The Lean Forward Moment: Create Compelling Stories for Film, TV, and the Web [Paperback]

It's easy and inexpensive to create your own video. A digital video camera and some basic software aren't much of a barrier to entry. What's difficult is using those tools to create something that an audience will actually want to watch. No, bribing your brother-in-law with beer to sit through the thing doesn't count.

The Lean Forward Moment does as good a job as a book can to to help the budding DIY video maker acquire the knowledge to go in the right direction. No doubt many videos will benefit from their makers having read this book. While a book can't substitute for experience it can make learning quicker and more focused.

I help with a youth film making program. I've been learning with the kids as I offer them computer skills training. I'm enjoying this book and getting an insight into how the two film people who run the program do what they're doing. They're both semi-retired pros from Hollywood.

I let both look the book over. It got two thumbs up for people who actually know how this all works.

The book start at the beginning, before shooting, with discussions about story telling and examples of why successful films turned out well. It then moves on to writing, production design, directing, cinematography and editing. Also covered are visual effects, music, sound, special cases, and producing. There are good tips throughout the book.

Like any film instructor, I'm always seeking an affordable text for my students. With the average text hovering around $80.00 (and then the additional charge for supplemental books), The Lean Forward Moment seemed like a steal. I say "seemed" because like many reviewers here, I'm a bit confused as to whom the target-audience is.

The simple, jargon-free language appeals to the lay-person (which is always welcome in texts geared toward the masses); however, the structure and more advanced concepts give the feel of an academic text. The Lean Forward Moment seems stuck in a perplexing gray-zone. While I feel Hollyn was attempting to please both audiences, he may have (accidentally) alienated both. Curious.

I know that it seems superficial, but one of the ways I evaluate the potential success of a film-text, is through its examples. I know (for a fact) that my students excitedly scan a text ... looking for stills from works they know/love. The Lean Forward moment uses many popular (and technically masterful) examples. The Matrix, Finding Nemo, 300, Lord of the Rings, The Godfather -- all good choices to get the cinema-neonate involved. On the flip side, Across the Universe, Brazil, Synecdoche, Contempt, Coons, Jack in the Box, Satacracy 88 -- these niche/obscure works are interesting to more advanced students (maybe). (And, now we're back to that gray-zone ...).

Here's my professional opinion, The Lean Forward Moment is fantastic for the intermediate student who knows the fundamentals, will be entertained by familiar examples, and is curious about lesser known works.

The Least You Need To Know: A solid work that garnered a three-and-a-half star review; despite its slightly screenwriter-centric title, this is a book for an all-around filmmaker.

Full Review: This book, by its very title, immediately ignited my imagination. Reading through, the author has done a great job of inviting a deeper reflection about generating stories for media publication from its infancy through publication, mainly as a full-blown movie.

I have to admit being a little disappointed with the book in that, upon further reading, this is not a work that revolves solely around creating stories, ie. it doesn't dwell on what I originally thought it would: screenwriting.

That said, there is a fine chapter on writing (among others) that gives some really good information. For example, the author covers something a lot of writers don't fully understand when creating stories for movies: the logline. In fact, this is such an important aspect of creating stories for publication that Hollyn, a film editor by trade, continues referring back to the film's logline every so often as a method of clarifying and interpreting any issues that normally appear as the story makes its way from creation to production.

A good logline provides that kind of a guidance to everyone involved in the movie-making process, from the screenwriter on to the director. It is a sort of "constitution" for a good story, he infers and I agree.
Many concepts are discussed so expertly that the reader understand the author's confidence. Little tips and tricks abound. Again in the writing chapter, Hollyn refers to something he calls the shape of the words on the (script) page. This serves the screenwriter in trying to create yet another interesting concept Hollyn refers to throughout the work and is, of course, the title of the book: Lean Forward Moments.

Using both the logline and the concept of the Lean Forward Moment, Hollyn covers a very wide array that sometimes, but not often, seems like the book is spreading itself too thinly. Chapter 1 discusses the way humans tell stories, then on to the all-important Loglines in chapter 2. Writing is next then comes several chapters on the technical aspects of filmmaking: Production Design, Directing, Cinematography, Edition, Opticals and Visual Effects, Music, Sound, and Producing: Putting It All Together.

It's a wonder this thing is not much heavier. Each of these topics is enough to cover a book several times its size.

Still, a nice little book for a budding filmmaker that touches on all of the aspects of storytelling for moviemaking. I like the production value of the book itself, which is something I have come to expect from New Riders. The book reads very easily, almost like a good novel. It does become a bit bogged down going through the editing and production-specific chapters, as expected.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 51 reviews  4.3 out of 5 stars