Real World Digital Video [Paperback]

Pete Shaner (Author), Gerald Everett Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 20, 2002

Real World Digital Video covers the latest technology-and techniques-in every phase of video production, delivering industrial-strength techniques for everyone from first-time video makers to media professionals. This practical resource explains how to capture professional-quality images and sound; edit, post process, and add special effects; and distribute video on tape, DVD, or streaming Internet media. Unlike competing books that focus primarily on feature-length motion pictures, Real World Digital Video draws many of its examples from practical communication projects in businesses and organizations: product demos, news-style interviews, documentaries, and event coverage, as well as scripted presentations with business messages, and experimental and fictional films.

Real World Digital Video promotes DV's "democratization" of video and film-making the powerful tools of mass communication more economical and accessible than ever before. Plus a companion DVD comes packed with examples of a video interview, a documentary, and a scripted project, in addition to on-camera interviews with DV experts, software demos, and useful production forms and templates. For example, rather than working up your own documents, you can simply download pre-production and production forms, a template for shot plans, and checklists for buying or renting cameras, lighting and sound equipment, and an editing system.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Real World Digital Video covers the latest technology-and techniques-in every phase of video production, delivering industrial-strength techniques for everyone from first-time video makers to media professionals. This practical resource explains how to capture professional-quality images and sound; edit, post process, and add special effects; and distribute video on tape, DVD, or streaming Internet media. Unlike competing books that focus primarily on feature-length motion pictures, Real World Digital Video draws many of its examples from practical communication projects in businesses and organizations: product demos, news-style interviews, documentaries, and event coverage, as well as scripted presentations with business messages, and experimental and fictional films.

Real World Digital Video promotes DV's "democratization" of video and film-making the powerful tools of mass communication more economical and accessible than ever before. Plus a companion DVD comes packed with examples of a video interview, a documentary, and a scripted project, in addition to on-camera interviews with DV experts, software demos, and useful production forms and templates. For example, rather than working up your own documents, you can simply download pre-production and production forms, a template for shot plans, and checklists for buying or renting cameras, lighting and sound equipment, and an editing system.

About the Author

Gerald Everett Jones has written more than 20 books on computer and business subjects, including How to Lie with Charts and A Guided Tour of Excel, as well as Harvard Graphics: The Art of Presentation. Pete Shaner is a motion-picture writer-director who has written and directed two independent features: Lover's Knot (starring Billy Campbell, Jennifer Grey, and Tim Curry) and Nicolas, a supernatural thriller--and the first independent feature ever shot on high-definition HDTV.

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; Pap/DVD edition (December 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321127293
• ISBN-13: 978-0321127297
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,104,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All of the detail hurdles in making a movie, March 23, 2003

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Real World Digital Video (Paperback)

As the prices of digital data capture and storage have dropped, new avenues of artistic creation have opened up. One of these areas is in the realm of digital video, where it is possible to make movies using simple and relatively inexpensive digital equipment. However, the fact that the equipment is now cheap does not make it any easier to make movies that people would want to watch. There is an enormous amount of subtle technique involved in making a movie, and until I read this book, I had absolutely no idea how complex a simple shot can be. This is a book that will show you how to make a digitally recorded movie, and should be the first thing you read if that is your aspiration.
It all starts with planning, from the initial idea, on to budgeting, clearing all legal hurdles, organizing and shooting the scenes, editing and cleaning the stored scenes, and ending with publicizing and distributing the finished product. All are so complex, that you do not make a movie, you survive its' creation. The fact that the movie can now be stored on digital devices only significantly affects one of these steps.
Written primarily for those who are interested in making DV projects for entertainment, this is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. The number of detail hurdles that need to be cleared to make a movie are astounding, and kudos to the authors for explaining all of those hurdles in great detail.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a crash course in how to make your DV production easier, April 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Real World Digital Video (Paperback)

This book should be required reading for anyone making a digital movie with more ambition than experience. This book will be worth its cost in just the first project by eliminating many of the learning mistakes we all make. I wish someone would have sat down with me and given me this advice when I started and yet, even with many projects behind me, this book offers me new ideas. Reading the book and the watching the DVD are like having real work experience - both in production and post-production. In one memorable section of the DVD, Pete Shaner sits down with you and gives you lots of advice on how to shoot and things to consider in shooting and editing.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Digital Video Reference Book and DVD for All Earthlings!, January 7, 2003

By 

Thomas C. Muniz (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Real World Digital Video (Paperback)

Highly recommended reading...for the home hobbyist...the USC film student...the software geek... or AV professional.

The authors approach the Digital Video Universe in a real world, common sense and entertaining prose...allowing the reader to apply their level of interest, budget, technical background, project objectives and pace to a surprisingly current and comprehensively deep offering of digital video material.

The supportive DVD is awesome!