Customer Reviews

Extreme DV at Used-Car Prices: How to Write, Direct, Shoot, Edit, and Produce a Digital Video Feature for LessThan $3,000

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I read and re-read Rick Schmidt's earlier "Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices" book, and it always gave me a charge and inspiration when I needed it. His new book is cut from the same cloth, with 21st-Century technologies grafted to big ideas. Great for the aspiring filmmaker who just needs to know that all things are possible.

If it wasn't for this book, I don't think I would have ever worked up the courage to produce my first feature film. That was some years ago. Since that time, I moved to LA, produced several features and also had the opportunity to interview Rick on my filmmaking website. He is just as passionate in real life as he is in his writing. He wants filmmakers to push forward, stop asking permission, grab a camera and start making movies!

And thanks to Rick, I agree!

Jason Brubaker
[...]
Brubaker Unlimited LLC
Los Angeles, California

This book is ok, but it's biggest flaw is how dated it is. In the world of videography and computer editing the technology moves forward so fast this book can't help but be dated. There were some juicy tips for the independent moviemaker in there though. I recommend borrowing it or checking it out at a library.

Those who've read this and/or previous editions, frequently complain that there is little substantive "how-to" information in the books and that they are simply vehicles for the author's advancing his own aesthetic.

Rick and his many iterations of this book were meant to inspire as much as inform. With the DV revolution, Rick was forced to rewrite this book many times in just a few years, to keep current. Surely anyone whose dabbled at all in film or video the last 5-7 years is bound to be seasick from the many dizzying changes that have occurred in the field.

These tomes are more about getting off the couch and making your dream a reality, rather than a step by step recipe. Rick gives lots of good time and money saving advice and while it's easy to throw rocks at someone who's "never made a film of note", those who are so quick to criticize should take a look at their own lives and be honest about what THEY have produced. Rick has made a nice living for himself producing and consulting on independent works and I admire his tenacity and his refusal to sell out to the corporate mentality.

I have had the pleasure of meeting him and working personally along side him and attending some of his seminars. He is knowledgeable, experienced and "street-wise" to the ways of guerilla feature film production.

It's easy for the rich, elitists to go to NYU or UCLA and study film. What's hard is for the average, middle-class person to break into the field. Books like this one and Rodriguez' Rebel Without A Crew, are always going to meet with skepticism from the "formally trained". Yet year in and year out, Sundance, SXSW, Dallas Video Festival and countless other film festivals are full of incredible works produced by artists who've never darkened the door of a film class.

DV, DVD and now the newer Media card-based camcorders, along with bundled editing software on most newer computers, has enabled a new generation of filmmakers to realize their visions. Extreme DV At Used Car Prices is a great companion book to anyone who has ever dreamed of writing and directing their own feature film.

Thanks, Rick!

This book is a good intro to those seeking to make a DV film at a "used car" price. It has a chapter on everything from planning, shooting and marketing plus some of the author's experiences in each. The bad aspect of the book is that each section is very short. The chapters only basically touch on subjects. In addition, the movie is weak in the area of planning non-documentaries (i.e., very litte discussion of script - author's advice is just go out and shoot). In addition, the book is geared to the cheapest production values. For example, he spends a lot of time discussing the use of a TRV10 (a digital 8 camera!!) and the $60.00 on camera amateur mike that can be purchased for it. Little discussion is given of using even a slightly more advanced camera such as a Canon XL-1. If you are going to spend a few weeks of your life on a project does it not make sense to spend another grand and use decent equipment?

Despite these weaknesses book gives good (albiet very rudimentary) intro to most phases to indie filmaking. For somebody starting out fine. For someone who is beyond the beginner level the book will not provide much of use.

Rick Schmidt writes FAR more than mere books on making movies. When you feel the words on the page speaking to your being on as many levels as this man communicates on, you are being re-arranged. Ricks writings are a real world example of how The Force works through us. You will have the opportunity to take advantage of the intense focus of passion and energy that surrounded this man as these words traveled from the abstract infinite into solid order before you on the printed page, and it is much like finding an oasis.
I ordered Extreme DV expecting largely a re-hash of his first work, Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices. Maybe Ray Carney's Open Letter to the Next Generation of American Filmmakers and the chapters about digital video fleshed out with more modern equipment mentioned, and certainly some all new material. I had no idea how off I'd be! To begin with, Ricks decision to open his books with a Ray Carney forward was one of the most profoundly fitting ways to live up to his ideologies of collaboration essential to efficiently allowing things to become their best. This new book gives us Mr. Carney's The Path Of The Artist, equally as worth our while as the aforementioned Open Letter. Worth the price of the book by itself, even if you have read it on Ray's website!
But the main meat of Extreme DV is worth more than the budget and gross of the movie Titanic. Invaluable is Ricks recounting making three of his workshop collaborative features, each one giving you new angles and aspects. Through his placing you into the positions he was in, you can feel yourself facing your own future navigations and he gives you the method of finding your own confidence in your ability to make these things happen for yourself
He does provide you with all of the technical basics you will need to actually carry out your own operations, but he knows where to stop when it is either unnecessary to know, or more properly found in books devoted almost entirely to the technical end, such as The Filmmakers Handbook. He will tell you about selecting a camera with the most essential features and qualities, setting yourself up with an adequate computer editing system, and even the basics of how to use the software (though I do wish he would have covered Vegas for PC, which is awesome beyond description!).
But for me, the most wonderful and surprising chapter is number 10....DV Vagabonds: Shooting By Van! I will not discuss this chapter any further. It is just too personal and intimate for me to detail. Even if you feel there is no chance that you will literally follow the path in this type of manner, there is much essence to be communicated within.
The Guerilla Promotion chapter will give you a true feel for the type of thinking you will need to be generating to get yourself and your art properly spread, and the VangoghsDV chapter will help keep you from straying too far into cliché with your art. It will encourage you to find that what makes you and your art truly unique, which if there is any common thread to Ricks passion, it is the celebration of uniqueness. I would suggest picking up both of Mr. Schmidt's very unique books...your soul will thank you.

Don't judge this book on the typing errors (they are not noticeable anyway), but on the content. Rick has been very successful in independent film, but is a much better teacher than a filmmaker. As a filmmaker myself, this book along with Rick's original one on feature filmmaking, has inspired and taught me more than any other book on the subject. In the new era of digital and HD filmmaking, this book will breif you on everything you need to know. Great advice lines the pages and motivation to make a movie is the least you'll take away from reading even just a chapter. Buy this book because even if you breifly thought about making a movie then Rick can get you started.

Ya ever think - I'd like to make a movie - but then stopped right there 'cause the reality (so you think) is that putting something like that together is just too hard? Pick up Extreme DV, ya goof. It doesn't have to be that difficult. You could get your cinematic vision in the can without the unpleasantness of ulcers and spousal abandonment. Take a look. And don't be afraid.

I was excited about this book but then when I got it and read the first few pages, I was disappointed, big time.

The author is, I think, some liberal arts professor who goes on and on about how to make a movie in less than 19 days. He recommends all sorts of off-the-cuff methods, like not using a script.

OK, dude, people have been making movies like that for decades -- they're called home movies. And guess what -- no one but the person who filmed it likes home movies.

He gives lots of outdated advice like how to share your movie on "low cost" file sharing servers that just point back to your home computer and eat up your bandwidth allowance from your ISP in no time flat. He goes on and on about how great Apple is...buy an Apple...buy an Apple...buy the $1,000 Adobe editing suite...wow, this is becoming one expensive used car!

Dont buy this, its just his own personal experiences of making horrible sounding DV film. He gives bad advice, and sugguests not using a script. As said before, look at who is giving you advice before you take it. If you really want this book buy a used copy.