Synopses & Reviews
Beginning with the proposition that there exist uniquely cinematic elements of meaning and structure, Stefan Sharff clearly and systematically lays the foundation for "literacy" in cinema a sensitivity to the aesthetic elements intrinsic only to film. Sharf presents the basic elements of structure, modes of expression, and rules which he argues create a specific "language" and "syntax" of cinema.
Sharff's apprenticeship under Eisenstein, his own extensive cinematic work, and more than twenty years of teaching film analysis at Columbia University have allowed him to write possibly the most important book on the nature of the film medium since Karl Reisz's Techniques of Film Editing. Stefan Sharff's The Elements of Cinema comes to the advanced film student indeed to all serious readers on film as an inestimably valuable tool.
Review
"Sharff's compact, lucid treatise is full of practical film-maker's points as well as intriguing theoretical notions." Ernest Callenbach, Film Quarterly
Synopsis
Stefan Sharff's The Elements of Cinema comes to the advanced film student-indeed to all serious readers on film-as an inestimably valuable tool.
Synopsis
-- Ernest Callenbach, Editor, Film Quarterly