Letters to Young Filmmakers: Creativity & Getting Your Films Made

Letters to aspiring directors, producers, screenwriters and others who want to make independent or studio films by the UCLA professor that Geoffrey Gilmore (for many years the Director of the Sundance Film Festival) calls “one of the foremost teachers of film in the world.” Suber emphasizes that what is required of a professional in the world of film is not just technique, but an understanding and ability to deal with the realities of how films get made.

Endorsements

Foreword by Mike Medavoy (head, Orion Pictures, TriStar and Phoenix Pictures, involved with over 300 films including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Apocalypse Now, The Terminator, The Silence of the Lambs, Shutter Island and Black Swan.)

“Letters to Young Filmmakers is full of wisdom, insight, anecdote, and knowledge distilled from years of experience, relationships, and contemplation. His genuine understanding of how the film business operates makes his advice to young filmmakers sound, inspiring and, above all, useful.”
— Geoffrey Gilmore, Director, Sundance Film Festival, 1990-2010; Chief Creative Officer, Tribeca Enterprises.

“Wise, kind, and direct. Howard Suber’s advice is as piercing as Don Corleone telling Michael who not to trust, and just as vital. I LOVE this book!”
— David Koepp, screenwriter Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, Spider-Man, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

“This master teacher of film provides us with a multitude of brilliant insights and sound, sage, advice. He has mentored generations of writers, directors, and producers with his intelligence and compassion for the art of film and the industry that sometimes manages to produce it.”
— Tom Sherak, President, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

“Those of us lucky enough to work in film exist at an often vexing intersection between art and commerce, but also between creativity and achievability, idealism and practicality, inspiration and dogged perseverance. The maddening contradictions of what we do to make movies are explored in Letters to Young Filmmakers in a way you won’t find anywhere else. Howard Suber was the single most influential professor I had at the UCLA film school. In this sometimes painfully honest and always wise book, he brings decades of filmic and life experience to questions that everyone working in film, whether beginner or established professional, must deal with.”
— Laeta Kalogridis, screenwriter/executive producer of films by Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Oliver Stone, etc. including Avatar, Shutter Island, and Alexander.

“For nearly fifteen years, I have team taught a course with Howard Suber aimed at preparing UCLA film and television students for the realities they will face in establishing and sustaining careers in the industry. Howard has advised students for decades about real life issues of getting recognition, dealing with collaborators and people you work for, and getting your films made. The longer I have listened to him, the more I have come to realize that I have been more of a student of his than a fellow teacher.”
— Kenneth Suddleson, former Executive Vice-President of Paramount Pictures; described by The Hollywood Reporter as “the dean of entertainment lawyers.”

“Elegant, unpretentious, brutally honest but strangely encouraging, Howard Suber’s razor-smart emails and essays dissect and brilliantly illuminate the crazy marriage of film art and film commerce. There is so much insight to be had here for anyone who yearns to make movies... and a not-so-gentle reality check for those of us who are lucky enough to be making them.”
— Dan Pyne, screenwriter, The War of the Worlds (2004), The Sum of All Fears, Any Given Sunday.

“Suber’s in-depth knowledge of film is simply unmatched. This is 50 years of cinematic wisdom expressed with wit, precision and philosophical elegance. An indispensible, inspiring piece of work from a truly legendary teacher who has somehow still managed to remain one of Hollywood’s best kept secrets. Not anymore!”
— Sacha Gervasi, director, Anvil! The Story of Anvil!; screenwriter, Steven Spielberg’s Terminal, and the forthcoming Alfred Hitchcock and the making of ‘Psycho’.