The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap 1st Edition

If you are a beginner trying to make a movie (a REAL movie) with a DV camcorder shooting in 24p (for the most part), and a PC computer of some sort, this book is damn near perfect to get you going, and keep you going. The author obviously knows what he's talking about, and anyone who has actually worked at Industrial Light and Magic immediately has my attention! You don't get hired by ILM if you aren't a pro.This book delivers exactly what it says it will: How to make Killer action movies on the cheap using DV.This isn't some book on "movie theory". This is a well written, often funny, practical reference manual. STU demonstrates time and time again that he knows EXACTLY what he is talking about, then he shows you how to do it. (Cheap!)I learned so much reading this book that I didn't realize how much I didn't know before I read it, and now that I have read it, I know exactly what books to buy to nail all of the topics covered in this book. I now know what I should be studying and WHY. There are sections in this book that can only come from in depth knowledge and I am pretty sure there are things in this book that you will NOT find elsewhere. This isn't the book that will teach you everything, but it will teach you everything you NEED to know about DV film making. Period.As a starting point this book will blow past what you thought was possible with DV into real "movie studio" territory, but Stu shows you how to do it on a meager budget - for example there is a design for a $14 "GhettoCam" made of a 2x4 piece of wood and two wooden dowels that mimics the effect of a SteadyCam that would cost you thousands of dollars. Strangely enough, bean bags and bags of sand are a great way to mount your camera at an angle and preserve the shot, and I had no idea that you could use a skateboard for a "slider shot". To be honest, I didn't know what a "slider shot" was, but I do now! (And I know when to and how to shoot one.)For a beginner in DV film making (like me) this book is worth its weight in platinum, and now that I have finished my first read, I know that I will be coming back to this book over and over again until I know every part of it by heart. Yes, this book does focus on Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects, but honestly after reading this book, and after buying Final Cut Studio 3.0, I am actually making the switch to Adobe just based on my reading of this book. But that's not what's important. Even if you don't have After Effects, the concepts and practical solutions in the book are the most important part. What is important is that this book gives literally hundreds of tips, tricks, real life examples with lots of nice color pictures to see exactly what the author is talking about, and then he backs all this up with a slew of DVD content, including some much needed Excel files that you can really use to do what this author is talking about. Stu covers everything from the pre-production, to the actual shoot, to post production (including essentials such as color correction, scene matching, work flow, and how to maximize DV resolution and reduce quality loss in the production pipeline as well as an exact list of what to do in order to "master" your movie). Stu also solidly covers visual effects and stunts, how to create them, (and do that cheaply!) etc. Oh, did I forget the whole chapter on guns and how to make realistic gun fights using airsoft gun replicas, sound libraries and After Effects?OK, so what's the downside? The ONLY downside in this book has to do with audio. If you are looking for a book about recording and producing audio for film, this book is NOT the one you want. However, for everything else (and that is a LOT of "else"), just buy this book.This book rocks!

This little book is amazing. It has lots of great information presented in a direct and appealing way. Despite the action movie slant, nearly all of the tips tricks and material work for any kind of shooting.There is a dearth of material on DV cameras and shooting out there, especially online, and it is difficult for me to figure out the useful stuff from people selling something. Magazines don't want to offend any manufacturers to their reviews aren't much different from the ads. Stu tells it from the point of view of a guy who has not only done it, but included it in a DVD that comes with the book.The tone of the book is light and conversational. At the beginning of the chapter on lighting he says, "You may have noticed a giant ball of burning gas hovering in the sky. This thing is handy for so many reasons." I like the irreverence.The DVD - Has spreadsheet tools for variety of useful tasks like frame rate conversions, AOV finder, overcrank calculator. His own short film is included - plus commentary. Real After Effects projects, some set up for you to simply drop in your own footage. The After Effects projects alone are worth the price of the book! I've used AE quite a bit, and if you haven't you might find it a little intimidating. Fortunately Stu provides step-by-step instructions with screen captures if you want to try it out.There's a whole camera chapter as a PDF on the DVD as well, presumably because this is the fastest changing part of the DV world. Throughout the book Stu provides a steady list of examples of well known movie scenes, techniques, and reference along with their DVD chapters. I wish copyright laws would allow him to include some of those examples on his DVD.I'm often disappointed by these kind of how-to books, but this one was a wonderful surprise. Even the physical design of the book is well thought out. The rounded edges and small size make this perfect for tossing in a camera or laptop bag.

I don't plan on making any low-budget action epics, but this book is a delight anyway. Stu Maschwitz knows his business, writes well and has a highly developed sense of humor. As a bonus, he also provides a list of most of the best action movies made over the past several decades.Be forwarned: if you intend to make full use of the numerous examples in the book and on the accompanying DVD, you will need a copy of Adobe After Effects.Even though I don't intend to be making any action movies, I really appreciated Maschwitz's insights into how to make such movies on low budgets. There's lots of insights into movie making in general in this book and the knowledge can't help but make you a better videographer even if all you shoot are your kids and family picnics.His dissection of classic action sequences from films like "La Femme Nikita" are more than worth the price of the book.For the serious hobby videographer, the chapters on color and color correction are also very worthwhile.Overall, an excellent book for anyone interested in video in general, making low-budget action movies or simply gaining a greater appreciation of what goes into making a good action movie. A lot of fun between two covers.Jerry