Return of the Filmstack Reading List
More book recommendations from your favourite writers
Who needs film school? Eight months after the inaugural edition, The Filmstack Reading List is back. I’ve rounded up nine more of your favourite writers for some book recommendations, plus a few notes on why their pick is worth your time.
Like last time, the list threatened to get out of hand - if you’re not included and would like to feature in the next edition, just drop me a DM.
I’ll wet your whistle with a recommendation of my own: Raymond Fielding’s The Techniques of Special Effects Cinematography, which explores the arcane methods of 20th-century special effects artists. I wrote about the book for The Cinephile’s Bookshelf, a series I’ve launched for paid subscribers: The Saddest Textbook I’ve Ever Read.
For future instalments of The Cinephile’s Bookshelf (and more), you can subscribe to my shiny new paid tier…
Alright then. Buckle up, it’s book time.
Max Cea (Nothing Bogus)
MIKE NICHOLS: A LIFE; by Mark Harris (2021)
I’m not done with it but I’ve been enjoying Mark Harris’s Mike Nichols biography. I was particularly interested to read about his experience on Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which is one of my favorite films. For such a masterfully blocked and staged film, it’s amazing the degree to which he was figuring out how to work with a camera in real time. There were a few movies he watched a bunch in prep and one of them was 400 Blows - to remind himself that a first film can be exceptional. A good reminder, and very inspiring.
Writer and filmmaker Max Cea is the proprietor of the excellent Substack Nothing Bogus, the home of a consistently surprising goodie bag of essays, Q&As, production listings and more. What sets Max apart is his curiosity - he balances everything from well-researched deep dives into lesser-known film scenes to thoughtful industry commentary to behind-the-scenes interviews.
Courtney Daniels (Courtney Daniels)
SAVE THE CAT! GOES TO THE MOVIES: THE SCREENWRITER’S GUIDE TO EVERY STORY EVER TOLD; by Blake Snyder (2007)
The book I’d recommend is Save the Cat Goes to the Movies. Because after you read several ‘beat sheets’ of well-known movies, you start to notice patterns. You start to get a feel for the rhythm of how good stories go, how they’re built. And it’s good to be reminded that story/structure usually doesn’t just happen organically with the first draft. You have to purposefully make it good, and that requires work.
Courtney Daniels is a filmmaker, author and podcast host. If you’re considering making your first low-budget movie and don’t know what to expect, her article How my movie shoot is going is an excellent starting point. She was too modest to recommend her own book, so I’ll do it for her: she’s the author of Yes You Can: How to Make a Movie for Almost No Money, which Ted Hope excerpted a couple of times over at his Substack (1, 2). Get yourself a copy!
Decarceration (From The Yard To The Arthouse)
FLICKER; by Theodore Roszak (1991)
The novel Flicker (Theodore Roszak) is, among other things, a story about a lifetime of film. It is also, in essence, a book about film history, and to many readers, it is a bone-chilling thriller. But I was most struck by a protagonist, a young man who, like many of us, ends up chasing a girl into a new interest. He follows her into the movie theater and never leaves, swept up in the stories and narratives flickering in front of his awed face. His mild interest turns into a curiosity, and then an obsession.
As Flicker shifts through the decades, it becomes about a cinephile’s favorite topic – lost films. It’s something that occupies a disproportionate amount of my brain. The meme is that men are preoccupied with the Roman Empire. My preoccupation is similar, but instead of Caesar, it’s the missing reels of The Magnificent Ambersons, it’s Jerry Lewis’ The Day The Clown Cried, it’s the half of a movie shot for a remake of a Revenge Of The Nerds remake in the mid-00’s before it was abandoned by Fox. In Flicker, it’s a silent film adaptation of Hearts Of Darkness that’s said to be cloaked in the occult. While people have only been uncovering separate cels and small moments of footage, the director, Max Castle, has been missing.
But until a nightmarish finale, this becomes a book about a small film community. Men and women grow up, their grow old. Boys become men, while older men age out, and as the years go by, women seize a larger share of the cinephilia. And as Max Castle segues into legend, others arise to take his place. But are they acolytes, or do they know more about Castle than everyone else for certain reasons? Flicker becomes a mystery that gets tangled in memory, as films become totems in our mind, shifting through time to become either what we think is the truth, or what we remember is a lie.
You won’t find a braver, more singular film critic than Decarceration, the writer of From The Yard To The Arthouse. He combines candid, forthright criticism with bracing insights into criminal justice, insights he learned the hard way after spending several years in prison. The great joy of his Substack is reading him rediscover his passion for film, and by extension, for life, in real time. He recently hit 500 posts, a remarkable achievement by any standard. A true gift to the Filmstack community.
Cole Haddon (5AM StoryTalk)
THE FILMS IN MY LIFE; by Francois Truffaut (1975)
A foundational part of my cinema-loving life was reading film criticism/analysis from both brilliant critics – even ones I often disagreed with – and actual filmmakers. The latter is more difficult to find because most screenwriters and/or directors, at least the good ones, typically don’t run around criticizing other people’s work even for posterity. This is why François Truffaut’s The Films in My Life is such an illuminating joy to read, in part because he understood it wasn’t especially helpful to anyone to blow up other people’s work for personal kicks. He writes from a place of passion and it’s contagious.
Let’s be clear here. If you’re going to read Truffaut, you should start with his book Hitchcock/Truffaut (and then watch the film about it). It’s a master class on everything to do with filmmaking – and visual storytelling. But after you’re done with that, you should move on to The Films in My Life to better understand how to deconstruct films and, through Truffaut’s life experience (including work as a film critic), begin to develop the vocabulary necessary to interpret yourself through film. When you’re done, you can then watch the films and director filmographies he discusses to begin developing your own opinions on them. In this regard, you will discover some of the greatest, often overlooked directors of the 20th century and place yourself light years ahead of others who have relatively shallow cinematic toolboxes from which to build their own films and other stories.
Cole Haddon is a screenwriter, novelist and the brain behind 5AM StoryTalk, one of my favourite Substacks. As well as being a great writer, he is one of the most generous folks on this platform, offering his subscribers a ridiculous number of hand-curated resources like screenplays, interviews and even paintings, all designed to help us become better artists and students of cinema. His copy of The Films in My Life is also the cover image for this post…
If you’re enjoying Rough Cuts, please consider subscribing. Or, if you want to fund my sickness, you can buy me a book using the link below.
Jen Harrington (INSPIRED)
HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT; by François Truffaut (1966)
I’ve never been one much for film academia - maybe because I went to film school twice (two of the purported best, in fact) and all I got was student loan debt that will follow me to my grave. Not that I think film criticism and analysis don’t have merit, because they do, it’s just been… tainted for me. So when it comes to traditional texts, my best experiences were my first ones, before I became jaded by all the people telling me what to think and then charging me for it.
I have bought Hitchcock/Truffaut by François Truffaut for many people as it’s my go-to gift for anyone I know who loves film. It’s an entire film education in one book and inexpensive enough that you probably don’t even have to put it on your credit card. I grew up loving Hitchcock - well before I understood the brilliance of his direction - and just liked the morbid fun he had with dark material. Then, as a teenager, Truffaut broke my mind open with his disregard for how I thought movies were supposed to be. So, as I learned more about film history and the Cahiers du Cinéma, I was shocked to discover that Truffaut had idolized Hitchcock. You just don’t think that super smart French arty guy is going to be obsessed with genre-loving Hollywood guy.
Thank God he was because there was no one better to interview such a master of the craft. He gets technical, he gets philosophical, he breaks down Hitchcock’s whole filmography. You learn so much, appreciate so much, by the end of the book. And you probably won’t even have to explore your financing options to get your hands on it.
jen harrington is a professional screenwriter and filmmaker who writes about how to build a career in the industry. I first discovered her via her excellent account of how she sold her first script - recommended reading for anyone dealing with creative stagnation of any kind. She is also running a screenwriting competition over at her Substack, INSPIRED. What’s stopping you from entering…?
Kelli McNeil-Yellen (KLA Media Group)
HOLLYWOOD COCKTAILS; by Tobias Steed and Ben Reed (1999)
One of my favorite film-related books is Hollywood Cocktails, by Tobias Steed and Ben Reed, because let’s face it, most Hollywood legends (films and stars) have a drink associated with them that lasts far longer than they do.
The dirty gin martini, shaken, not stirred, ala James Bond.
The French 75, ala Casablanca.
Pinot noir, ala Sideways.
The list goes on.
The book also captures a vibe, a vibe I think all folks who chase a career in Hollywood aspire to reignite. The attention to detail that Steed gives in his prose feels like reaching back into the past, when effort and friction felt like they meant something, and the labor they commanded meant the product was worth consumption. The analogies between today’s instant gratification cycle and what was previously expected from creatives could not be more distinct.
The book also features a beautiful layout: lush, gorgeous photos from some of the most classic movies in Hollywood as well as thematic recipes. Added bonus: if you’re suffering from writer’s block, all one need do is thumb through the pages and let your favorite classic film (and drink) take you away.
da da da dee da da da.... (to the tune of “As Time Goes By”)
I give this book a 10/10 for inspiration and a 2/10 for productivity.
As someone who jumped from law into the creative world, I always admire people who have made similar transitions. After twenty years working in marketing and PR, Kelli made the leap to filmmaking with an award-winning Slamdance film, DARUMA. Over at KLA Media Group, she brings her hard-earned insights in marketing and PR to the indie film world. No amount of reading can substitute for that type of experience.
Courtney Romano (Let’s Go Again)
A SWIM IN A POND IN THE RAIN; by George Saunders (2021)
This is not a book about film. This is not even a book about storytelling. This is a book about discovering your own taste. And in my estimation, one of the most vital skills to develop as a filmmaker is your own personal sense of taste, divorced from the groupthink of algorithms and viral strategies, and instead fully embodied through your own weird little interior world. It’s these weird little worlds we each have that come alive in movies - through the story arcs of course, but also the symbols, and the intuitive choices, and the voice-y parts. And more than that, in an industry that is so difficult, knowing your taste and making decisions from your own sense of taste makes the challenges much more fun. Finding people who vibe with your sense of taste is fun. Discovering how your personal taste has changed over time, and understanding what that might mean about your own personal alchemy is fun. I believe audiences can feel that kind of fun-having in every frame. That, to me, is the X factor. So it begins with knowing what you like. George Saunders’ book A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is an invaluable resource for practicing finding your taste, and having fun while doing it. When my kids reach their early 20s, I’ll force them to read it every five years henceforth. It’s essential.
Courtney Romano is a driving force behind the burgeoning non-dependent filmmaking movement. She’s a selfless supporter of indie filmmakers, filling her Substack, Let's Go Again, with a cornucopia of resources for anyone looking to build a sustainable body of work outside of traditional channels. Her recent post, 64 ways to try non-dependent filmmaking & free yourself from Hollywood, is an excellent starter pack for the NonDe curious.
Mikhail Skoptsov (Textual Variations)
THE SECRET HISTORY OF STAR WARS; by Michael Kaminski (2008)
In the course of studying film and TV over two decades, I’ve come across many amazing books by professional scholars and academics, which shaped my research interests and methodology. One the most insightful and influential, however, has been The Secret History of Star Wars, fan Michael Kaminski’s independent eye-opening account of the evolution of Star Wars as a longform multi-part story.
Its goal was to debunk the most popular myths and widely accepted official claims about the film franchise’s creation, such as the notion that Lucas had known from the outset that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father and that he had written the original Star Wars trilogy as a single, elaborate script that he then divided into three parts.
By drawing on archival newspapers, behind-the-scenes magazine articles, audio and print interviews, early script drafts, production notes, and documentaries among other sources, Kaminski not only proves that Star Wars was in reality an unplanned, unstable, ever-changing narrative shaped by everything from practical filmmaking considerations to unforeseen real-life events, but also illustrates that the creative process itself is inherently fluid and prone to organic evolution.
Reading it thus made me recognize how serialized film and television narratives are actually constructed and how common it is for their creators to invoke the myth of a preexisting master plan to create a sense of unity. This, in turn, inspired me to study how and why stories evolve over time, which is central to my writing today, and to one day write a book that similarly demystifies the construction and evolution of a cinematic franchise, whose history has been extensively mythologized.
For all these reasons, I strongly recommend reading The Secret History of Star Wars. Whether you’re a budding filmmaker, fan, critic, or academic, I’m sure you’ll learn something from it.
Mikhail Skoptsov is a media scholar and critic (given that he holds a PhD in modern culture and media, I really should be calling him “Dr Skoptsov”). His Substack, Textual Variations, has a unique angle: it examines how and why movies transform over time, leading to multiple different versions being in circulation. His pieces are always thoughtful and heavily researched: this essay from 2024 is an excellent, practical overview of both how the VFX pipeline works and how it was affected by COVID.
Ellis J. Sutton (Notes From the Studio)
CREATIVITY, INC.: OVERCOMING THE UNSEEN FORCES THAT STAND IN THE WAY OF TRUE INSPIRATION; by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace (2014)
I first heard about Creativity, Inc. when I was working at Netflix, grabbing drinks with another assistant and venting about how it felt like Hollywood didn’t have a real system for consistently making movies better. I remember asking if there was anywhere that actually got this right, and she immediately said Pixar. She told me they had written a book about their process and specifically recommended the expanded edition because it builds on and updates the original. That alone stuck with me, and when I finally read it, it completely reframed how I think about creativity and building great work.
The biggest thing I took away from Creativity, Inc. is that you have to leave room for failure. Not just accept it, but actively build for it. Failure is a part of the creative process, and more than that, it’s critical to achieving excellent outcomes. You cannot assume that without failure you’re going to get to something great. Failure is what allows you to experiment, and experimentation is what allows you to discover, and discovery doesn’t happen without unexpected outcomes. At the same time, the book really reinforces how important it is to have the right people. You can give a good idea to a mediocre team and they’ll probably mess it up, but if you give a mediocre idea to a great team, they’ll make it better, throw it out, or come up with something better entirely. That shifts the focus away from just chasing ideas and toward investing in people, because people are the ones who ultimately drive outcomes. And I think that’s where something like Hollywood gets complicated. It is a people business, but it’s not always about whether you’re choosing the right people for the right moment, and not just at the top, but across the entire system. Because anyone can have a good idea. That’s another thing the book reinforces. Ideas can come from anywhere, at any level. And while it can feel like noise when you’re getting feedback from everywhere, the reality is you don’t control where the best idea is going to come from. The job isn’t to shut it out, it’s to get better at filtering it.
That’s where something like the Braintrust becomes important, and not just in name, but in how you build it. It’s not about surrounding yourself with people you’re comfortable with, it’s about surrounding yourself with people who are honest, candid, and actually make the work better. People whose notes genuinely improve the story, not just reinforce what you already think. Because you will naturally default to your friends and the people you trust, but you have to ask if those people are truly helping you get better. And if excellence requires failure, then you also need to be able to fail enough times to reach it, which means you need to be able to iterate quickly. Excellence doesn’t always come from taking more time, it comes from the number of iterations, from trying, learning, adjusting, and repeating over and over again. So if you can fail fast, you should, because it compresses the process of getting better. And if you can’t fail fast, you should still be failing, because stopping is the only thing that guarantees you won’t get there. And I think all of that leads to the simplest idea in the book, which is that the goal is not ease, the goal is excellence. It’s easy to optimize for the safest path, the most straightforward path, but that rarely leads to anything special. The path to excellence is harder, more uncertain, and more demanding, but it’s also the path that leads to something meaningful.
While many of us talk about what’s wrong with the industry, Ellis J. Sutton has rolled up his sleeves and started fixing it. As well as writing Notes from the Studio, where he shares wisdom earned from seven years working in the entertainment business, he’s the co-creator of Coffeehouse Cinema, an extremely cool grassroots microcinema movement. This post is a great introduction to the project. If only I lived in Los Angeles…
Awesome, how does one get included on the list?
Wow! I’m INSPIRED! I'm eager to read ALL of these books! I love what each person said about their recommendation. Each point made IS important—YES to figuring out what your taste is! YES to failing fast and often, to learn what does and doesn’t work! Particularly love Jen Harrington’s remarks about what film school got her--I like that she’s frank about it--and I love what Ellis said about excellence and how to get there. THANK YOU, ED, for including me in this great exploration of good books and wise observations.