Microsoft Silverlight Books

A Total SCORE if You Are New to Video Filming/Editing: Perfect!

This book scores on so many levels I can't recommend it enough for beginners. As somebody who bought their first camcorder and will be making shorts which will involve editing software, I needed a 101 overview.

And boy, did this ever fit the bill. Written in a breezy, easy-to-understand style, the book first deals with what you should look for in equipment. It then moves into basic filming techniques but most importantly, the beginner mistakes that are all too common (bad lighting, zooming in during a shot, etc.). Even though I have a basic knowledge of film making, I found these tips extremely helpful.

But what really makes this book worth every cent is that it is basically a user's guide for iMovie, Windows Movie Maker and Adobe Premiere. If you're new to editing, you're probably going to start with the super-basic Movie Maker or iMovie, and somewhere down the line move up to the more advanced Adobe.

For every editing step it shows how this is done in each respective program--a virtual user's guide, complete with tips and enhancements.

It also covers advanced editing tricks, adding audio, lighting tricks, you name it.

If you want a primer for beginners, this couldn't be more perfect. It was so interesting and easily readable I read the entire book in one day.

Anthony Ian
21 October, 2009

Reviewed by a rank amateur

I have my first digital video camera and, for the first time, the option to edit my long and boring captures. While I am very experienced at editing digital photos, this is an entirely new field for me. It seems to me that this "for dummies" version is still too advanced for me. I need one "for complete morons", apparently. This is a reflection on me, not on the book, which seems to be very thorough.

It goes into more detail than I need. I don't capture video with my phone; I don't have capture problems; the odds of my ever needing nightvision videos are nil; I'm not sure I need to know what the NTSC standards are, and on and on.

All I really wanted was a step-by-step way to:
*use the software that came with my camera to cut out unnecessary areas and restitch the remainter;
*suggestions on how to make a video capture flow, more or less seamlessly, despite the editing;
*ditto with the soundtrack;
*an overview of easy video editing programs that I can upgrade to if I should ever outgrow my camera's software (which doesn't look likely right now.)
*workflow suggestions as to how to backup and preserve video (I don't have that much faith that DVD's are still going to be in use a decade from now), so I wanted a general overview of options and suggestions.


I got the first four. It was a bit more technical than I wanted, but that may be because I didn't realize the full software/hardware implications, let alone the standards, frame rates, aspect ratios, interlacing, capture cards, or video converters issues--and I've still purposefully avoided the "advanced video editing" chapter. It seems to me that people, not too much brighter than I and with similarly-equipped home computers, have managed to edit their videos w/o knowing all this. Actually, ignorance is bliss sometimes and I'm not sure I want to know. (But if YOU want to know it, it's all here).

The issue of archiving and preserving video is not addressed. The author does suggest external hard drives as a way to save space on the internal ones. Maybe we have to endlessly keep updating our captures (super 8 to vhs; vhs to dvd; dvd to ??). I was hoping that some specific strategy to make the process easier and foolproof. It probably isn't fair for me to expect to have this issue addressed in a "for dummies" book, but preserving these memories going forward is the primary reason I shoot movies, and I'd like to think that there is someway that I can ensure that today's babies will be able to see their movies 30 or 40 years from now.



tachi1
27 September, 2009

A 'must have' for those new to digital video

If you're thinking about buying your first digital video camcorder or up-grading, or you're want to learn how to edit video using your computer then this is a great book. The author does a great job explaining technical things that go along with digital camcorders and making movies. You really need to understand how digital video works in order to be able to make terrific movies and how to work with your camcorder and computer software. Even though this is a 4th edition (2006) it has some information about Blue-Ray and lots about High Definition (HD) which is a big step up from analog video and standard difinition video. After you read this book, and apply many of the techniques, you'll be able to make much better videos than before.

D. Sanders
11 December, 2008

It really is for dummies.

This book is good if you're an absolute beginner, but I was hoping for alot more info. It mainly teaches you how to use Windows moviemaker.

Big Montanna
10 November, 2008

This Dummies book really is only for staying dumb

I found this book really did not provide much technical detail at all and was very disappointing. If you have even a basic knowledge of simple home electronics then you, like me, may be really unhappy with this. Of course, the title says it's "For Dummies" so I guess I should have payed attention to the warning, but instead I wasted my money.

rolly
06 August, 2008