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For people (not just film students) interested in this sort of thing, I recommend "The Grammar of the Film Language" by Daniel Arijon. A fantastic book that's f

• anigbrowl 12y ago
  Seconded. It is the only book I've seen that takes a truly systematic approach. It seems to have fallen out of favor due to the 1970s-era line drawings involving increasingly naked people which some people find sexist or just weird. Two other books worth mentioning are The Visual Story by Bruce Block and If it's Purple Someone's Gonna Die by Patti Bellatoni. The first one is about shapes and the second one is about color. You can pick up all 3 for under $100 and you will get more out of it than most people do from spending many thou$and$ on film school.
• eeho 12y ago
  Agreed on the book. It's great. Another one of my favorites on this topic is this scene from Paprika: http://youtu.be/e9xD_YYZrbA?t=23s http://youtu.be/e9xD_YYZrbA?t=23s