The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap [Paperback]

Stu Maschwitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0321413644 | ISBN-13: 978-0321413642 | Edition: 1

Written by Stu Maschwitz, co-founder of the Orphanage (the legendary guerrilla visual effects studio responsible for amazing and award-winning effects in such movies as Sin City, The Day After Tomorrow, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), this book is a must-have for all those budding filmmakers and students who want to produce action movies with visual effects but don't have Hollywood budgets. The Orphanage was created by three twenty-something visual effects veterans who wanted to make their own feature films and discovered they could do this by utilizing home computers, off the shelf software, and approaching things artistically. This guide details exactly how to do this: from planning and selecting the necessary cameras, software, and equipment, to creating specific special effects (including gunfire, Kung Fu fighting, car chases, dismemberment, and more) to editing and mixing sound and music. Its mantra is that the best, low-budget action moviemakers must visualize the end product first in order to reverse-engineer the least expensive way to get there. Readers will learn how to integrate visual effects into every aspect of filmmaking--before filming, during filming and with "in camera" shots, and with computers in postproduction. Throughout the book, the author makes specific references to and uses popular action movies (both low and big-budget) as detailed examples--including El Mariachi, La Femme Nikita, Die Hard, and Terminator 2. Note from the Publisher: If you have the 3rd printing of The DV Rebel’s Guide, your disc may be missing the data files that accompany the book. If this is the case, please send an email to Peachpit in order to obtain the files at [e-mail]

Editorial Reviews

Review

 "I'd been wanting to write a book for the new breed of digital filmmakers,
but now I don't have to. My pal and fellow movie maker Stu Maschwitz has
compressed years of experience into this thorough guide. Don't make a movie
without reading this book!"
 -Robert Rodriguez, filmmaker and author of Rebel Without a Crew

About the Author

Stu Maschwitz is a director, visual effects supervisor, renowned technologist and founding partner of The Orphanage, a leading VFX and film production company based in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Hailed by Shoot Magazine as one of the “Ten Commercial Directors To Watch,” Maschwitz has quickly gained a reputation for his ability to tackle extraordinarily complex visual challenges while injecting his signature wry sense of humor and kinetic filmmaking style. An innovator in filmmaking technology, Maschwitz is the creator of The Orphanage’s revolutionary Magic Bullet software—which gives inexpensive digital video the lush look of film. Prior to joining up with his fellow co-conspirators to start The Orphanage, Maschwitz spent five years at George Lucas’ Industrial Light + Magic. He is a graduate of CalArts School of Animation.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (January 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321413644
• ISBN-13: 978-0321413642
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.8 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #125,237 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stu Maschwitz is a filmmaker, photographer, and writer, with a passion for kinetic storytelling. A graduate of CalArts, Maschwitz spent four years at Industrial Light & Magic before co-founding The Orphanage in 1999. Despite his visual effects background and unique command of filmmaking technologies, Maschwitz places an emphasis on performance, emotion, and story. A champion of accessible filmmaking, Maschwitz wrote The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap, and maintains a filmmaking blog at prolost.com. Maschwitz directs TV commercials and is developing several feature film projects, as well as serving as Creative Director for Red Giant Software's Magic Bullet product line.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking your DV movies to the next level February 20, 2007

By Jason Denzel

Format:Paperback

I'm a person who has directed / produced a number of short films, all shot on DV. I own a lot of books on the subject. I can easily say that this guide is my favorite one! It simultaneously confirmed to me that you can make pro-quality imagery and effects, and it flipped my world upside down on how easily it can be done.

The guide illustrates to you how to make your DV or HD content look professional. More that that: it shows you how to set yourself up for success so that you can later incorporate visual effects.

The guide explains in plain English what a lot of complex terms are, and why you should care. It shows you how to shoot miniatures, how to edit FX footage into your live-action plates, and how to color correct your stuff. Actually, the author gives you some useful tools for doing the color correcting! (In the form of After Effects plugins)

This book isn't going to teach you After Effects or any other program. (But he lists books that will). If you are a filmmaker already familiar with these tools, then the guide will help you take the next step in polishing your content. It also gives you a simple step-by-step process for how to build your production pipleline. This pipeline might be the single best part of the book!

One other cool aspect of this book is that nearly every page has tips on how to save yourself time, or money, or both. Little things like the Google Maps trick. Or how to make convincing gun-fire. Or how to save your movie in a single format to be transformed later into any format: DVD, iPod, online streaming, etc.

Ultimately, I have found this book to be one of my "core" go-to books for making movies. It's goal is not to teach you tricks per say, but rather to empower you to make a great film using easily-accessible tools and modest budgets. It isn't just theory... it's practical guidelines that you can apply to your next DV or HD movie.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun book for those who want to make movies - and those who simply enjoy moviemaking April 27, 2007

By Jerry Saperstein HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I don't plan on making any low-budget action epics, but this book is a delight anyway. Stu Maschwitz knows his business, writes well and has a highly developed sense of humor. As a bonus, he also provides a list of most of the best action movies made over the past several decades.

Be forwarned: if you intend to make full use of the numerous examples in the book and on the accompanying DVD, you will need a copy of Adobe After Effects.

Even though I don't intend to be making any action movies, I really appreciated Maschwitz's insights into how to make such movies on low budgets. There's lots of insights into movie making in general in this book and the knowledge can't help but make you a better videographer even if all you shoot are your kids and family picnics.

His dissection of classic action sequences from films like "La Femme Nikita" are more than worth the price of the book.

For the serious hobby videographer, the chapters on color and color correction are also very worthwhile.

Overall, an excellent book for anyone interested in video in general, making low-budget action movies or simply gaining a greater appreciation of what goes into making a good action movie. A lot of fun between two covers.

Jerry

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Both inspirational and resourceful February 21, 2007

By Andrew McKenzie

Format:Paperback

Stu's writing style is both infectious and inspirational. This sits alongside Robert Rodriguez's Rebel without a Crew as a mainstay for any Rebel filmmaker. The book teaches, no preaches, for the first time (aside from Rodriguez) that its okay to think big visually in your storytelling, that you can have action and special effects. I wouldn't want to count the number of books written on digital filmmaking that tell you to steer clear and stick to talking head three location features - boring.

If you've gone down the DV feature path before or if you're just starting out, Stu has tip and tricks for it all. From prep and pre-prod, to shooting, and post. Oh, the resources on the DVD are worth the price of the book alone.

Digital production is all about workflow and Stu has mastered this arena with great adeptness. He is himself a digital pioneer and never seems content (which is a good thing) to accept or constrain his creative vision due to budget or other reasons. He is a true Ninja - and for that we salute you.

Have waited a long time for a book like this. It takes pride in my library - though it has spent more time off the shelf than one since its arrival.