As a director, you must have a concept, a "director's idea" , to shape your approach to the actors, the camera, and the script. With this clear idea your film will be deeper and more effective, and you will be able to differentiate--and therefore make the choice--between competent directing and great directing.

    Using case studies of famous directors as real-world examples of "director's ideas" , the author has provided the theory and the practice to help directors immediately improve their work.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 The director's idea
Chapter 3 The competent director
Chapter 4 The good director
Chapter 5 The great director
Chapter 6 Text interpretation
Chapter 7 The camera
Chapter 8 The actor
Chapter 9 Sergei Eisenstein : the historical dialectic
Chapter 10 John Ford : poetry and heroism

Etc.