Pocket Posh Guide to Great Home Video: Ready, Steady, Shoot [Paperback]

Roger Sherman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 7, 2012 | ISBN-10: 1449408702 | ISBN-13: 978-1449408701 | Edition: Original

Pocket Posh Guide to Great Home Video: Ready, Steady, Shoot is an upbeat, easy-to-follow book by an award-winning filmmaker that will help you make home movies other people actually want to watch! Make better videos of your vacations, kids' sports, family events, a night out with friends. No matter what you shoot with--smartphone, digital still camera, or a camcorder--this book will teach you basic techniques.

Sherman's easy learning system, called The 10-Shot Video, short exercises to shoot and learn from in just a few minutes, will get you shooting great home video.

"People ask me all the time for tips on shooting their home movies and family histories. Finally, I have the answer: Pocket Posh Guide to Great Home Video: Ready, Steady, Shoot. This book has it all." --Ken Burns, filmmaker

"At a time when everyone has the latest gadgets, but nobody really knows what to do with them, Roger Sherman's Pocket Posh Guide to Great Home Video: Ready, Steady, Shoot is a practical and inspiring blueprint to making the ultimate home videos." --Nina Wildorf, editor-in-chief of Budget Travel

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Roger Sherman is a producer, director, cinematographer, and still photographer. His documentaries have been honored with a host of accolades, including a Peabody Award, an Emmy Award, and two Academy Award nominations. His subjects include art, history, science, social and environmental issues, and nature. He co-founded Florentine Films with Ken Burns and Buddy Squires.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing; Original edition (February 7, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1449408702
• ISBN-13: 978-1449408701
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 4.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #837,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roger Sherman is the author of Ready Steady Shoot: The Pocket Posh Guide To Great Home Video, an upbeat, easy-to-follow book aimed at helping millions of people learn basic techniques to make better home movies. In it Sherman offers an easy learning system called the "10 Shot Video," short exercises to shoot and learn from in just a few minutes. Visit www.ReadySteadyShoot.com to learn more.

Roger founded Florentine Films with Ken Burns; he is a producer, director, cinematographer, still photographer, and writer. Roger has conducted workshops on a variety of topics and spoken to many groups including The 92nd Street Y (a sold out crowd of 900 during one of last winter's snow storms), the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, Hampshire College, and the Culinary Institute of America.

His films have won an Emmy, a Peabody and two Academy Award nominations. About his film Medal of Honor, Linda Stasi wrote in The New York Post, "An astounding array of stories about an unbelievable collection of unexpected heroes. This special is so awe-inspiring." Charlie Rose called Alexander Calder "an American masterpiece." And, Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds is "Perhaps the best film ever produced in the American Masters PBS series."

Roger's photography has appeared in Town & Country, Saveur, Budget Travel, Garden Design, and Newsweek. You can also find his pictures in The Brisket Book by Stephanie Pierson, which was recently released.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hit them with your best shot? This guide shows you how to fire away March 2, 2012

By Jesse Kornbluth TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

I am aware of my deficiencies as a videographer --- just as I am aware of those terrible videos that unembarrassed concertgoers slap up on YouTube. You know the ones I mean: shaky and zoomy.

I would like to do better than that. I was about to ask the child --- our resident IT department --- what she charges for an hour's instruction. But then Roger Sherman produced a 113-page, pocket-sized book --- "The Pocket Posh Guide To Great Home Video" --- that costs less than a live tutorial from our mercenary offspring.

I knew of Roger Sherman before I met him; his awards and nominations are that memorable. Now I've seen a few of his documentaries, and I see why he's so highly regarded --- his films are, shot for shot, just plain good.

And so is his guide to better video.

What Roger Sherman has done in these pages is conduct a kindergarten class. (Don't feel patronized --- remember: everything you need to know, you learn in kindergarten.) And these basics read as much like guides to life as to video.

"The world is not just in the center of the frame."

"Hold longer --- it's not over when it's over."

"Zooming is death."

"Don't follow the ball."

But mostly: Don't shoot and shoot, with the idea that you'll edit in the camera or on your computer. You won't. It's much better to plan. Think. Prepare. And then, without frills and cool moves, capture the scene.

What about all that firepower in your hand? It's a trap. Simple is best. Which translates to: "Static shots are winners."

Semi-advanced stuff? That's another book. This one tells you how to shoot your kid's recital. Make a wedding video.

But mostly, Sherman's focus is on helping you avoid the standard mistakes of amateurs.

Here, for example, is his advice on keeping the camera steady:

"Always set the frame full wide -- no zooming. Hold your camera, even a smartphone, with two hands. Hold the camera with a relaxed grip and body position: knees slightly bent, back straight, legs about shoulder wide. If my feet are too close together, I can't hold a shot steady. Too wide apart and my thighs will start to burn and then my hands will shake. If you're leaning over, if you're so tense that your shoulders are pressed up against your neck, the shot will shake.

"As I push RECORD, I exhale slowly, longer than normal. It steadies my hand, which steadies the camera and reminds me to slow down. Gently press the record button to begin and end the recording. I notice some people push down hard, with a jerk. This will cause the camera to bounce, which will show up on screen. The last thing you want is to have every shot end with a bump.

"If you're shooting with the iPhone 4S (or 4 with software upgrade), you can start and stop recording by pressing the volume button. This is better than tapping the screen, which can also cause your shot to bump. However, the lens is dangerously close to the top left of the phone. I have to be extra careful not to get my finger in the shot."

I'm a book guy. And I appreciate that this one is only slightly larger than an iPhone. But I have the feeling that for those who want to make decent videos, the Kindle edition could be a godsend.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for anybody with a camera March 7, 2012

By Thomas McNamee

Format:Paperback

If you own a video camera, or a camera with video capability, or a smartphone, you need this book. Sherman shows in a few simple lessons that any of us--even the klutziest--can make videos that won't bore our friends and families to death. I never imagined that I could do it, but I can now produce a genuinely presentable video--short, non-shaky, in-focus, coherent, and fun to watch--thanks to READY, STEADY, SHOOT.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Bore No More March 7, 2012

By Miles Chapin

Format:Paperback

It's not often that you can give the perfect gift; one which combines a thoughtful understanding, a practical leg up, and a slap upside the head. Remember last year at your Cousin Ferd's house, the evening they made you sit through that interminable video of their cat's bath/child's graduation/grandchild's school play/Caribbean vacation, etc, etc, etc? Well, this book is the perfect gift for those people. Sherman has done a remarkable job of simplifying what it is that makes a good video, and how to tell a story in pictures. And he should know, because he's told us many stories over a long and distinguished career as a documentary filmmaker, as part of an illustrious cohort of Hampshire College students who basically re-invented the documentary film for our time and our marketplace. This remarkable group has won more Emmys, Oscars, and other awards you haven't heard of than you can imagine, and the thing that really separates them from the pack is their flexibility, and the ease with which they wear various hats while working on one another's projects - as Cinematographer, Director, Sound Guy, Producer, Editor, and so on. This is all to the good because in order to make an interesting video or short film it's not so much about how you point and shoot the camera (although that's part of it) as how you tell a story. So the person who wishes to capture a moment (with their cell phone, cam-corder, or whatever) needs to wear all those hats at once - and in order not to make their final product more soporific than Lunesta, they better know how the pros do it, in simple easy terms. And voila! That is just what Sherman has accomplished in this slim volume. And at this price? C'mon - you should buy them by the crateful and hand them out at the next family reunion.