Just recently, I mentioned a great book with many filmmaking applications: The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.

I wanted to mention a few others here that I’ve been reading that you should check out! And, yes, I realize that I wrote another recent post about how we’re often susceptible to reading too much

This blog post features a little walk-through of what I’ve been studying lately on this journey of filmmaking discovery!

Books You Should Get Your Hands On

I mentioned The 48 Laws of Power in the opening paragraph of this post. Speaking of Mr Greene, his Art of Seduction is also worth investing in. While it’s aimed primarily at romantic relationships of various kinds, there are certainly passages that speak directly to filmmakers.

In fact, any book that covers relationships of any variety is useful in filmmaking terms. Anything that covers communication techniques or linguistics can also be useful. Check out NLP and Hypnosis books. I wrote a post about the NLP technique of Reframing right here.

Then there are more specific books on separate areas you may want to work on to improve your overall filmmaking skills – a lot of these focus on various inner game aspects, or just improving yourself overall in order to be a better filmmaker.

Anything that expands consciousness and lets you see the world in a different way is a step forward for any filmmaker who wants to really take this to the next level!

Some Books On Body Language And Persuasion

Check out Julius Fast’s Body Language. You could get Mind Magic by Marc Lemezma, a fantastic book about magic tricks that is useful for many aspects of filmmaking – think the metaphor of filmmaker as an illusionist.

There’s Annie Gottlieb’s The Cube, Influence by Robert Cialdini. Business guru Eban Pagan always recommends Mel Helitzer’s Comedy Writing Secrets. This is often regarded as essential reading for writers in general, including screenwriters.

Along the same amoral track as 48 Laws, there’s Simon Lovell’s How to Cheat at Everything. Lots of little tricks and hustles you can learn about here. Funny things to show to people on set, for sure; of course, I wouldn’t seriously advise anyone to begin a career as a hustler or card shark!

Tone them down and implement them as slightly watered down versions to mess with friends, or use as demonstrations when folks on set are a little bored.

This is just a very brief overview, but hopefully it gave you some ideas. Check out Amazon, including the used and new sections to pick up cheaper versions of the books.

Use your library to snag anything you can and you’ll save money that way. It’s all about spreading knowledge and letting people learn.

Amazon has user-made book lists on topics concerning filmmaking, etc. Read anything you can.

   

Knowledge is good, but don’t forget to put it into practice.