A tribute to the incredible inventiveness and ingenuity of the marketing and publicity departments of the great Hollywood Film Studios.

(Applause Books). Following his highly successful An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (Applause), John Kenneth Muir now turns to the life and work of legendary cult-film director Sam Raimi. Raimi exploded on the movie scene in 1982, when he was 23 years old, with the audacious, independently produced horror film The Evil Dead . Re-igniting the horror genre to such a degree that Wes Craven credited Raimi on-screen in A Nightmare on Elm Street , Raimi went on to direct two Evil Dead sequels, his own comic-book superhero, Darkman , and an over-the-top, post-modern western, The Quick and the Dead . Raimi's influence on other filmmakers continues to be enormous from the "shaky cam" shots of the Coen brothers to the early oeuvre of Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, both of whom have been termed the "direct progeny" of Raimi's works.In 2002, Raimi's Spider-Man had the biggest opening weekend in history, earning more than $114 million at the box office. The Unseen Force also features a sneak peek at the much anticipated Spider-Man 2 . Included are 30 first-person accounts and interviews from a number of eclectic sources from the cinematographers who shot Raimi's early films to the producers, screenwriters, actors, special effects magicians and composers who collaborated to make his films the stuff of legend, earn mainstream success, and still be the focus of obsessive cult followings.

Comic book and storyboard artist Trevor Goring, together with Joyce Goring, detail the history of film storyboards. This important and long-neglected art is now given its due with this comprehensive history of the art of film storyboards. Featuring a genre-by-genre discussion of over one-hundred great films and their storyboards, this visual tour features a full range of classic and contemporary films with examples of how directors utilize storyboards in the creation of their films.

When the movie business adopted some of the ways of other big industries in 1920s America, women--who had been essential to the industry's early development--were systematically squeezed out of key behind-the-camera roles. Yet, as female producers and directors virtually disappeared for decades, a number of female film editors remained and rose to the top of their profession, sometimes wielding great power and influence. Their example inspired a later generation of women to enter the profession at mid-century, several of whom were critical to revolutionizing filmmaking in the 1960s and 1970s with contributions to such classics as Bonnie and Clyde, Jaws and Raging Bull. Focusing on nine of these women and presenting shorter glimpses of nine others, this book tells their captivating personal stories and examines their professional achievements.

There is a voyeuristic thrill in contact sheets, the direct prints used by photographers of the pre-digital age to edit their work. You look directly through the photographer's eyes as each photo gets closer to that perfect shot. And yet, it's often the photos not chosen that best capture the true spirit of their subjects and the life they lead after the director yells cut. This was never truer than in the classic Hollywood era, where behind-the-scenes photos were carefully vetted for marketing purposes and unapproved shots were never expected to be seen again. Hollywood Frame by Frame presents hundreds of never-before-published photos from the sets of some of the greatest films of the twentieth century. Hollywood's biggest stars are caught with their guard down behind the scenes of movie classics from Some Like It Hot and Breakfast at Tiffany's to Taxi Driver and The Silence of the Lambs. A treasure trove for any fan of Hollywood's Golden Age, this rare glimpse of the unseen silver screen will intrigue even movie buffs who think they've seen everything.

Playwrights have been depicting Hollywood as a cultural desert and an industry of profit-driven philistines ever since the early days of the movies. This collection of original essays covers the period from the 1920s to the present but concentrates on such contempory playwrights as David Mamet, Sam Shepard, David Rabe, Arthur Kopit, and Adrienne Kennedy. A substantial proportion of the volume is devoted to a discussion of the way in which these authors deconstruct Hollywood myths to reveal painful social and psychological issues in American life, providing a deeper and darker picture than the simple satires of movie-making in the 1920s and 1930s or Odets's comparison of the commercially debased Hollywood with the higher, purer art of the theatre. To complete and further complicate the picture, the volume concludes with essays on the African American experience, gay writers, and feminist writing as seen through the lens of Marlane Myer's ETTA JENKS. It is obvious that the legitimate stage remains a watchdog and constant critic of what is possibly the world's most powerful cultural phenomenon This book will be eargerly read by all students of film, theatre, and 20th century literature.

"Once a guarded cinematic secret, this definitive history reveals for the first time the art and craft of Hollywood's hand painted-backdrops, and pays homage to the scenic artists who brought them to the big screen." -- Slipcase.