12 SUMMER 2019 MOVIEMAKER.COM
DEEP
DIVES
Our summertime poolside
page-turners include
a deep-focused guide
to lenses and two
anthologies on small-
screen art and craft
BY SOPHIE JONSSON,
SARA ROMANO, AND
IZZY STROOBANDT
BOOK REVIEWS
TOP LEFT: PHOTOGRAPH BY SHIH-CHING TSOU / COURTESY OF MAGNOLIA PICTURES;
TOP RIGHT: PHOTOGRAPH BY CRAIG BLANKENHORN / COURTESY OF HBOTHE FILMMAKER’S EYE:
THE LANGUAGE OF THE LENS
(THE POWER OF LENSES
AND THE EXPRESSIVE
CINEMATIC IMAGE)
Gustavo Mercado
ROUTLEDGE.
208 PAGES
In Gustavo Mercado’s newest
book, The Filmmaker’s Eye:
The Language of the Lens, the
award-winning independent
moviemaker turned professor ex-
plores the powers and capabilities
of the camera lens.
Mercado explains that as
moviemaking technology has
advanced over the past 20 to
30 years, people’s ability to get
professional-grade equipment
has become easier than ever.
Language of the Lens examines
how lenses have captured every
emotion, theme, and moment
on screen by exploring their sto-
rytelling power. In addition to a
section dedicated to the technical
concepts of the camera lens, such
as field of view, lens speed, and
depth of field, Mercado branches
out beyond the technical lingo by
connecting the actions of the lens
to its effects on a story. To achieve
this, the book is broken up into
six sections.
“Space” discusses the link
between the camera’s technical
and storytelling roles, such as in
Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life,
in which he uses wide-angle
lenses to convey life from
the perspective of a child.
In “Movement,” Mercado refer-
ences Christopher Nolan’s
Batman Begins when discuss-
ing the importance of camera
movement in creating a gritty,
authentic story. “Focus” looks
to demonstrate how focus influ-
ences a narrative’s emphasis.
“Flares” focuses on the beams
of light that enter a lens and how
they affect a story, such as in the
riding sequences in Easy Rider
and the arrival of UFOs in
Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
“Distortion” exemplifies how the
distortion produced by lenses
can affect a story, particularly
to convey whimsy, surreality,
disorientation, or intoxication,
as is the case with Terry Gilliam’s
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Finally, in “Intangibles” Mercado
acknowledges that every lens is
unique and that its personality
brings authenticity to a film, as
exemplified by Sean Baker, who
filmed his movie Tangerine on
an iPhone. These “optical person-
alities,” as Mercado calls them,
bring excitement and allure to the
journey of mastering the camera
lens as you refine your craft.THE TAKEAWAY: For the new
moviemaking generation,
Language of the Lens can serveas a reference point of how some
of cinema’s greatest auteurs make
use of the lens, as well as a key
for how to use the tool. After
reading Language of the Lens,
moviemakers will be equipped
with the ultimate knowledge
to command any lens, from an
iPhone to the most expensive
glass money can buy.
— S.J.I LIKE TO WATCH:
ARGUING MY WAY THROUGH
THE TV REVOLUTION
Emily Nussbaum
RANDOM HOUSE.
384 PAGES
Though it’s taken for granted
that television has a big seat at
the table in the modern entertain-
ment world, journalist and vet-
eran TV critic Emily Nussbaum’s
I Like to Watch: Arguing My
Way Through the TV Revolution
reveals the many limitations the
medium had to overcome to earn
its current high level of cultural
relevance. Nussbaum’s passionate
and thoroughly defended appeal
for TV’s importance comes in 32
collected articles, including two
never-before published essays.
Nussbaum begins by
tracing her obsession with
Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s origi-
nality in 1997—a brazenness she
says wouldn’t seem out of place
in the Game of Thrones era—and
how it gave way to a career of
critical engagement with episodic
TV. The essays examine such shows
as True Detective, The Middle,Hannibal, Adventure Time, and
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as she
charts the medium’s evolution
from something considered to be
time-wasting, low-brow entertain-
ment to a respected and appreci-
ated art form.
Among the anthology’s selec-
tions is an analysis of revolution-
ary HBO series The Sopranos,
which explores creator David
Chase’s continual testing of his
audiences’ willingness to keep
watching as the show became
darker over its six seasons. In
another entry, she argues for a
reassessment of glittery and light
female-centric shows, arguing
that the term “guilty pleasure” is
a damaging descriptor that over-
looks the profundity to be mined
from such shows’ content. (In
fact, part of Nussbaum’s motiva-
tion to write the book came after
hearing a co-worker dismiss
Jane the Virgin with that very
term.) And despite male domina-
tion of the anti-hero trope,
Nussbaum asserts the importance
of such female anti-heroes as
Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw
and why storytellers and audienc-
es benefit from allowing women
characters to mess up, embrace
flashiness and extravagance, and
embody a more three-dimension-
al understanding of femininity.
What makes Nussbaum’s
arguments so effective is her
ability to philosophically explore
the sweeping role TV plays in
contemporary society. The book’s
thought-provoking analyses areL TO R: STARS MICKEY O’HAGAN AND KITANA KIKI RODRIGUEZ, DP RADIUM CHEUNG, AND WRITER-DIRECTOR SEAN BAKER’S
IPHONE-SHOT 2015 FEATURE, TANGERINE, IS EXPLORED IN GUSTAVO MERCADO’S THE LANGUAGE OF THE LENS