Short Filmmaking

"Each screen director has a different path getting to the point when "Action!" and "Cut!!" are everyday occurrences, but the books on Directing and Acting tend to look and read the same. Anthony Barnett has come up with a new approach in his book with Q & A, answering the questions that will come up from potential directors and actors, rather than just giving them a slab of instructions.




He has also tackled one of the hardest bottlenecks in the training of directors and actors, which is finding and giving them suitable texts to work on. The numerous scripts to be found in his book will be of immense value to the lecturer and student alike, as they can now easily find appropriate material to put pictures onto.




Just as different working directors found different paths to working on a shoot, so this book finds different ways of helping potential directors and actors on their own journey".

Patrick Tucker, director of over 200 dramas for the screen. Author of Secrets of Screen Acting (3rd Edition Routledge 2014) Secrets of Screen Directing (Routledge 2019)


Directors: learn how to direct Actors for a screen performance.

Actors: learn how to give a screen performance.




Directors are often wary of actors and likewise actors of directors. Yet both need each other's skills to succeed. These skills need to be learnt by novice directors and actors - but what are they? This book is a short cut to what many years of 'experience' in front of and behind the camera would eventually reveal of each other's reciprocal needs.




30 original short screenplays of varying genres and technical challenges have been written for you to put your newly discovered skills into action.



colour blind casting
mostly 2 and 3 hander casts
many suitable for gender to be changed




Interactive QR codes of film examples throughout the book and a dedicated website www.bothsidesofthemoviecamera.film

with pre-production resources, tutorials and frequent blogs