ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      Since undertaking the writing of this book, I have discovered that — up to a certain point — book writing, like filmmaking, is a collaborative venture. Yes, for the most part, it is a solitary pursuit, but you cannot do it all by yourself, and I am grateful for that. For me, a large part of the thrill of directing comes from the collaborative requirements of filmmaking. Nothing is more exhilarating than allowing your ideas to be shaped by the thinking of your collaborators — writers, actors, cinematographers, editors, etc. — and then discovering that the results exceed your expectations. That happy scenario has repeated itself at various junctures in the writing of this book, and I would like to acknowledge and thank those individuals who have tempered my ideas with their own energy and imagination.

      I would like to thank Bob Zemeckis for sharing his incisive thinking with me throughout the years, and for allowing me to quote him extensively in this book.

      When I started teaching in the School of Film and Television at Chapman University in the fall of 1995, I had been working as a freelance director for 15 years. I knew a fair amount about directing but very little about how to teach what I knew My students at Chapman have inspired and required me to shape my knowledge so that they could grasp it and make it their own. This is an ongoing process. I am still learning and I thank them for continuing to demand that I give them the best of what I have got to give in the most palatable, comprehensible form possible.

      Along the way, other artists, filmmakers, and teachers have guided and inspired me. Robert Lowell convinced me I had some creative gifts. Brooke Hopkins is to blame for firing my interest in film. Ed Brokaw and Delia Salvi shared some of their vast understanding of the directing process with me when I was a graduate student at UCLA. While at UCLA, my path crossed that of David S. Ward. Since then he has regularly shared with me flashes of his laser-precise thinking about scriptwriting, directing, and the film business, and in so doing provided me with some of the best material in this book. Richard Walter helped me build a bridge from Hollywood to the Ivory Tower of academia. Arthur Hiller helped me sustain that bridge once I crossed it. Through Arthur, I met Robert C. Jones and John Badham. Their ability to articulate their shared mastery of the art and craft of filmmaking helped me to clarify many of the lessons in this book. Fortunately for me, Leonard Schrader joined the faculty of the film school at Chapman shortly after I did, and since then I have sought him out regularly and let him shower me with his genius. Throughout all of the above, I have been privileged to count David E. James as a close friend and to be regularly exposed to his brilliant thinking. His thoughts have inspired me to clarify and verify my thinking, and given me an inkling of the demands of true scholarship.

      No one has made a greater creative contribution to this book than my former student, Michael Kendrick. Although he is half as old as I am, he is twice as talented. His ample gifts are on display in the drawings in this book. Another former student, Byron Werner, put his expertise as a cinematographer to work for me and shot the photos in Chapter 5 that illustrate the different properties of different lenses. All of the other photographic images in the book were gathered and up-rezzed by Tod Withey. Thanks to his patience and cyber-prowess, this book has pictures that far exceed the eloquence of my words.

      I am also indebted to the generosity of the film studios and production companies that allowed me to use still images from their films: Dreamworks SKG, Miramax, Pandora, Paramount Pictures, and Universal Studios.

      Some of those rights I could never have secured without the help of my lawyer and long-standing ally, Alan Grodin. Many times in the course of my Hollywood career I have felt the same as Michael Ontkean in the film Slap Shot, when he stated, “My fan club meets in a phone booth.” In my case, Alan has yet to exit that phone booth.

      If, when writing a book, you have a friend who will take the time to read what you write and wordsmith it, then you are truly blessed. I was so blessed by Janell Shearer. Her steadfastness as a friend is only outstripped by her gifts as a word- smith. The other master wordsmith in my life, my old friend, Daryl Henry, was kind enough to put his own writing projects aside from time to time and help me rewrite some key passages.

      I came up for tenure at Chapman University in the middle of writing this book. After many years of climbing the greasy pole of Hollywood, I could not pass up the possibility of a job for life. So I shelved the book for a year while I applied myself fulltime to making sure I got my tenure. As a result, it was completed years after the date I had originally promised it to my publisher, Michael Weise. Yet Michael was forever patient and a steady source of constructive criticism and empowering advice. Along with his associate, Ken Lee, he provided a gentle, strong hand that guided this project from an idea to a manuscript to a book.

      On the Use of Personal Pronouns

      In the interest of clarity and economy, the personal pronouns “he,” “him,” and “his” as used in this book often may be taken also to mean “he or she,” “him or her,” and “his or hers.”

      To Ron Thronson:

      an aristocrat of the soul

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

       Acknowledgments

       Foreword, by Robert Zemeckis

       Preface

       PART ONE – BEFORE THE BATTLE

       Chapter 1. Preproduction

       Soaking Up the Atmosphere

       Decisions! Decisions!

       Work, Work, Work!

       Producer and Director – ‘Til Death Do Them Part

       Crewing