August 1, 2020
In this blend of memoir and how-to guide to directing, Kwapis, who has directed TV series such as The Larry Sanders Show, The Office, and Santa Clarita Diet, explains that the seeds of his career were planted long ago, when he received a Super-8 camera as a birthday present. After earning a bachelor's degree and venturing to Southern California, he directed after-school specials before moving on to feature films including Follow That Bird, He Said, She Said, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Kwapis discusses his directing experiences: working with volatile actors such as Rip Torn and Gary Shandling, blocking scenes, storyboarding, and storytelling. Film fans will be pleased at Kwapis's behind-the-scenes look, while those eager to launch a career in filmmaking will appreciate his blend of advice, anecdotes, and technical tricks. VERDICT An enjoyable memoir that offers lessons on filmmaking, what counts as success in Hollywood, and the magic of film.--Leah Huey, Dekalb P.L., IL
Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
September 1, 2020
Television and feature film director Kwapis shares the wisdom he's gained from his almost four decades behind the camera. Growing up in southern Illinois, Kwapis fell in love with movies and aspired to be a film critic but instead he opted to helm films rather than critique them. He broke through with the Sesame Street feature, Follow That Bird, in 1985, and from there he went on to innovate on the big and small screens, from codirecting the movie He Said, She Said with Marisa Silver (who would become his wife), which presented a love story from both the man's and the woman's points of view, to turning a popular advice book into a movie, He's Just Not That Into You, to setting up the documentary feel of the hit sitcom, The Office, when helming the show's pilot. Kwapis also offers practical advice on everything from handling actors and setting up shots to technical matters, ensuring that his illuminating memoir will appeal to both film and TV buffs and aspiring directors.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)
August 15, 2020
Practical advice from a director's long and varied experience. Kwapis, whose films include Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and He's Just Not That Into You and whose TV credits include The Larry Sanders Show, The Office, and The Bernie Mac Show, draws on his nearly 40-year career to offer guidance and encouragement for aspiring directors. Aiming to "explore things that film schools don't teach you," the author creates helpful checklists, suggestions, and breakdowns of scenes he has directed or analyzed from others' work, as well as plenty of lively anecdotes. Among the many directors he cites are Agnes Varda, Ernst Lubitsch, Bernardo Bertolucci, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, Orson Welles, and Ingmar Bergman. Kwapis considers how to personally connect with the material, nurture morale on the set, "exercise creative muscles," and stay flexible in the face of setbacks. Without being tyrannical, arrogant, cocky, or grim-faced, a director should be proactive, maintaining confident leadership and always remaining aware that "you are the only person entrusted to tell this story." Directors must understand everyone's job in the complex process of filmmaking. At film school, Kwapis was never offered an acting class--a regrettable omission--so he had to learn on the job how to talk to actors by developing insight into what they do and what suggestions would help them flesh out their characters. The competitiveness of film school, though, did alert him to the destructive impact of negative criticism, and he offers a "code of etiquette about feedback." Rather than criticize dialogue for being too expositional, for example, it's more productive to ask, "Do we need this information?" The author's artistic sensibility emerges throughout the book: for instance, in his observation that "the best landscape a director can photograph is the face of a character in turmoil." An entertaining and informative guide for film buffs and filmmakers.
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