The Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide: A Down & Dirty DV Production
by Anthony Q. Artis
from Focal Press
So you want to make a documentary, but think you don't have a lot of time, money, or experience? It's time to get down and dirty! Down and dirty is a filmmaking mindset. It's the mentality that forces you to be creative with your resources. It's about doing more with less. Get started NOW with this book and DVD set, a one-stop shop written by a guerrilla filmmaker, for guerrilla filmmakers. You will learn how to make your project better, faster, and cheaper. The pages are crammed with 500 full-color pictures, tips from the pros, resources, checklists and charts, making it easy to find what you need fast.
The DVD includes:
* Video and audio tutorials, useful forms, and interviews with leading documentary filmmakers like Albert Maysles (Grey Gardens), Sam Pollard (4 Little Girls), and others
* 50+ Crazy Phat Bonus pages with jump start charts, online resources, releases, storyboards, checklists, equipment guides, and shooting procedures
Here's just a small sampling of what's inside the book:
* Putting together a crew
* Choosing a camera
* New HDV and 24P cameras
* Shooting in rough neighborhoods
* Interview skills and techniques
* 10 ways to lower your budget
* Common production forms
* Pull off your vision in creative and cost-effective ways
* Bonus DVD with video and audio tutorials, interviews, bonus pages with forms and checklists, and more
* 500+ full color illustrations: this book shows you, not tells you
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
by Neil Postman
from Penguin (Non-Classics)
Originally published in 1985, Neil Postman's groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. Now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic mediafrom the Internet to cell phones to DVDsit has taken on even greater significance. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining controlof our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.
The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction
by Steve Hullfish
from Focal Press
Provides direct access to the skills, insights and techniques of some of the postproduction industry's most prominent digital video colorists, delivering practical skills to the postproduction pro seeking to improve their color grading craft. The author interviews and observes 8 professional colorists as they grade a series of real world video images, describing the methods and techniques each artist uses to reach their finalized image. These video images are included on a DVD that allows you to work lockstep with each artist as they grade their images.
Though some tools provided may differ from one product to the next, the basic process of video color correction (grading) remains the same. Application agnostic and sure to inspire, The Art of Digital Video Color Correction will further your artistic skills, whether you're an editor, compositor, or colorist, and allow you to apply those skills to the grading process, making your finished image sharper, crisper and more aesthetically pleasing in general.
* Digital video color correction tips and techniques from the pros grading the films, shows and commercials we all see everyday, thus advancing the artistic coloring skills of the reader
* Is non-software specific, with lessons that are applicable to any postproduction workflow
* DVD includes samples of the same video images that the colorists featured in the book were working on, providing direct access to the techniques and process of professional grading
Apple Pro Training Series: DVD Studio Pro 4 (2nd Edition) (Apple Pro Training Series)
by Martin Sitter
from Peachpit Press
Now the best-selling book on DVD Studio Pro is even better. Updated for DVD Studio Pro 4.2, this Apple-certified book uses striking, real-world footage (including the HD documentary One-Six-Right) to build four complete DVDs. This revised edition covers integration with Final Cut Pro 6, Motion 3, and Compressor 3, as well as the new SD-to-HD workflow. Each chapter presents a lesson in an aspect of DVD creation and finishing, with hands-on projects for you to complete as you go. After learning how to storyboard your DVD and plan its interactions, you’ll set chapter markers, create stories, build still and motion menus, and add overlays and subtitles. You’ll also learn to work with multiple audio tracks and camera angles, create smart buttons and custom transitions, professionally encode audio and video files, and create useful scripts.
Master Handbook of Acoustics
by F. Alton Everest
from McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics
The goal of this book is to apply the principles of acoustics to the audio arts. This involves serving as an interpreter of major trends and the literature for students and practitioners in the audio field. Along with covering the more theoretical aspects of acoustics, the book applies the theory to the design of specialized audio spaces such as the home listening room, the control room, and the multi-track-recording studio.
Video Basics
by Herbert Zettl
from Wadsworth Publishing
Herbert Zettl draws on his expertise and field experience to bring you the new edition of VIDEO BASICS, the handiest and most authoritative, current, and technically accurate student guide to video production. Meeting the need for a briefer book, this text distills comprehensive video instruction so that it can be covered in a single semester. The book moves students from video concepts and processes to production tools and techniques, and finally, to the production environment (studio and field, inside and outside) and its effects. A more conceptual framework leads the student from the idea (what to create) to the image (how to create) on video.
Producing Video Podcasts: A Guide for Media Professionals
by Richard Harrington
from Focal Press
Put the video podcast medium to work for you and your clients with a winning formula. Know how video podcasts work and every facet of what it takes to produce a professional-quality program that will meet every criterion for success. The authors are seasoned video production pros that have been on the crest of the video podcasting wave as it has risen. With over 2500 episodes produced, they can reveal what works and what doesnt with detailed, illustrated guidance. You get the nuts and bolts of the complete process, including:
* Preproduction: budgeting guidelines, mapping your production, and working with talent
* Production: the ENG shooting style, lighting values and portability, sound, essential camera features, acquisition formats, and gear lists
* Postproduction: resources for adding music and images, motion graphics, and editing techniques
* Delivery: cost-effective hosting options, creating RSS feeds, compression, and hosting processes
* Promotion: choosing directories, promoting your program, and monetizing your podcast
Instruction and case studies go in-depth on issues unique to the podcast medium. A full-color presentation delivers tangible, inspiring examples of creative video podcasts. The companion websitewww.VidPodcaster.comprovides a blog, templates, planning documents, sample clips, and state-of-the-art updates.
* Written by video experts for video experts
* Artist profiles and case studies demonstrate creative implementations
* Companion web site provides template planning documents, sample clips and state-of-the-art updates
This Business of Television
by Howard J. Blumenthal
from Billboard Books
Practical and comprehensivethe only book of its kind Revised edition focuses on the changing world market for television
Broad in scope and rich in detail, This Business of Television has been the essential sourcebook for producers, writers, broadcasters, network executives, and other television professionals since the first edition was published in 1991. And as the television business continues to evolve This Business of Television evolves along with it. This comprehensive guide to the legal, economic, and production aspects of the industry has been completely revised and restructured to reflect the rapid changes in television today, both domestically and internationally, A user's guide to television contracts, plus directories of associations, governmental agencies, and producers and distributors, make this book an invaluable resource for anyone involved withor simply interested inthe business of television.
Lighting for Digital Video & Television, Second Edition
by John Jackman
from CMP Books
Digital video students and enthusiasts must learn lighting fundamentals and techniques to enhance the visual quality of their work. Moreover, since lighting specifications for digital video differ significantly from those for analog video or film, professional videographers and cinematographers must learn how to adapt their lighting skills for this new digital medium to ensure that the final product meets broadcast standards.
This complete course in digital video and television lighting begins with how the human eye and the camera process light and color, progresses through the basics of equipment and setups, and culminates with practical lessons on how to solve common problems. It features clear illustrations and real-world examples that demonstrate proper equipment use, safety issues, and staging techniques. Detailed diagrams, figures, and photos illustrate techniques that enable novices to complete basic lighting setups. This new edition also features a 16-page color insert and new chapters on interview setups and lighting for low budgets.
Get a complete course in video and television lighting from a seasoned pro. Detailed illustrations and real-world examples demonstrate proper equipment use, safety issues, troubleshooting, and staging techniques. This new edition features an 8-page 4-color insert and new chapters on interview setups, as well as low-budget lighting set-ups.
Digital Video For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
by Keith Underdahl
from For Dummies
So you have a camcorder and visions of being the next Spielberg. But how do you progress from shooting so-so footage to showing your own finished movie? Digital Video For Dummies, 4th Edition gives you the know-how and the show-how! Find out how to shoot and edit great movies, using iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, or Adobe Premiere Elements to add the finishing touches like special effects and your own soundtrack. With the latest information and lots of illustrations and screen shots, this friendly guide walks you through:
- Getting your computer ready to work with digital video (complete with information about FireWire)
- Choosing a camcorder, including features to look for and features that are useless
- Digitizing old VHS videotapes to preserve memories
- Purchasing other movie making gear, including audio and lighting equipment
- Shooting better video, with tips on lighting, panning, using the zoom, and recording better audio
- Creating your own sound effects such as footsteps, bones breaking, fire, thunder, insects buzzing, and more
- Capturing digital video using iMovie, Windows Movie Marker, or Premiere Elements
- Editing, including understanding timecode, organizing and previewing clips, and assembling clips in Storyboard and Timeline
- Adding transitions, titles, and special effects
- Importing and integrating video from phones and digital cameras
- Using audio rubberbands in iMovie, Premiere Elements, and other editing programs
- Adding narration, importing and working with CD audio, and adding a music soundtrack
Keith Underdahl has extensive professional video production experience developing kiosk and marketing videos for Ages Software. Realizing that you’ll want to polish and premiere your movie, he includes information on:
- More advanced video editing, including animating video clips, improving light and color, compositing video (bluescreen or greenscreen), and more
- 13 categories of video effects, ranging from blur and sharpen to transform
- Working with still photos and graphics
- Sharing your video online using QuickTime (/QT), RealMedia (.RM), or Windows Media Video (.WMV)
- Making tapes or burning DVDs in 9 steps
With a handy cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts, a chart comparing 10 video editing programs, a glossary, and more, with this guide you’ll soon be saying “Lights, camera, action” and producing your own movie attraction.
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