What people say
“Ingenious! Professor Gerst is brilliant. He distills film history into 25 game-changing discoveries. Whether it’s Muybridge and intermittency or Murch and sound mixing, each advance is placed in historical context and then put at the center of a hands-on exercise for readers to try. Each practicum is cleverly designed to show us why pivotal innovations like montage or storyboarding were significant, and how to reproduce them. You don’t need to buy additional equipment to do the exercises. If you have a computer and an Internet connection, you’re good to go. Make Film History is a beautifully illustrated, instructive guide that makes some of the most awe-inspiring moments in film history easily reproducible for even the most novice of filmmakers. Highly recommended!”
— Jennifer Van Sijll, author: Cinematic Storytelling
“Skip film school. If you do all the exercises in this
book, you'll learn at least as much as you would at film school — at one-thousandth the price.”
— Alex Epstein, screenwriter: Bon Cop/Bad Cop, Naked Josh; author: Crafty Screenwriting
“Whew! At last a book to re-awaken students and teachers of cinema studies and moviemaking.”
— Richard D. Pepperman, author: Illuminations – Memorable Movie Moments, nominated 2011 Best Moving Image Book Award
“Robert Gerst has written a one-of-a-kind book that brings alive the challenges of film directors over the evolution of moviemaking and inspires readers tocreate their own films sparked by the solutions to these challenges. Followingin the tradition of famous painters learning from imitating others, Make Film History will fire-up student filmmakers and re-energize and stimulate experienced filmmakers.”
— Gael Chandler, author: Film Editing – Great Cuts Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know
“Robert Gerst has created a wonderful, and sometimes astonishing, new wayto study the history of movies and, at the same time, learn moviemaking tech-niques. The sum total is an exciting experience like no other book I’ve ever read.”
— Paul Chitlik, Clinical Asst. Professor in Screenwriting, Loyola Marymount University; Member, WGAW and The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
“A stunning accomplishment. Robert Gerst has transformed the story of filmhistory into a personal hands-on filmmaking experience. And that experience isunforgettable.Make Film History paints the vivid, colorful chronicle of cinema history in a totally new way.”
— Eric Edson, professor, screenwriter, author: The Story Solution – 23 Actions All Great Heroes Must Take
“Fascinating! A brilliant way to learn filmmaking and film history. Robert Gerst’s Make Film History is an instant classic. A must-have resource. I know of nothing like this book, anywhere. Congratulations Robert!”
— Tony Levelle, author: Producing with Passion, Digital Video Secrets
“This book gives the filmmaker and film lover a remarkable opportunity to re-visitthe great classics of the cinema, gain fresh insights into the circumstances underwhich they were made, and test these new insights by actually handling the footage oneself! We hear a great deal about ‘new media cross-platform’ communication. Here’s an example that truly works.”
— Charles Wilkinson, director: Peace Out, Down Here; author: The Working Film Director
“A treasure trove of filmmaking in a book. Working with an easy-to-use website, this book takes you step by step into the filmmaking process, allowing you to work hands-on with film classics from the history of the cinema. A new kind of filmmaking learning experience.”
— Tom Lazarus, screenwriter, author: The Last Word: Definitive Answers to All Your Screenwriting Questions
“Learning the techniques of filmmaking has just taken a great leap forward.Robert Gerst’s new book,Make Film History, combines the act of filmmaking(using your computer) and studying the work of many past masters of the film-making process to create a hands-on method for learning the reasons behind the techniques — by getting the student to ‘walk in their shoes.’ Amazing.”
— Richard La Motte, author: Costume Design 101 – 2nd Edition
Robert Gerst, Ph.D., chairs the Liberal Arts Department at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. He has taught film aesthetics and film history to thousands of designers, artists, and young filmmakers in North America and, in online courses at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, to film students around the world.
