The Arts & Entertainment category has 1,204 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 1,967 ratings. The most-rated is Alien: River of Pain.
The Hero's 2 Journeys
Summary
Make your story the best it can be on two levels. Hear each superstar teacher present his unique approach to story telling. The "Outer Journey" is the essential structural principles driving every successful plot. Each brings years of practical experience and extensive research to story structure, character arc, and how to give your story greater commercial appeal. Full of specific examples. The "Inner Journey" is the deeper storyline that makes a story truly great. Hauge's view: The Hero moves from hiding within a protective identity to experiencing his or her true essence. Vogler's view: The Hero's inner need is invisible at first, but is revealed to the Hero by the end of the story. Full of specific examples. This is ideal listening for all writers (including screenwriters, novelists, and playwrights), actors, filmmakers, studio executives, game designers and developers, storytellers, and anyone with a passion for movies and stories.
©2003 Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler (P)2003 Writer's AudioShop
The Secret History of Twin Peaks
Summary
From the cocreator of the landmark series, the story millions of fans have been waiting to get their hands on for 25 long years. A vastly layered, wide-ranging history that deepens the mysteries of the iconic town in ways that will thrill disciples of the original series and will prep fans for the upcoming SHOWTIME® series like nothing else out there. Four original Twin Peaks cast members who are appearing in the new Twin Peaks for SHOWTIME® - Kyle MacLachlan, Russ Tamblyn, Michael Horse, and David Patrick Kelly - join three new actors - Amy Shiels, Robert Knepper, and James Morrison - to voice the audiobook edition of the novel along with cocreator Mark Frost and original cast member Chris Mulkey. Additional actors Annie Wersching (Bosch) and Len Cariou (Blue Bloods) are also featured, as is narrator Mat Hostetler. Of the audiobook, creator Mark Frost says, "I am thrilled that both original cast members and new actors will be coming together on this project to bring this other aspect of the world of Twin Peaks to life." This program includes a bonus PDF of images from the book. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2016 Mark Frost (P)2016 Macmillan Audio
Save the Cat! Strikes Back
Summary
The only Save the Cat! book on audio! This is the unabridged audiobook, which runs six hours and three minutes and includes a PDF of supplementary material. The book is read by MacLeod Andrews and was produced and directed by Arthur G. Insana. Blake Snyder, author of Save the Cat! and Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies, has delivered the audiobook countless readers and students have clamored for. Inspired by questions from his workshops, lectures, and emails, Blake listened to you and provides new tips, tactics, and techniques to solve your writing problems and create stories that resonate: The seven warning signs that you might have a great idea - or not Two surefire templates for can't-miss loglines The difference between structure and formula The Transformation Machine that allows you to track your hero's growth step by step The five questions to keep your story's spine straight The Five-Point Finale to finish any story The Save the Cat!® Greenlight Checklist that gets to the heart of every development issue The right way to hear notes, deal with problematic producers, and dive in to the rewrite with the right attitude Why and when an agent will appear How to discover the potential for greatness in any story How to avoid panic, doubt, and self-recrimination...and what it takes to succeed and dare to achieve your dreams Get ready to face trouble like a pro...and strike back! PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2009 Estate of Blake Snyder (P)2014 Blake Snyder Enterprises, LLC
How to Make It in the New Music Business
Summary
In the last decade, no industry has been through as much upheaval and turmoil as the music industry. If you're looking for quick fame and instant success, you're in the wrong field. It's now a democratic DIY business, and any guide to success in these new waters must be told by someone who's already survived them. Giving today's aspiring musicians the practical tools they need to build and maintain a lifelong career, How to Make It in the New Music Business becomes not only a brilliantly compiled tutorial on how to accomplish specific tasks - routing a tour, negotiating contracts, getting paid for Spotify and Pandora plays, or even licensing music to commercials, film, and television - but also a manifesto that encourages musicians to pave their own paths. Iin clear, easy-to-follow chapters, Ari Herstand's necessary and definitive handbook promises to redefine what it means to make it in the brave new world of professional music.
©2017 Ari Herstand; foreword copyright 2017 by Derek Sivers (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
How to Write One Song
Summary
There are few creative acts more mysterious and magical than writing a song. But what if the goal wasn't so mysterious and was actually achievable for anyone who wants to experience more magic and creativity in their life? That's something that anyone will be inspired to do after listening to Jeff Tweedy's How to Write One Song. Why one song? Because the difference between one song and many songs isn't a cute semantic trick - it's an important distinction that can simplify a notoriously confusing art form. The idea of becoming a capital-S songwriter can seem daunting, but approached as a focused, self-contained event, the mystery and fear subsides, and songwriting becomes an exciting pursuit. And then there is the energizing, nourishing creativity that can open up. How to Write One Song brings listeners into the intimate process of writing one song - lyrics, music, and putting it all together - and accesses the deep sense of wonder that remains at the heart of this curious yet incredibly fulfilling artistic act. But it’s equally about the importance of making creativity part of your life every day and of experiencing the hope, inspiration, and joy available to anyone who’s willing to get started.
©2020 Jeff Tweedy (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Cabin Pressure: The Complete Series 4
Summary
If you loved the first three seasons, you'll be just as tickled by this fourth installment of the wonderfully funny Cabin Pressure. Whether you're a fan of the cheeky Douglas or the hopelessly sweet Martin, there's a generous helping of all the bits you've grown to love.
Stephanie Cole, Benedict Cumberbatch & Roger Allam star in the fourth series of the hit sitcom about the tiny charter airline for whom no job is too small, but many, many jobs are too difficult. By John Finnemore (The News Quiz, Mitchell & Webb).
Run by the forbidding divorcée Carolyn Knapp-Shappey (an unfortunate marriage, namewise, but in Carolyn's opinion, marginally better than Carolyn Shappey-Knapp), her two pilots are the smooth, experienced and almost-certainly-fired-by-a-big-airline-for-all-round naughtiness Douglas, and struggling almost-competent pilot and sweaty man Martin.
All-round help is provided by Carolyn's near-idiot son, Arthur....
©2013 AudioGO, Pozzitive Television Ltd (P)2013 AudioGO Ltd
Radio, Records & Rockstars
Summary
Canada's premiere rock radio interviewer and radio series host, Jeff Woods, narrates the audio version of his acclaimed first nonfiction book, featuring a nostalgic romp through his own career in radio and records, alternating between that and exclusive conversations with the legends of rock.
Woods has followed his passion wherever it’s taken him. Radio, Records & Rockstars takes you behind the curtain, revealing what's happened to radio as Jeff also reveals the unvarnished truth of his own storied life, including his professional and romantic peaks and valleys. This work of reflection and conversation relates the stumbles and defeats, truths and triumphs of the artists who will go down in history as helping to define a generation - and of the man who has long brought their stories to listeners across Canada and those tuning in from the USA and around the world.
©2016 Jeff Woods (P)2018 Jeff Woods
The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works
Summary
Over the centuries, orchestral music has given us a category of works that stand apart as transcendent expressions of the human spirit. What are these "greatest of the greats"? Find out in these 32 richly detailed lectures that take you on a sumptuous grand tour of the symphonic pieces that continue to live at the center of our musical culture. These thirty masterworks form an essential foundation for any music collection and a focal point for understanding the orchestral medium and deepening your insight into the communicative power of music. While seasoned music lovers will find the lectures a revealing journey through the repertoire, the course welcomes newcomers to orchestral music, offering a very accessible point of entry to this magnificent repertoire. You'll encounter symphonies, concertos, tone poems, symphonic poems, and suites, delving into the works through extensive musical excerpts. The course covers the major eras and stylistic periods in Western music from the early 18th- to the mid-20th centuries and highlights a wide range of European and American works. Among these: Haydn's Symphony no. 104, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, and Shostakovich's Symphony no. 5. Throughout these lectures, you'll learn about the major musical forms found in orchestral writing and how they're used in conveying expressive meanings. Knowing how these forms work allows you to grasp the structure of the music as you hear it, and also to appreciate how the greatest composers used them, extended them, and finally departed from them in sublimely original ways. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2011 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2011 The Great Courses
Music as a Mirror of History
Summary
In the worlds of painting and literature, it's easy to see where history and art intersect. In Picasso's Guernica or Tolstoy's War and Peace, it's evident how works of art mirror and participate in the life of their times, sometimes even playing roles in historical events. But what about music? In Music as a Mirror of History, Great Courses favorite Professor Greenberg of San Francisco Performances returns with a fascinating and provocative premise: Despite the abstractness and the universality of music - and our habit of listening to it divorced from any historical context - music is a mirror of the historical setting in which it was created. Music carries a rich spectrum of social, cultural, historical, and philosophical information, all grounded in the life and experience of the composer - if you're aware of what you're listening to. In these 24 lectures, you'll explore how composers convey such explicit information, evoking specific states of mind and giving voice to communal emotions, all colored by their own personal experiences. Music lovers and history enthusiasts alike will be enthralled by this exploration of how momentous compositions have responded to - and inspired - pivotal events. Ranging widely across the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, you witness historical moments such as the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the Austrian-Ottoman conflict, the Hungarian nationalist movement, the movement for Italian unification, the economic ascent of the US, the Stalinist regime in the USSR, and World Wars I and II. Across the arc of the course, you'll see how these events were felt and expressed in the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Verdi, Wagner, and many others, including modern masters such as Janácek, Górecki, and Crumb, and you'll hear superlative musical excerpts in each lecture. Join us for an unparalleled look into the power and scope of musical art. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2016 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2016 The Great Courses
How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck
Summary
How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck is a quick and easy guide that will make your video better instantly - whether you hear it cover to cover or just listen to a few chapters. It's about the language of video. How to think like a director, regardless of equipment (amateurs think about the camera, pros think about communication). It's about the rules developed over a century of movie-making - which work - just as well when shooting a two-year-old's birthday party. Written by Steve Stockman, the director of Two Weeks (2007), plus TV shows, music videos, and hundreds of commercials, How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck explains in 74 short, pithy, insightful chapters how to tell a story and entertain your audience. How to shoot video people will want to watch. At the end of every chapter is a suggestion of how to immediately put what you learned into practice, so the next time you're shooting you'll have begun to master the skill. Accompanying the book is a website with video clips to illustrate different rules, techniques, and situations. Here's how to think in shots--how to move-point-shoot-stop-repeat, instead of planting yourself in one spot and pressing "Record" for five minutes. Why never to shoot until you see the whites of your subject's eyes. Why to zoom with your feet and not the lens. How to create intrigue on camera. The book covers the basics of framing, lighting, sound (use an external mic), editing, special effects (turn them off!), and gives advice on shooting a variety of specific situations: Sporting events, parties and family gatherings, graduations and performances. Plus, how to make instructional and promotional videos, how to make a music video, how to capture stunts, and much more.
©2011 Custom Productions, Inc. (P)2013 Custom Productions, Inc.
The 99% Invisible City
Summary
A beautifully designed guidebook to the unnoticed yet essential elements of our cities, from the creators of the wildly popular 99% Invisible podcast Have you ever wondered what those bright, squiggly graffiti marks on the sidewalk mean? Or stopped to consider why you don't see metal fire escapes on new buildings? Or pondered the story behind those dancing inflatable figures in car dealerships? 99% Invisible is a big-ideas podcast about small-seeming things, revealing stories baked into the buildings we inhabit, the streets we drive, and the sidewalks we traverse. The show celebrates design and architecture in all of its functional glory and accidental absurdity, with intriguing tales of both designers and the people impacted by their designs. Now, in The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to Hidden World of Everyday Design, host Roman Mars and coauthor Kurt Kohlstedt zoom in on the various elements that make our cities work, exploring the origins and other fascinating stories behind everything from power grids and fire escapes to drinking fountains and street signs. With deeply researched entries and beautiful line drawings throughout, The 99% Invisible City will captivate devoted fans of the show and anyone curious about design, urban environments, and the unsung marvels of the world around them.
©2020 Roman Mars (P)2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Cabin Pressure: The Complete Series 3
Summary
Stephanie Cole, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Roger Allam star in the first series of the hit sitcom about the tiny charter airline for whom no job is too small, but many, many jobs are too difficult. By John Finnemore (‘The News Quiz’, ‘That Mitchell & Webb Sound’) Run by the forbidding divorcée Carolyn Knapp-Shappey (an unfortunate marriage, namewise, but in Carolyn’s opinion, marginally better than Carolyn Shappey-Knapp), her two pilots are the smooth, experienced and almost-certainly-fired-by-a-big-airline-for-all-round naughtiness Douglas, and struggling almost-competent pilot and sweaty man Martin. All-round help is provided by Carolyn’s near-idiot son, Arthur...In the first of the complete six episodes - ""Qikiqtarjuaq"" - when MJN Air flies a party of tourists near the North Pole, Arthur goes hunting for polar bears, Carolyn for a rogue lemon and Martin for a believable French accent...
Then we travel to episode 2 - ""Paris"", and when a bottle of highly-expensive whisky goes missing, Martin becomes the Miss Marple of MJN Air with Arthur assisting as his trusty Doctor Watson and Douglas hindering as his untrusty prime suspect. On to part 3, ""Newcastle"", where love is in the air, but also unfortunately in a small airport in Birmingham - and Martin has to choose between career, romance and fixing a very small tail-light. Part 4 finds us on the way to ""Ottery St Mary"". Martin is a Man With A Van, Douglas flies A Plane With An Otter and Carolyn dates A Pilot With A Problem With Sheep. And two mysteries solved - the name of Carolyn’s dog and the rules of “Yellow Car”.
Arriving at episode 5, ""Rotterdam"", it's Lifejacket, Camera, Action as stardom beckons for one of the crew of MJN Air... but who will get to blow the final whistle? And will they look good in a vest? And in the last episode of the series - ""St. Petersburg"" - some vodka and an unwary bird could spell the end of the line for MJN Air, and when Carolyn meets her ex-husband the atmosphere turns even icier.... With special series guests Timothy West, Anthony Head ('Buffy') and Mark Williams ('The Fast Show').
©2011 Pozzitive Television Limited (P)2011 AudioGO Ltd
How to Write Funny
Summary
The definitive joke-writing handbook Learn comedy writing and how to write a joke with a simple comedy-writing and joke-writing formula you can use right now to write your own jokes. See why Amazon reviewers call How to Write Funny "one of the best books on humor writing." Author Scott Dikkers will tell you how to write jokes. He’s a master joke writer, founder of the world’s most popular humor site TheOnion.com, number one New York Times best-selling humor author, professional public speaker, and successful cartoonist. Scott created and leads the “Writing with The Onion” training center at the famed Second City in Chicago. His students have been hired for the top comedy writing jobs in TV and won dozens of Emmy Awards. He’s consulted with top entertainment companies like NBC, Comedy Central, and Pixar. This easy-to-follow guide lays out a clear system and simple formula for how to write a joke that will get big, milk-coming-out-of-your-nose laughs, reliably and repeatably. You'll learn... The three sure-fire ways to generate funny text The 11 different “Funny Filters” and how to use them to write jokes The secret to getting rid of writer's block - permanently And many more humor writing tips, tricks, and techniques Create any joke using the Funny Filters, the 11 fundamental building blocks of humor: Funny Filter 1: Irony Funny Filter 2: Character Funny Filter 3: Shock Funny Filter 4: Hyperbole Funny Filter 5: Wordplay Funny Filter 6: Reference Funny Filter 7: Madcap Funny Filter 8: Parody Funny Filter 9: Analogy Funny Filter 10: Misplaced Focus Funny Filter 11: Metahumor If you've wondered how you can start writing jokes, how to tell jokes to your friends, how to add humor to your writing, how to add jokes in a speech, or how to add humor to your presentation, this book spells out the simple joke writing formula professionals use. How to Write Funny is for you whether you want to find a comedy writing job or just want to learn how to tell a joke.
©2014, 2018 Scott Dikkers (P)2018 Scott Dikkers
Toast on Toast
Summary
In Toast on Toast - part memoir, part "how to act" manual - Steven Toast draws on his vast and varied experiences, providing the reader with an invaluable insight into his journey from school plays to RADA and from "It's a Right Royal Knockout" to the Colony Club. Along the way he reveals the secrets of his success. He discloses how to brush up on and expand your technical and vocal skills, how to nail a professional voiceover, and how to deal with difficult work experience staff in a recording studio. He also reveals the dangers of typecasting, describes the often ruthless struggle for 'top billing', and shares many awesome nuggets of advice. The end result is a book that will inspire and educate anyone who wants to tread the floorboards. It will also inform (and entertain) anybody who simply wants to discover what a jobbing actor's life is actually like.
©2015 Matt Berry and Arthur Mathews (P)2015 Canongate Books Ltd
Ricky Gervais Show
Summary
It's the complete second season of The Ricky Gervais Show - six episodes in one tidy package. It's packed full of all-new drivel, as Ricky and Steve Merchant forage through the long grass of Karl Pilkington's brain. Plus, there's lots more from Karl's diary, as well as the unwelcome return of "Rockbusters".Ricky Gervais, of course, is the award-winning co-creator and star of The Office (upon which the NBC hit series is based) and HBO's Extras. Steve Merchant, who also stars in Extras, is his long-time creative partner. Karl is a humanoid life form of undetermined origin.
© and (P) Ricky Gervais
The Secret History of Star Wars
Summary
Star Wars is one of the most important cultural phenomena of the Western world. The tale of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker has become modern myth, an epic tragedy of the corruption of a young man in love into darkness, the rise of evil, and the power of good triumphing in the end. But it didn't start out that way. In this thorough account of one of cinema's most lasting works, Michael Kaminski presents the true history of how Star Wars was written, from its beginnings as a science fiction fairy tale to its development over three decades into the epic we now know, chronicling the methods, techniques, thought processes, and struggles of its creator. For this unauthorized account, he has pored through over 400 sources, from interviews to original scripts, to track how the most powerful modern epic in the world was created, expanded, and finalized into the tale an entire generation has grown up with.
©2008 Michael Kaminski (P)2014 Novel Audio
Sanford Meisner on Acting
Summary
Sanford Meisner was one of the best known and beloved teachers of acting in the country. This audiobook follows one of his acting classes for 15 months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Written in collaboration with Dennis Longwell, it is essential listening for beginning and professional actors alike. Throughout this audiobooks, Meisner is a delight - always empathizing with his students and urging them onward, provoking emotion, laughter, and growing technical mastery from his charges. With an introduction by Sydney Pollack, director of Out of Africa and Tootsie, who worked with Meisner for five years. "This book should be read by anyone who wants to act or even appreciate what acting involves. Like Meisner's way of teaching, it is the straight goods." (Arthur Miller) "If there is a key to good acting, this one is it, above all others. Actors, young and not so young, will find inspiration and excitement in this book." (Gregory Peck) Read by Jason Culp, Arthur Morey, and Mark Bramhall
©1987 Sanford Meisner, Dennis Longwell, Sydney Pollack (P)2020 Random House Audio
Sweat the Technique
Summary
The musician and hip-hop legend - hailed as “the greatest MC of all time” and compared to Thelonious Monk - reimagines the writing handbook in this memoir and guide that incorporates the soulful genius, confidence, and creativity of a master artist. When he exploded on the music scene, musical genius Rakim was hailed for his brilliant artistic style, adding layers, complexity, depth, musicality, and soul to rap. More than anyone, Rakim has changed the way MCs rhyme. Calm on the mic, his words combine in a frenzy of sound, using complicated patterns based on multisyllabic rhymes and internal rhythms. Rakim can tell a story about a down-on-his-luck man looking for a job and turn it into an epic tale and an unforgettable rhyme. He is not just a great songwriter - he’s a great modern writer. Part memoir, part writing guide, Sweat the Technique offers insight into how Rakim thinks about words, music, writing, and rhyming as it teaches writers of all levels how to hone their craft. It is also a rare glimpse into Rakim’s private life, full of entertaining personal stories from his youth on Long Island growing up in a home and community filled with musicians to the clubs of New York and the studios of Los Angeles during his rise to the top of popular music. Rakim celebrates the influences that shaped his development, including the jazz music of John Coltrane and the spirituality of the streets, and shares anecdotes spotlighting personalities such as LL Cool J and Dr. Dre, among others. Filled with valuable lessons for every writer, Sweat the Technique reveals the heart and mind of an artist and his love for great storytelling and, always, the words.
©2019 Rakim (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers
How to Listen to and Understand Opera
Summary
To watch any opera lover listen to a favorite work, eyes clenched tight in concentration and passion, often betraying a tear, is to be almost envious. What must it be like, you might think, to love a piece of music so much? And now one of music's most gifted teachers is offering you the opportunity to answer that very question, in a spellbinding series of 32 lectures that will introduce you to the transcendentally beautiful performing art that has enthralled audiences for more than 400 years. As you meet the geniuses - including the likes of Monteverdi, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, and Puccini - who have produced some of the landmark artistic achievements of the form, and listen to many of their most beautiful moments, you'll grasp how the addition of music can reveal truths beyond what mere spoken words can convey, and how opera's unique marriage of words and music makes the whole far greater than the sum of its parts. Beginning with opera's origins in the early 17th century and continuing into the 20th, you'll trace the art's evolution and its ability to convey every shade of human emotion, whether sorrow or joy, drama or buffoonery. You'll understand how different types of voices enhance character. And you'll understand how the invention of the aria gave operatic composers a new power to make human emotions soar, adding to the impact of what continues to be one of the most beautiful musical forms ever devised. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©1997 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1997 The Great Courses
Mastering Stand-Up
Summary
This entertaining and sharply written guide - for both beginners breaking into comedy and professionals seeking to improve their sets and advance their careers - examines the work of great comedians such as Louis C. K., Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Izzard, Moms Mabley, Hannibal Buress, Sarah Silverman, Richard Pryor, and more as a means of illustrating the most important techniques of performing and writing stand-up. Here, Stephen Rosenfield lays out a clear plan for achieving success, candidly explaining what works, what doesn't, and why. Including a 12-item "Successful Comedian's To-Do List," Rosenfield states, "Get undeniably good at each of these and you can kiss your day job good-bye. You will be a pro."
©2018 Stephen Rosenfield (P)2019 Tantor