Directing the Story: Professional Storytelling and Storyboarding Techniques for Live Action and Animation,   ISBN:9780240810768

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Trust the other reviews on his book so far - this is indeed a 5-star book. One of the best books on stroytelling I've come across. It reads like a cross between Scott McLoud's Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art and Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels and Robert McKee's Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting. And that's high praise indeed.

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There are a myriad of books being written about animation, about story, about how it's all done. There are authors who have made a living being authors - that is, their primary trade is writing books about things. Other authors have dabbled in the film trade, but not enough to make a living at it - and have turned to writing books to supplement their income (their books are good enough, but make the process too philosophical and ethereal, like those fake teachers you see in the movies).
This is book is different - and it's very rare. This book is about the craft, in glorious and accurate detail, confirmed with supporting research and example, by a practitioner obviously tired of the many evasive books which claim to know the craft but talk about it in dodgey fashion. This is the real stuff, and I devoured this book in less than 8 days. You will, too.

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I am a recent graduate of the Gnomon School of Visual Effects and have been fortunate enough to have had the privilege to actually be a student in Francis' class. I remember when he was in the process of writing this book, "Directing the Story" and in my most humble opinion the book is nothing less than pure gold. There is nothing else out there that I know of that explains the true essence and meaning of film making, why we make films...and most importantly why we watch films. This book IS the Holy Grail of film making.

If you are serious about becoming a great story teller...BUY THIS BOOK! I cannot even begin to express to whom ever is reading this review how important it will be for your career if you have any interest in the entertainment industry. It has changed my life, and I know it will for anyone else out there too.

Francis was one of the best teachers I have ever had, and now having recently purchased and read the book it was like being in his storyboarding class all over again. I jokingly now envy everyone else out in the world today because they now have access to all of the golden knowledge that I had to go to film school in Hollywood to acquire.

I hope to become a director one day, and if I ever win an Oscar or any other great success I will know why...thank you Mr. Francis Glebas! =)
-Scott

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Highly recommended. This book conveys a great wealth of storytelling experience, naturally conveyed through well-designed visual examples. For writers, it complements for the more structural books on screenwriting (Syd Field's, Dave Trottier's) with its how-to approach. For directors, its visual approach touches on nearly every subject ranging from mise-en-scene to blocking.

A must-read.

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Disney story artist Francis Glebas has put together a great book on the process of cinematic storytelling.

Directing the Story touches on composition, pacing and many dramatic techniques designed to creating more emotional connections in stories.

This book goes well with Nancy Bieman's Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts for quality story instruction, but whereas her book also focuses on character design and other aspects of animation, Directing the Story looks solely at storytelling, and not necessarily for animation.

What really sets Glebas' book apart is that it includes a fully boarded out story (an adaptation of 1001 Arabian Nights) that incorporates the methods he's teaching.

There are a couple sticking points with me. One is the writing style. There are plenty of spots throughout the book where I found myself glossing over text because it was so dense. Also even though this book seems to focus on cinematic storytelling in general, animation is where this type of storytelling is most common and people interested in this book are most likely interested in animation. It would have been nice to see a bit more focus on animation and traditional storyboarding to really top things off.

But all things told, Directing the Story has a great look on storytelling. One that other books don't have.