Book Notes from 'Spielberg' by Joseph McBride:

(Header Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash)

Bookum Book Notes from 'Spielberg' by Joseph McBride:

1) Story first, style later

Spielberg focused on telling powerful stories and letting the content shape how the movie looked, rather than trying to create a specific style for himself.

"I want my films to have purpose a message that is conveyed through the lens towards the audience. If it becomes a style, then that’s cool, but not trying to create a style because even originality becomes stylized"


2) Improvise:
Remember Jaws? Before it became the highest grossing film of all-time, passing The Godfather... production was a train-wreck! $5 million dollars over its budget, went 104 days over schedule (159 days in total) and the mechanical shark broke. These struggles forced the team to improvise; it forced him to focus on suspense, making the movie even scarier!

3) Make it Personal

"I find it hard to identify with anybody in the uniform. My films are always been about glorifying the common man. Nothing ever happens to him, then something extraordinary happens to him and he has to change his whole life to either defeat it or understand it"

Spielberg flips the script on heroes. His films focus on ordinary people like Roy Neary in Close Encounters who are thrust into extraordinary situations.

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