DV Filmmaking

From Start to Finish

By Ian David Aronson
January 2006
Pages: 310
ISBN 10: 0-596-00848-1 | ISBN 13: 9780596008482
(4) (Average of 1 Customer Reviews)

Description

Written in an engaging, accessible style, DV Filmmaking provides a solid foundation of tremendous value to a beginner, while addressing the fine points of filmmaking with a level of sophistication, detail, and insight that even the most worldly director or educator can appreciate. The author draws upon his years of experience teaching at the college and graduate level, his extensive professional background as a media producer, and his unmistakable love of cinema to create a text that's not only easy to learn from, but also fun to read.
Full Description

Thanks to the digital revolution, film artists now have a spectacular array of powerful, new, inexpensive tools for creative expression through digital film. The once powerful studios can no longer stifle an artist's creativity. With the power of the Internet, film artists are finding once unimaginable ways to distribute their creations worldwide.

DV Filmmaking: From Start to Finish covers all aspects of the new digital video frontier, for amateurs and professionals alike--from the nuts and bolts of timecode and aspect ratio; to framing, lighting, and sound recording; as well as editing, special effects creation, and distribution.

The book is written for filmmakers at varying experience levels--taking an integrated approach to media production, and emphasizing the ways different aspects of the process work together to create a vital work of digital art:

Hands-on detailed examination of the artistic aspects of film and video production
Extensive examples use comprehensive step-by-step exercises for advanced editing techniques
Scenes from successful films illustrate techniques used by professionals
Includes a collection of professionally shot video clips, so the user can read and follow along with sets of structured exercises
Develops a highly refined repertoire of advanced skills in editing, effects creation, title design, and more
Inspires advanced readers to work with the included clips on their own and experiment with new ideas
Written for both Mac and PC users and covers advanced uses of both Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects

Featured customer reviews

DV Filmmaking From Start to Finish, August 16 2008
Submitted by xseedman [Respond | View]

A book review by George Hawkins,
Computer Operators of Marysville and Port Huron

By Ian David Aronson from O’Reilly Digital Studio $39.95 USD.

This book was more than I expected. Like its title indicated, it provides a comprehensive look at the process of Digital Filmmaking.
I was really looking for a book that provided information about the process of making videos, but this made me aware that filmmaking as more than just shooting and editing videos. Filmmaking is a process of planning, production, post-production activities, and distributing the finished product. This book addresses all of those areas in a straight forward and understandable manner.
An introduction to digital video, and the specifics of digital cinematography, provides a good foundation for understanding the other aspects of digital filmmaking discussed in the book. By addressing subjects like composition, lighting, audio and video editing it provided information in areas of most interest to me.
Examples used in the book included professional and semi-professional equipment, but it was easy to make comparisons to the equipment that I use to understand the principles involved. For example, with video editing, Final Cut Pro was used to illustrate techniques. This program is a high end video editor that is just below the types of editors used by major film studios and production companies.
I find this book to be very informative and will be a good reference for future use when I will need to supplement my knowledge and upgrade my digital video skills. I recommend it for anyone that might be interested in using video clips and still images for more than just sharing with friends and associates.

Excellent Introduction to DV production, November 26 2007

Rating:

Submitted by Anonymous Reader [Respond | View]

I found this book very easy and enjoyable to read. The author is very thorough and the example material is just enough to get you going. I highly suggest this book for anyone looking for a DV production primer.

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Media reviews
"This book doesn't just show you how to be a filmmaker, it lets you follow along with sample projects on the included CD...I was most impressed with the examples in the book, which illustrate many of the concepts with a sample movie project (which can be found on the accompanying CD-ROM), or discuss how a familiar movie utilized the concept (e.g. color matching in Open Water). These types of illustrations really make the filmmaking concepts come alive. "
-- Mike George, Amazon.com

"Written in an engaging, accessible style, DV Filmmaking provides a solid foundation of tremendous value to a beginner, while addressing the fine points of filmmaking with a level of sophistication, detail, and insight that even the most worldly director or educator can appreciate."
-- Mack Hossack, PC Community News

"This book is strong on practical hands-on advice for filmmaking using digital technologies. I like that it covers a number of postproduction tools...For its practical hands-on approach it will be part of my recommended reading list."
-- John O'Mullane, University College Cork, Ireland

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