13 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2023
    1. Presenter says that Coppola divided the book into 50 scenes. Source for this?

      Link to Frank Daniel's advice for 70 scenes.

      What is the average number of scenes in a film? (Measured by slug lines.) Average over time? (5 year or 10 year increments?)

    2. There is an interesting theme of staying true to a center or core of a story which is broadly similar to David Lynch's staying true to the original idea. The difference may be that Lynch is staying true to his own original idea which started the process whereas Coppola is distilling out a core from an original source and then focusing on that rather than having Puzo's own original core.

      Which core is the "true" one?

    3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fskc7vBWcbw

      Another video about Coppola's prompt book for The Godfather. Nothing new here.

  2. Mar 2023
    1. It was a measure of Mr. Luddy’s influence, The Times noted in 1984, that he showed “The Italian,” a 1915 film that is considered a model for the immigrant-gangster epic, to Mr. Coppola before he made “The Godfather,”
    2. As director of special projects for Francis Ford Coppola’s company American Zoetrope, he produced movies like Paul Schrader’s “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” (1985), a complicated film about Yukio Mishima, the eccentric Japanese author who killed himself publicly in 1970 — a passion project that Mr. Schrader has described as “the definition of an unfinanceable project.” Mr. Luddy was its tireless booster and supporter, funding it early on with his American Express card.
  3. Jun 2022
    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awce_j2myQw

      Francis Ford Coppola talks about his notes and notebook on The Godfather.

      He went to the Cafe Trieste to work.

      Coppola had an Olivetti typewriter. (4:20)

      Sections on pitfalls

      I didn't need a script cause I could have made the movie just from this notebook.

    1. Now he’s giving the public a peek into that creative process with The Godfather Notebook (Regan Arts, Nov. 15, $50), an exact reproduction of his original, right down to the handwriting, plus rarely seen photos. A signed $500 limited edition even comes in a replica three-ring binder.

      Francis Ford Coppola published an exact reproduction of his original prompt book for The Godfather called The Godfather Notebook (Regan Arts, 2016).

    2. To organize his thoughts, Coppola made a “prompt book,” a theater trick he learned in college at Hofstra. Into a three-ring binder he stuffed his annotated copy of the novel, scene-by-scene breakdowns, notes on the times and setting, cliches to avoid and casting ideas.

      Francis Ford Coppola created and used a prompt book to organize his notes and annotations on Mario Puzo's The Godfather to create the 1972 Paramount blockbuster.

      Having learned the stage managers' technique of keeping a prompt book at Hofstra, his contained an annotated copy of the novel with scene-by-scene breakdowns, notes on setting, cliches to avoid, and even casting ideas.

    1. a short documentary titled Francis Coppola’s Notebook3released in 2001, Coppola explained his process.

      I've seen a short snippet of this, but I suspect it's longer and has more depth.


      The citation of this documentary here via IMDb.com is just lame. Cite the actual movie and details for finding and watching it please.


      Apparently the entirety of the piece is just the 10 minutes I saw.

    2. “As I was reading the book and makingthese notes and then putting them on the margins obviously themore pens I was using and the more rulers, and the more squigglylines, sort of implied the excitement of the book was higher andhigher, so that the sheer amount of ink on the page would tell melater on this is one of the most important scenes.”

      The density of annotations on a text can tell one about where the value and excitement of a work may be hiding.

    3. Coppola’s strategy for making the complex, multifaceted filmrested on a technique he learned studying theater at HofstraCollege, known as a “prompt book.”