of a Middle-earth encyclopedia with information on the people and places to which moviegoers will be introduced. The text is informative and never presumes any level of knowledge, making this book more than accessible for Tolkien fans or those who have yet to discover his work. The pictures are full color and quite simply superb, showcasing the movie's epic scope and exciting special effects. There is even a foldout map of Middle-earth in the center pages using shots from the movie to illustrate key locations, giving it a more realistic feel. |
|
|
The Two Towers Visual Companion: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion - by Jude Fisher (Author) |
|
|
|
|
The official, fully authorized companion to the second part of Peter Jackson's award-winning trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.
The Two Towers Visual Companion is a full-color guide to the characters, places and landscapes of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth as depicted in the second film in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and features a special introduction by Viggo Mortensen, who plays Aragorn.
Lavishly illustrated with more than 100 full-color photographs, including exclusive images of Gollum, Treebeard and the battle of Helm's Deep, The Two Towers Visual Companion offers a privileged tour through the principal events of the second film. It begins with a recounting of The Fellowship of the Ring, and then takes the reader on the separate journeys undertaken by the Fellowship in The Two Towers |
|
|
"The Lord of the Rings" Official Movie Guide - by Brian Sibley |
|
|
|
|
It's one of the most anticipated movies ever, and now you can see for yourself how the magic of Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece was created on screen in The Lord of the Rings: Official Movie Guide. Brian Sibley's straightforward approach takes the reader from the initial conception of the movie as it was developed and passed around studios (it initially started life as a two-hour condensed version of the three novels) to the months of complicated special-effects work necessary to do justice to Tolkien's extraordinary imagination. The book features interviews with all the key cast and production members and is liberally decorated with full-color photographs and behind-the-scenes images from the film itself. Sibley manages to document perfectly the filmmakers' painstaking attention to detail, much of which will be missed by many moviegoers, but he also captures a sense of camaraderie from all involved who wanted to make the best movie possible. |
|
|
The Making of the Movie Trilogy (The Lord of the Rings) - by Brian Sibley |
|
|
|
|
The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy is a lavishly illustrated, behind-the-scenes, definitive account of the creation of an epic film experience. Hailed by critics worldwide, part one of the movie trilogy was a box-office smash, one of the most successful films of the decade. Peter Jackson's "fierce, imaginative movie takes high-flying risks and inspires with its power and scale," wrote Newsweek. "In every way this is moviemaking on a grand scale," wrote the San Francisco Chronicle, while Time proclaimed the "grandeur, moral heft and emotional depth" of the film, which received thirteen Academy Award(R) nominations. |
|
|
The Lord of the Rings: Creatures (The Two Towers Movie Tie-In) - David Brawn (Author), Peter Jackson (Contributor) |
|
|
|
|
Packed with photos, this fascinating introduction to the monsters and peoples in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy shows how the filmmakers have brought the inhabitants of Middle-earth to life for the big screen. The book contains creatures familiar from the first film, from the benign hobbits to Lurtz, the ill-fated leader of the Uruk-hai, and includes races prominent in the new movie, The Two Towers, including the Rohirrim, the Easterlings, the Haradrim and the tree-like Ents. Both an exciting introduction for children and a reference for adult movie buffs, there are also behind-the-scenes details on how each creature was designed and brought to life. Includes fold-out poster. |
|
|
The Art of Star Wars: Episode I the Phantom Menace - by Jonathan Bresman, Doug Chiang |
|
|
|
|
Star Wars owes a lot to its details. George Lucas made his world so believable and compelling by getting all the little things right, whether it was a chip in Vader's helmet or the sand on a Stormtrooper's boots. Of course, this feat was no accident--extensive conceptual planning and design went into all the Star Wars movies, perhaps most so for Episode I: The Phantom Menace. This excellent "insider story" art book by Phantom Menace researcher Jonathan Bresman pulls together a wealth of these preliminary paintings, sketches, and computer animatics. Starting in early 1995, the Episode I art team sweated out nearly four years in a renovated attic at Skywalker Ranch, and Bresman's book gives an eye-popping account of their efforts, a sweeping survey of the movie's "evolutionary record," what Bresman calls "the unseen art that serves as the foundation for the film." |
|
|
Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Episode I - by Kristin Lund, Hans Jenssen |
|
|
|
|
Where does a Jedi go to unwind? Why, to a Contemplation Station, of course. The Jedi Temple on Coruscant has three of them.
But you'd already know that if you had Inside the Worlds of Star Wars: Episode I, yet another lushly illustrated and obscenely detailed Star Wars reference from the folks at DK Publishing. Much like their other excellent cross-section books, most of which focus on vehicles, this title pulls apart Episode I's exotic locales, from Otoh Gunga to the N-1 hangar in Theed to poor Anakin and Shmi's pathetic excuse for a home in Mos Espa. |
|
|
Star Wars: Episode 1 Visual Dictionary - by David West Reynolds, Hans Jenssen (Illustrator) |
|
|
|
|
No matter what you thought of Phantom Menace, you just have to love its visual effects and props. Episode I was absolutely radiant with special effects, making use of some 2,000 of them, dwarfing that of previous Star Wars installments and even the CGI-happy Titanic with its now-paltry 500. And the low-tech effects, the physical props of Star Wars, have always been unbelievably detailed, from Luke's scuffed-up speeder to Vader's slightly dinged-up helmet (don't pretend you didn't notice). Phantom Menace continues this tradition proudly, whether it's with Amidala's baroque headgear or the intricately machined (and deadly) armament on a droideka. |
|
|
The Art of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones - by Mark Cotta Vaz (Compiler), George Lucas |
|
|
|
|
Filled with stunning examples of beautiful, never-before-seen movie artwork, The Art of Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones takes us through an takes us through an incredible gallery of astonishing images. As an added bonus, this volume features the exclusive illustrated screenplay, as well as:
• More than 500 extraordinary illustrations—including sketches, costume designs, set pieces, models, and brilliant full-color paintings
• An in-depth look at the amazing new creatures introduced in Episode II
• Fascinating behind-the-scenes accounts and anecdotes related by the artists themselves
• Magnificent visuals of exotic new planets, exciting new spacecraft, and dramatic new characters such as Jango Fett, Count Dooku, and Jedi Luminara Unduli
• Thrilling movie poster art art created especially for Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones |
|
|
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones--The Visual Dictionary - by David West Reynolds |
|
|
|
|
A thousand years from now, someone might find a dusty collection of DK's Star Wars titles buried in a library vault and wonder at the ancient strife, fashions, and droids of this unusual, unmarked era in history. For one who didn't know this was a series of film characters and situations being analyzed and explained, it would be an extremely believable history resource. For those who do know, it's a fantastic reference guide for all things Star Wars. David West Reynolds's impressive scientific writing style renders this "visual dictionary" a veritable bible of intergalactic information related to Attack of the Clones, the second prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy. The most intricate details of the characters, creatures, and equipment of the film are revealed in crisp, annotated photographs and authoritative text. |
|
|
The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels (Star Wars) - by Bill Smith, Doug Chiang (Illustrator), Troy Vigil (Drawings) |
|
|
|
|
Bill Smith's illustrated Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels--a veritable blue book for the Star Wars universe--lets you kick the tires on all these ships and more. Researching not just the movies, but also Star Wars novels, comics, computer games, et al., Smith tirelessly details 100 different ways to get around--and dish out destruction--in the land of sandcrawlers and speeders. Descriptions of familiar vehicles ("That's no moon... it's a space station!") blend seamlessly with the more obscure (can you name six kinds of TIE fighters?). This is one showroom-floor tour you won't want to miss out on. --Paul Hughes |
|
|
The New Essential Guide to Characters (Star Wars) - by Daniel Wallace, Michael Sutfin |
|
|
|
|
The Star Wars universe is expanding faster than ever before, and Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters has received an exciting new face-lift-with completely updated text and more than a hundred brand new, full-color illustrations by extraordinary new artist Michael Sutfin.
This all-new Essential Guide features detailed profiles of more than one hundred and thirty characters from across the Star Wars galaxy, including all of your favorites-such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, and Mara Jade-as well as, from Episode II:
• Jango Fett • Count Dooku • Anakin Skywalker • Zam Wesell |
|
|
Star Wars: Episode 1 Incredible Cross-Sections - by David West Reynolds, Hans Jenssen (Illustrator) |
|
|
|
|
Want to get a battle-droid's-eye view of the inside of an AAT battle tank? Care to see what Darth Maul's hiding in the trunk of his sinister-looking Sith Infiltrator? You're in luck: the crew that brought us the super-cool Star Wars Visual Dictionary and the Incredible Cross-Sections for the first movie trilogy is back. Boy wonder archaeologist-author David West Reynolds has put together another Incredible Cross-Sections guide, this time pulling apart the vehicles and vessels in Episode I: The Phantom Menace. DK has mastered the art of making Star Wars fans drool, and this latest guide is definitely state of the art, opening up everything from Naboo starfighters to Trade Federation transports. |
|
|
Incredible Cross-Sections (Star Wars) - by David West Reynolds, Hans Jenssen (Illustrator) |
|
|
|
|
Who knew proton torpedoes were so expensive? Apparently that's why Luke only had one pair when he set out to take down the Death Star. And that's not the only bit of trivia you'll bring away from this aptly subtitled Ultimate Guide to Star Wars Vehicles and Spacecraft. Whether you're looking for the bathroom on Jabba's sail barge or you just want to see where Boba Fett catches a few winks on Slave I, this is the book for you. In Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections, author-archaeologist David West Reynolds zooms out from cataloguing minutiae as he did in Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary, and instead takes apart the big toys of Star Wars, from AT-ATs to X-Wings. |
|
|
Industrial Light & Magic: Into the Digital Realm - by Mark Cotta Vaz, Patricia Rose Duignan |
|
|
|
|
This 330-page coffee-table book combines the writing of Mark Cotta Vaz and Patricia Rose Duignan with more than 600 photographs and illustrations to chronicle the accomplishments of Hollywood's hottest special effects company. Industrial Light & Magic, where Duignan spent two decades of her career, was founded by George Lucas to create the effects for his groundbreaking movie, Star Wars. Since then ILM has continued to pioneer new technologies which have led to SF classics such as "E.T.," "Terminator 2" and "Jurassic Park". This books offers a behind-the-scenes look into the magical moments ILM has helped create. |
|
|
Industrial Light and Magic: The Art of Special Effects - by Thomas G. Smith, George Lucas |
|
|
|
|
Author Smith was general manager for Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) which provided astounding special effects for the sf/horror films of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, beginning with Star Wars. This book is something of a puff-piece for the renowned company (and a panegyric to Lucas) and includes a history of the company, profiles of its artists and technicians, and solid explanations of the various techniques, from animation to matte painting to models. The writing is competent but repetitious. However, the volume has been designed as a fan-oriented, large-format tome, and it is lavishly illustrated with excellent color visuals. The filmography of ILM work includes each film's poster, a nice touch. |
|
|
From Star Wars to Indiana Jones: The Best of the Lucasfilm Archives - by Mark Cotta Vaz, Shinji Hata |
|
|
|
|
The director of the Lucasfilm Archives says that before Return of the Jedi, it just never occurred to anyone to formally store and catalog the accumulated "stuff" associated with the Star Wars films. Stormtrooper helmets and lightsabers were crammed next to models of tauntauns and sandcrawlers in closets and cubbyholes. Only when George Lucas was surrounded by all this junk for a Jedi publicity shot did the Lucasfilm folks realize what an amazing collection they had.
That collection only grew when Lucas scored with the popular Indiana Jones trilogy, which added all manner of whips, swords, and idols to the archive. This photo-packed book chronologically surveys the collection's highlights: props, models, storyboards, backdrops, and sketches, spanning all six films. |
|
|
The Art of Monsters, Inc - by Pete Docter (Introduction), John Lasseter (Introduction) |
|
|
|
|
With the sophisticated graphics of Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Toy Story 2 to their credit, Pixar has become the studio to watch for brilliant animation. Their next movie, Monsters, Inc., (releasing on November 2nd) stars John Goodman and Billy Crystal as two working-class monsters whose job it is to scare children. Graphically innovative and wildly imaginative, this book takes a sneak peek behind the scenes at the early developmental stages of this sure-to-be box office hit. |
|
|
The Making of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within - by Steven L. Kent (Editor), BradyGames |
|
|
|
|
"The Making of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" will feature an inside look into the making of the movie. The book includes storyboards, the movie script, concept sketches, and images of the characters, sets and props from the movie. Behind-the-scenes information and interviews with the creative minds behind this ground-breaking production. The book brings to light the truly staggering level of work and detail involved in the movie's development. |
|
|
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A Portrait of Ang Lee's Epic Film - by Huiling Wang (Editor), Ang Lee |
|
|
 |
|
Every movie should be as kinetic and romantic as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and every tie-in book should be as smart and lovely to look at as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A Portrait of the Ang Lee Film. It has sumptuous color photos of the otherworldly locations, from the Gobi desert to Anji's bamboo forest; an ace essay by Time's Richard Corliss, the best prose stylist among film critics; and it's studded with scads of factoids and reminiscences from the director, the stars, and--most helpfully--the film scholar David Bordwell. |
|
|
Digital Domain: The Leading Edge of Visual Effects - by Piers Bizony |
|
|
|
|
From Armageddon, Dante’s Peak, Interview with a Vampire, and Apollo 13 to Titanic, The X-Men, Fight Club, and the record-breaking The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Digital Domain has been on the cutting edge of effects production. Founded in 1993 by industry veterans James Cameron, Stan Winston, and Scott Ross, this studio has produced some of the most spectacular special effects ever seen in cinema.
Digital Domain: The Leading Edge of Visual Effects provides an exclusive, first-ever look at the Academy Award–winning production company at the forefront of the Hollywood special effects industry. Readers will discover dozens of cutting-edge special effects techniques, ranging from model-making and CGI morphing to digitally created virtual sets and “synthespians.” Unique, frame-by-frame deconstructions demonstrate how the most sophisticated special effects are achieved, and stunning case examples from the company’s work illustrate basic effects from conception to completed sequences. |
|
|
Blue Sky: The Art of Computer Animation - by Peter Weishar |
|
|
|
|
Most people can conceptualize animation easily in the form of the flip cards we made as children or as the crude Claymation movements of Gumby. However, 3-D computer animation takes some explaining. According to Weishar (animation, NYU's Tisch Sch. of the Arts), it's the most revolutionary development in feature films since the introduction of color. The book goes behind the scenes at the cutting-edge, Academy Award-winning Blue Sky Studios and uses their recently released film Ice Age to illustrate computer modeling, rigging, texture mapping, and special effects. Weishar entertainingly details the technological wizardry used to create 3-D animation of everything from storms and smoke to fully realized film sets and woolly mammoths. Highly recommended. |
|
|
Dinosaur: The Evolution of an Animated Feature - by Jeff Kurtti |
|
|
|
|
The Dinosaur film was by me rated as the perfect special effects movie in the year 2000. So was this book,but instead the perfect art book. Well,I was actually hoping for an "Art of" book with this film like the ones with Tarzan and Mulan. This is more "Making of" but it is pretty good too. I actually bought this book before I saw the film and it was incredible. When I saw it in my local bookstore,I immidiatley laid my hands on it and bought it although the high price. It was definitly worth it! I own some good making of and behind the scenes books for films like Star Wars and Alien,but none of them challenges this in beauty or inspiration. The first section is a perfect introduction to the film. The following,which is my favourite,is filled with concept art and amazingly detailed visual production paintings. Many of the habitats in those are actually much more interesting than the desert landscapes of the movie. |
|
|
A Bug's Life: The Art and Making of an Epic of Miniature Proportions - by Jeff Kurtti |
|
|
|
|
This lavish celebration of "A Bug's Life", the new computer-animated film, profiles the innovative minds behind the movie, its cutting-edge animation techniques, and the movie's unforgettable, lovable characters. Full color. |
|
|
Gladiator: The Making of the Ridley Scott Epic - by Ridley Scott (Introduction), Walter Parkes, Diana Landau (Editor) |
|
|
 |
|
Historians not affiliated with the movie Gladiator praise it as the most realistic depiction of Roman combat ever committed to celluloid. Gladiator: The Making of the Ridley Scott Epic illustrates how the filmmakers achieved that authenticity. It's the official tie-in, and one of the handsomest movie books Newmarket Press has ever produced. (No, it's not as fancy as The Art of the Matrix, but it's not that kind of massive book--this one is for the howling yet discerning fans in the cineplex coliseum.) The filmmakers explain how they coped with the considerable weight of Roman movie tradition--"Transcending the Toga," they call it--mostly by drawing their inspiration more from Gérôme's 1872 gladiator painting Pollice Verso ("Thumbs Down"), an evocative rendering of the life-or-death drama subject to the emperor's whim. Ridley Scott is famous as a director (the modern equivalent of an emperor), but he started out as a painter at London's Royal College of Art, and his training has served him well. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
