About the Book:

Five keys to creating authentic, distinctive work, whether you are a student, professional or simply love making films on your own.

For Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out, three professors at the renowned University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television interviewed fifteen outstanding filmmakers, then distilled their insights into the "Five I's" of creativity. Learn how to:

• Uncover your unique creative voice (Introspection)
• Work from real-life observations and experience (Inquiry)
• Draw on your nonconscious wells of creativity (Intuition)
• Strengthen your creative collaborations (Interaction)
• Communicate at the deepest level with your audience (Impact)

This comprehensive approach provides practical exercises that will enrich and transform your work, whether you are looking for a story idea, lighting a set, editing a scene or selecting a music cue.

The participating filmmakers, who have collectively won or been nominated for 39 Oscars and 27 Emmys, are:

Anthony Minghella, writer-director (The English Patient); Kimberly Peirce, writer-director (Boys Don't Cry); John Lasseter, writer-director-producer (Toy Story); John Wells, writer-producer (ER); Hanif Kureishi, writer (My Beautiful Laundrette); Pamela Douglas, writer (Between Mother and Daughter); Renee Tajima-Peña, director-producer (My America...or, Honk If You Love Buddha); Ismail Merchant, producer (The Remains of the Day); Jeannine Oppewall, production designer (L.A. Confidential); Conrad L. Hall, cinematographer (American Beauty); Kathy Baker, actor (Picket Fences); Walter Murch, sound designer-editor (Apocalypse Now); Lisa Fruchtman, editor (The Right Stuff); Kate Amend, editor (Into the Arms of Strangers); and James Newton Howard, composer (The Sixth Sense).

What people say:

"Indispensable reading for students and professionals alike." — Victoria Riskin, screenwriter and former President of the Writers Guild of America, west

"Creative Filmmaking is entirely fresh and different and welcomed." — George Stoney, Professor of Film and Television, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

"If I were a film or television student starting out, it's the book I'd want to read, because it tells you to create from your gut and your heart and your spirit." — Norman Lear, TV Writer-Producer

"In Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out, the authors have stunningly codified an elusive process media educators must attempt to articulate every day in every classroom. This practical, illuminating and inspiring book will become a foundation text in film schools around the world." — William McDonald, Head of Production, UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media

Carroll Hodge, Jed Dannenbaum and Doe Mayer are professional filmmakers who also teach film production at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television.