738: What do you do with Red China?

The Arcanum : The Extraordinary True Story covers an interesting period in the Age of Reason. An "arcanum" is an alchemy term for a secret formula, and virtually all of Europe's finest minds were obsessed with discovering the ultimate arcanum: a philosopher's stone, which could transmute base metals to gold.

Augustus the Strong, King of Poland, was the patron of the alchemist Johann Bottger who had rashly promised he could create gold. Bottger became a prisoner for the rest of his life, seeking to deliver the philosopher's stone he had promised. He never succeeded, and, as the king's patience ran out, he frantically sought ways to save his reputation, and very likely his life. His salvation came when he met another alchemist who had been working on the problem of porcelain.

China held the secret of making porcelain, and all of Europe was obsessed with owning it. Augustus owned an immense collection, and was always buying more, at an incredible price. Accordingly, the kings were eager to discover the secret of making porcelain. The one who succeeded would have a monopoly on European porcelain, which would bring great prestige and, of course, wealth.

Bottger succeeded where all others had failed. At first, all he could create was a red stoneware that was beautiful and unique, but it was not truly porcelain. But Bottger persisted, literally for the rest of his life, and ultimately succeeded in independently recreating the formula the Chinese used to create the translucent white so valued by European nobility.

My one complaint is that the book could have used some illustrations or better yet color photos of some of the porcelain pieces being described. But a fun read, and another look at the staggering wealth and extravagance of the royalty of Europe.

791: Filmmaking

I have never attended film school, so I can't say for certain if What They Don't Teach You at Film School, by Camille Landau and Tiare White lives up to its title. The book consists of a series of tips (161 of them) pertaining to video film production. Each tip is a page or two, and they have the feel that they came from the authors' own experiences.

Most of the tips are on interpersonal relations (i.e., managing your crew, finding investors, schmoozing, begging for free stuff, etc.) as opposed to filming techniques or script writing. The authors anticipate you'll probably be trying to film a short on the cheap, with people donating their time. Accordingly, they bring up a long list of possible complications and problems, from how to approach investors to why you never hire people in pairs (because if one doesn't work out, you'll lose both of them at once).

It was a bit of a tough read, as the tips did not really flow into one another. Instead, each read like a separate chapter. They were organized into broad categories, but that didn't help much with the readability. The book's target audience appears to be a newly graduated film student living in Los Angeles working on getting their short film done, which I am not. Not a bad book, but not exactly what I was looking for.