Alex Cox’s Introduction to Film: A Director’s Perspective

Emerging filmmakers need to know the basics of their art form: the language of the camera, and lenses, the different crew roles, the formats, the aspect ratios. They also need to know some bare-bones theory: what an auteur is, what montage is, what genres are. Most important, all filmmakers require serious grounding in film. You cannot be a great artist if you aren’t versed in great art. An Introduction to Film covers all these aspects, from a director and filmmaker’s perspective. According to Cox, ‘Academics have a very specific take on things, and a language of their own. That take and that language aren’t mine. I’m a film director, writer, actor and producer. So my ‘intro to film’ may be somewhat different from the standard introductory text. I am less focused on film theory, and more on a film’s meaning, the intentions of the filmmaker, and how they got their film made.’