Customer Reviews

50 Fast Digital Video Techniques (50 Fast Techniques Series)

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

 

 

I've got to admit that although I'm intrigued with digital video, I'm just a novice and find the whole video editing process a little intimidating. This book helped me over the hump: I found it to be a great resource for helping me create some cool effects by simply following the step-by-step instructions -- and there are certainly plenty of effects to choose from here. An added bonus is the included CD-ROM, which allowed me to preview each effect before I tried it with my own footage. I would definitely recommend this book.

This book starts with the basics. If you've never loaded a movie into your computer (like me) then the authors walk you through those steps. I found it to be a great help. I had never used Movie Maker before and was able to get into it pretty easily. You may need to get a book for iMovie or Movie Maker if you are new to these types of apps (doesn't teach these programs). But I was able to pick it up pretty easily.

This book is a cookbook of digital video recipes; you can skip around the book and choose the effect you want to achieve. The steps are thoroughly explained and easily performed. There are a bunch of creative suggestions sprinkled throughout the book. There are movies samples provided for your use for both iMovie and Movie Maker!

So you are probably wondering what types of effects you can achieve. A few of my favorites include:

Dealing with adverse lighting

Glamour shots

Sporting events

Vintage slapstick

Sound narrating

Rolling credits

The projects are fun and very well written. If you want to learn some new techniques to spice up your home movies then this book is for you. There are directions for exporting for use on DVD, CD-ROM or for the internet.

The CD has a ton of useful tools such as sound files, sample clips for all 50 projects, demo software.

This book doesn't tell you when to use different effects, transitions, etc, but just how to physically do them in Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. Like literally how to do a wipe or a fade. The cd that comes with it is also really bad and you'll find yourself either laughing at it or bored out of your mind. This book isn't worth the money unless you're someone who's barely ever used computers and needs to know that you much drag and drop an effect to get it to work.