Welcome

Welcome to my website! I have designed this new version of the Hollywood Film Directing website to support the lessons I teach in my most recent book,
DIRECTING THE CAMERA. In the book, I focus on two crucial elements of directorial craft: how to shoot dialogue scenes with a moving camera and how to
shoot action sequences. Today, media directors must be in complete command of these two elements craft in order to use the contemporary language of film
proficiently.

Throughout DIRECTING THE CAMERA, to best illustrate my points, I refer to the visual design of scenes from variety of contemporary films. All of these scenes can be found by clicking on the video clips button below, or on the appropriate icon under books

In a previous incarnation the Hollywood Film Directing website lived to support a series of weekend directing seminars that I taught in partnership with one of the world’s best instructors in the art and craft of directing actors, Mark W. Travis.  Mark is the creator and sole teacher of The Travis Technique, a radical and powerful approach to storytelling and film directing. All those who want to contract Mark, can find him
at  www.thetravistechnique.com 

Books by Gil Bettman

Directing the Camera

Directing the Camera: How Professional Directors Use A Moving Camera To Energize Their FIlms “This new book by Gil Bettman contains the core lessons which directors today must learn in order to make the kind of films which the industry wants to make and the audience wants to see. It teaches the fundamental elements of craft which a director must master in order to shoot suspense-driven action sequences, as well as dialogue sequences energized by a moving camera. Directing the Camera does more than teach how to make cool shots. It teaches the overarching principles of visual design which work most effectively to tell a story.” From the Foreword by Robert Zemeckis.

First Time Director: How to Make Your Breakthrough Movie

If you are a first time director, you need all the help you can get, especially on the set. And that's exactly what Gil Bettman delivers: no lofty theorizing about the "art" of filmmaking, but lucid, real-world advice on how to handle the craft and people-management side of directing. This book explains in precise, easy to understand language everything the novice director needs to know before taking on his or her first professional assignment. Says Indie Slate Magazine, "Bettman’s voluminous tome on directing, is the real deal. A must-read for any serious aspiring director."

“Gil Bettman’s insights on how to shoot with a moving camera helped me hone my craft as a director. He has an ultra-modern approach on how to weave and integrate dynamic camera motion into a narrative— an approach which certainly found its way into The Fourth Kind.”

- Olatunde Osunsanmi, Director: THE FOURTH KIND, STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, STAR TREK: SHORT TREKS, FALLING SKIES

“Gil Bettman has lucidly set down the ABCs of directing so that dedicated students can learn exactly what will be required of them when they step onto a set.”

- Robert Zemeckis, Director, FORREST GUMP, BACK TO THE FUTURE