Customer Reviews

303 Digital Filmmaking Solutions : Solve Any Video Shoot or Edit Problem in Ten Minutes or Less, for Ten Dollar or Less (Digital Video/Audio)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I don't understand why this book has the ratings of the other reviews here. It is a big disappointment. While this book has some interesting tips between the lines (that's why I give it 2 stars instead of one), it is merely a rambling of a self-important producer. The 303 "solutions" are at best 303 anecdotal stories. Take solution #96 "How to Shoot in a Boat" for example, it reads, in its entirety "I always seem to get the jobs of shooting from some kind of moving vehicle. You've read my exploits in the air and on the ground, but what about in the water? Shooting footage from a boat is a skill that someday I will master. Not wanting to delve into jet skis, Ski-Dos, or speedboats, I will be discussing motorboats and sailboats." Great solution Chuck! That really makes my filming much better. Perhaps it would be possible to cut down this book into 99 tips and solutions, but in the style its been written it would still be painful to read and extract useful information. Furthermore, the cover says, "solve any video or edit problem in 10 minutes or less". Not only is that untrue but also shows how silly this book is. The picture of a consumer DV camera also has nothing to do with the content, because Chuck uses big professional equipment throughout this book, stuff that takes more than 10 minutes to just unpack by the way. I haven't found a good book to suggest as an alternative yet, but don't waste your money on this one. Try any other.

Update january 2008: Interestingly, the publisher has changed the cover to show a semi professional camera. Did they read my review? and agreed??

Gloman's new book, "303 Digital Filmmaking Solutions", is a practical book that new digital filmmakers and veterans alike will find useful in using to solve filmmaking problems. The digital age is here and this book covers the gamut from preproduction to post production.
One of the best things Gloman did was to arrange the subjects in relatively short segments for quick reading on each solution.

Pulling from over twenty three years of experience, the author relates so many practical and low cost ways to make digial filmmaking a success for you. These little tibits and real life learning experiences that Gloman shares will save you time and money in your own productions.

You can skip reading this book and take years to learn the skills covered in "303 Digital Filmmaking Solutions", or read the book and shortcut your way to success.

This book is highly recommended.

303 ways to shoot anything basically. Such as how to shoot a birthday, how to shoot a girls birthday, how to shoot a birthday on saturday.. you get the idea..

This book is a good book for references and is not a book on making a movie per se, but it still has some valuable information that I would have never learned from my teacher at my local college. He show you a lot of different solutions for certain situations which is really good, but a lot of the solutions have to do with lighting which is good but at the same time it leaves you wanting more of the non-lighting solutions. But what really caused me to give this book a four-star is that all his solutions are examples of his past jobs, which is the principle reason to make this book and is a good thing(to learn from his experiences) but, he digresses from the teaching of the solution to further educate you on irrelevant info. He also has a humorous approach to the solutions which was really a plus. Overall this book is good as a reference if you can get past the irrelevant stuff, but other than that, like I said, it is a good book.

This book is designed for both the seasoned vet and newbie alike, looking to learn quick and effective solutions to making great pictures. I particularly like the way the author creatively uses humor in his lessons, making this book a fun way to explore new avenues for video productions. This fast became a valuble asset to our collection of "how to" books. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys this profession and is serious about videography.

I initially saw this book on Amazon and saw that people recommended the book "DV Filmmaking From Start to Finish" by Ian David Aronson. Well, I purchased that book and still haven't read it through. I have, however, just finished reading 303 Filmmaking Solutions which I found much more interesting.

It's true that not all of the "solutions" are actually solutions, but that aside, it's very interesting to read the various obstacles that the author comes across and his method for overcoming them. That alone is worthwhile knowledge to have, regardless of whether your situations are similar or completely different. At least you come away from the book with some ideas for solutions.

I found the book did bog down a bit in the lighting section. While it was all worthwhile knowledge, I think the lighting section could've been more dispersed throughout the book, rather than in one long section (if you intend to read the book from cover to cover).

The only other issue is the author's sense of humour made me cringe the whole way through. There were about 4 remarks I found funny, the rest were painful. An excerpt:

"Therefore a video frame is made up of odd and even fields (no relation to Sally Fields)"

Aside from that, I'd certainly recommend the book to upcoming filmmakers.

303 Digital Filmmaking Solutions has great insight, wit and humor. The author shares a wealth of experience through an easy to access manual that will both educate and entertain. No matter what your niche or experience level this book will surely shed some light on any production obstacles you may face.

This book gets one star because it does have some useful practical tips. T. Leitner's review has already said much of what I wanted to say in regards to this bloated work. As mentioned, its full of anecdotes that serve as filler rather than helpful information. What's worse is that its not even entertaining prose but nonsense like this, on working with models, "This woman was God's gift to earth. She had the kind of beauty that few have been blessed with, and when you looked up beautiful in the dictionary, her picture was there. And to make matters even more uncomfortable, she was wearing some exotic perfume that would turn a mortal's brains into dust."
This book does not live up to its promises. Patrick Sherman's review was also right on.

I've enjoyed this book mainly because of the way that readers can quickly find advice about common concerns on a wide variety of video topics. The author speaks authoritatively and uses events from his work as examples. However, these examples sometimes are so specific to the author's experience that they seem very narrow and difficult to reproduce. Yes, I'm a novice, a rank amateur trying to learn more. So I don't know all the terms that the author uses about lighting equipment, for example. And the author doesn't bother to define some items. Thus, the book is of limited use to the novice videographer. Finally, the title is a bit of a cheat. The initial paragraphs for each chapter are labeled as "solutions," but they are really just introductions. Gimmicks like that make me question the book's credibilty. Still, I've enjoyed the book and benefited from its advice. It's always nice to learn from the pros.

This Book is GREAT and Very practical reference book for any videomaker. Have a question or problem, large or small, just look it up, the answer is bound to be in there! One of the solutions I used, I never realised how easy it is to get a shooting permit in NYC.