I bought this book along with "If it's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die." This book ("Visual Story") is the more scholarly and useful of the two, while "Purple" is an easier read.If you are a critic or student of film-making, this book definitely is a must-have. It's got great info on "why." So many books are centered around "how.""Why" is more important than "how."Descriptive, though pedestrian illustrations. Clean, honest writing. Easy to understand. Slightly dry. It would be nice to have more real-world examples, but that get's very difficult to get all of those movie and TV show clearances, so I understand why they're not there, but it would have definitely made the book much more interesting.