It's taken till the new millenium for someone to do a "how to" book about acting that plainly and simply zeroes in on just what it takes to be a great performer in front of a camera. Whether you're young or old, male or female, rookie or pro - if you are, or ever intend to act in film or television - you owe it to yourself (AND your future audience) to read this book. GREG MORRISON, Adjunct Professor, LOS ANGELES FILM SCHOOL

FILM AND TELEVISION ACTING by Ian Bernard

Reviewed by Academy Award and "Emmy" honored actor/writer/producer/director, Don Murray.

FILM AND TELEVISION ACTING belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who aspires to a career in motion pictures or is inquisitive about how the process of motion picture acting takes place. Author Ian Bernard, who has distinguished himself as an actor, writer, musical composer and director, adds to his well deserved laurels with this book that leads the actor through the technical steps and creative nuances of acting for both big screen and small.

Most actors begin their careers in amateur stage theatrics. No matter how competent their stage training may be, the transition to the screen can be disconcerting. Some aspects of screen acting make the transition easier: Voice projection, vital on the stage, doesn't come into play in screen acting. The "three quarters front" body position on stage is replaced by direct alignment, but exact positions become more vital in front of the camera, in order to remain in focus and within the lights. Much is made of "retakes" in film; if you don't get it right in take one there is take two, and twelve, and twenty if need be. But those extra takes are more often given to correct technical errors than to improve performance (especially in television where time restraints make compromise in the realm of performance common place).

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of switching from stage to screen performance is the lack of continuity in shooting a movie. One often performs the love scene before the scene where boy meets girl and since there is no build up of emotion that carries from one scene to another as on stage, the screen actor usually has to stimulate his emotions by his own solitary devices.

Mr. Bernard's book is a blueprint for building a bridge between stage and screen acting by providing theory and technique for making the transition.

For both aspiring screen actors and those of the motion picture audience who are interested in enhancing their enjoyment through a deeper understanding of the acting process, Ian Bernards's FILM AND TELEVISION ACTING belongs on the b ookshelf right next to Constantin Stanislavski's AN ACTOR PREPARES.

Most of the stories in this collection are great, but one of them is astonishing. Victor Pelevin's 'Moscow Dynamo' is mind -blowing. Don't even consider not reading this story! The inclusion of this special piece turns what would otherwise be a merely excellent collection, into a classic.

Once again, Granta draws my interest to something I'd never thought about before. The Viktor Pelevin short story, "Moscow Dynamo", is worth the cover price on this (inevitably) fine issue.

This book is quite brilliant, Michael Barclay along with Ian A.D Jack and Jason Schneider have put together an amazing book which looks at various Canadian musicians between 1985-1995. I found this book great because it sort of shined light on a lot of amazing bands and individual musicians throughout this era that didn't have a source detailing their history, influence etc.

Being a big fan of Halifax bands as well (sloan, thrush hermit, etc.) I was very happy when i saw that the halifax scene or "underground" was given a very detailed account.

The histories of several bands were given full chapters such as The tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo and Sloan. The punk music scene in Western Canada was also given a spotlight. All-in-all any music fan would love this! I definetly do!

The bible on Canadian Rock is reverently written, and interesting through and through, chock full of fascinating information and in depth looks at the finest of the CanRock scene, including the oft-overlooked Sloan. Well worth reading.

"Australia's Age of Iron" is unique in drawing together the historical and archaeological information on the early development of iron smelting in Australia. Due to Australia's comparatively recent European settlement (since 1788) industrial archaeology has a short perspective and has been largely neglected until recently. This book provides the basic information on the earlist attempts at establishing an iron industry and a review of the archaeological investigations. Jack and Cremin give a short introduction to the iron extraction traditions which contributed to the Australian scene, and then trace the history of the history of the various 19th century attempts to establish iron smelting and manufacturing operations. They also provide accounts of the archaeological situation of each of the sites. They document how the the economic survival of the local iron operations, particularly smelting, was dependent upon government support due to the difficulty of the 'infant ' industry becoming competitive with the cheap imports from long established European and North American manufacturers. The book is well illustrated with maps, period photographs of the pioneer iron works and modern black & white photographs of the sites. While the it is comparatively short at xiv + 175 pages it is comprehensively referenced and indexed. It covers a great deal of material and fills a major gap in Australian industrial archaeology. It is expensive, but worth the money, as there is nothing else available in this area.

It was good because it gave lots of information on Jack Russell Terriers which is helpful in understanding the breed and in making the home a comfortable place for the JRT as well as helping our family to be comfortable with the JRT.

This is why I love this publication. Usually there's a clunker or two in any given Granta, but this one is perfect. Wow.

If you look back to 1983, Granta selected the likes of Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis, and Kazuo Ishiguro as the outstanding young British writers. They next had the issue in 1993, where they were less successful in projecting the new award winners and critically praised novelists.

There are good stories throughout this volume, though I liked the Ben Rice and Sarah Waters stories the best. The really nice part of a short fiction collection like this one is that you're bound to find a new writer that you'll follow for the next 10 years. As weak as I thought the 1993 collection of writers, I still found Iain Banks, perhaps the best genre-busting writer of the recent past, and Jeanette Winterson.

If you enjoy finding a fresh voice or you just like reading a good story, I think you'll find this edition of Granta well worth your time. I don't always pick up this sort of magazine because they are often loaded with less than stellar short fiction by otherwise good writers, but this particular issue has many excellent short pieces that will lead you to find the upcoming novels from these artists.

This is a must for any fan of Ian Rankin. Each story is an ideal showcase of his talent when writing outside the restrictions set when he is writing his brilliant Inspector Rebus novels, and it is great to know that Rankin is no one-trick pony. Here are presented three early novels written under the name "Jack Harvey".

"Witch Hunt" is the first, and is a complex tale about the hunt by a varied group of British Agents to find "The Witch", an audacious and sucessful female terrorist. It's a while since i read this one, but i rememeber enjoying it a lot. The plot is complex, enjoyable, and the characters, a varied bunch, are all fascinating and good to read about.

"Bleeding Hearts", is probably the best of the three. It's a brilliantly tense story about a hitman. He carries out a job, but he's suspicious when the police arrive much sooner than expected, as if someone's tipped them off...Who's tried to set him up? Why? He has to find out. This is a well written book, and an excellent thriller. It's pace is great, it solution is unexpected and shocking. It is quite a feat that Rankin makes us like the lead character (the hit-man) who is actually a very likeable man, miles more than the Investigator who is after him, who is highly dislikeable. I enjoyed this one a great deal.

"Blood Hunt", the final story, i also enjoyed a great deal. I sped through it and, as i say, enjoyed it immensely, but writing now, i can remember very little of it. It's basically about an ex-SAS man who'se journalist brother is murdered, so he sets out on a quest to discover why. Cue all sorts of mysterious characters, conspiracies, and plot twists, up until an exciting showdown on what i recall as a forested island.

All in all, each tale is probably not the top of the genre (save Bleeding Hearts) but the writing is first-class, the characters are very strong, and it's very interesting for fans of Rankin to see him moving within other areas.

(NB: Gordon Reeve, the protagonist of Blood Hunt, is the same Gordon Reeve who was the killer in the first Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses. However, BH is a sort of "parrallell" novel, one in which Reeve never became a killer. the events of Knots never occured, and it's interesting to see a new face to Gordon Reeve, a character we fell we already know...)

This is the first Granta book I've read but I'm definitely interested in more after this one. A collection of essays, stories, memoirs and photographs all based around the theme of London, it contains works by such well-known authors as Anthony Bailey, Ian Buruma, Amit Chaudri, Hanif Kureishi, John Lanchester, Dale Peck, Will Self and Graham Swift plus articles by two writers for the Observer. Sandwiched in between all of these works are ten 'London Views', where various authors ruminate on their favorite or most memorable views in and about the city.

Many of the essays are accounts of the author's memories of their time spent in London, as in the childhood memories of Ferdinand Dennis and Ruth Gershon or the more recent recollections by Ian Hamilton and Lucretia Stewart. My favorite part, however, was the short fiction, especially Philip Hensher's mysterious tale of real estate in the late '80s and Lanchester's quirky story about an accountant's experience of a bank robbery. I also enjoyed Helen Simpson's 'With a Bang,' an account of life in Kew in the age of Nostradamus, an appropriate addition to a volume published in 1999.

The stories taken collectively give a really in-depth view of London at the turn of the century. Yet even if you're not interested in London per se, the writing here is good enough to warrant buying this anyway.

THIS MAN WAS A GREAT LOSE TO THE ORDINARY PEOPLE OF N.IRELAND AND AS FOR THE TREACHEROUS PEOPLE WHO (MURDERED HIM)WHICH I HAVE NO DOUGHTS ABOUT I CAN`T SEE THERE LOGIC IN THE DEATHS OF ALL THE MEN ON THAT CHOPPER,I STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT THEY HAD THE WAR WON,BUT FOR POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY THEY WERE SACRIFICED.I FEEL GREAT SORROW FOR HIS WIDOW AND HIS CHILDREN,AS THEY SUFFER THE GREATEST LOSE,IT IS THE BEST BOOK I HAVE READ IN A LONG TIME.I JUST HOPE AND PRAY HIS LIFE WAS NOT SACRIFICED FOR NOTHING,AS TO`MANY LIVES HAVE BEEN LOST ALREADY.I WORKED IN THE PUB IN BANGOR THAT THE IRA WERE PLANNING TO BLOW UP,I WOULD LIKE TO THANK HIS FAMILY FOR MY LIFE,AND MARTIN MAGARTLAND FOR HIS INFORMATION THAT LEAD TO THE PREVENTION OF THE BOMBING THAT DAY. IF IT WAS`NT FOR PHOENIX I WOULD NOT BE THE PROUD FATHER OF MY CHILD TODAY, FOR THIS WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS THE GRATITUDE I FEEL FOR THIS MAN AND HIS FAMILY.THANK YOU WITH ALL MY HEART.YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHY I WISH TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS,I KNOW HIS WIFE AND FAMILY UNDERSTAND.I HOPE AND PRAY JUSTICE IS DONE ONE`DAY FOR THOSE PEOPLE THAT HAD HIM KILLED.