Customer Reviews

iMovie 2: The Missing Manual

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The saying, "All I asked for was the time, and he built me a clock," probably best describes the scope of this book. This isn't simply a comprehensive manual covering the how-to of using iMovie and troubleshooting; it includes mini-courses on selecting a digital camcorder, home video filming, special-events filming, professional editing techniques, using QuickTime, making movie CDs, putting your movies on the web, and detailed instructions on how to create your own graphics using popular programs such as PhotoShop, AppleWorks, PhotoDeluxe or GraphicConverter. It even includes a chapter on Final Cut Pro, Premiere and EditDV for anyone thinking about eventually going in that direction. Almost all of the questions raised in the iMovie forums at the Apple, MacWorld, MacAddict and other web sites are answered in this book. I glanced through a couple other iMovie books at the bookstore, and, altho they cost about the same, they fall far short of "The Missing Manual" in terms of scope, tips, workaround hints, and an enjoyable writing style. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone thinking about getting into digital video editing, as well as for anyone who already has all the hardware and uses iMovie. I would place myself in the "prosumer" category, have been using iMovie2 for five months, and thought I knew it all. Well, I didn't. But, after reading The Missing Manual, NOW I know it all. Buy it!

I bought three books to teach myself how to produce DVDs. The Erica Sadun book is for advanced users and was not helpful to me. The Bob LeVitus "Little iDVD Book" is probably one of the most poorly organized and edited books I've ever come across on any subject.

Pogue's "Missing Manual", on the other hand, is comprehensive, clear and well-organized. I've produced about half a dozen DVDs since reading (and re-reading) Pogue's book and it clearly made a huge difference in what I was able to construct using iDVD.

In my opinion, this is the only book you need to read to learn how to produce movies using iDVD.

Beyond teaching readers to work with iDVD, Pogue also offers loads of helpful suggestions about editing in general. This book is outstanding.

I love this book! I was ready to give up trying to use iMovie because of a small glitch that was incurring. After browsing thru the book the very first time I opened it, I came across the trouble I was having with iMovie. Mr. Pogue directed me to the correct settings and I am now having a great time editing my DV movies.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone attempting to use iMovie. There is so much more to this program than Apple addresses in the help file. Mr. Pogue's writing is concise but not out of reach for the average Mac user.

I have many books by Mr. Pogue and I would recommend any of them if you are stumped and need a well explained how-to-manuel.

If there was an Academy Award for manuals, this is the winner. Part One, of this 402 page manual, is worth the total cost of the book. David Pogue creates an excitement for Digital Video Photography, and iMovie 2 editing on a Macintosh. The manual is very well written, and is full of illustrations, hints, tips and techniques. It reads like a great novel, you do not want to put it down. Apple's iMovie 2 is a very powerful Digital Video Editing program, but lacks in documentation like Don Rickles lacks tack. If you have spent a $1,000 for a Digital Video Camera, and have a PowerMac computer with iMove 2, your next step to using them is, "iMovie, The manual that should have been in the box." I was editing video clips, and creating DVD (disc) movies after just a few hours with this book.

Thank you, David Pogue!

I've been working with iMovie and iMovie2 for nearly a year, learning pretty much by trial and error, and by haunting discussion forums. The built-in help files were barely adequate, and another iMovie2 book added nothing.

But here comes David Pogue with all the tips, tricks, how-to's and--even better: completely understandable explanations.

For example, I was having a hard time with the quality of my QuickTime exports from iMovie2. This book gave me exactly what I was looking for. I finally even understand what codecs are!

From the artistic through the technical aspects of iMovie-making, Pogue has done it again. Wonderful!

David Pogue is a seasoned veteran of "How to" Mac computer books. Mr. Pogue is a Personal Technology columnist for the New York Times.

Quick Rewind to MacWorld 3 Years Ago

I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Pogue at MacWorld over three years ago. Dave was at the Oreilly.com book's kiosk telling his adventures of getting information from Apple's Steve Jobs on the release of date and information on the new iMovie 2 program. David Pogue was not happy on Apple Computer's negative release of information. Dave was amazed that Microsoft was very "Mac friendly" in releasing information on Microsoft applications for the Macintosh. Dave was still upbeat on iMovie and promised that any and all updates would be available at the Oreilly.com's Missing Manual website.

Fast Forward to the iMovie 2 Review

If you are trying to learn iMovie 2, this is the book for you. Writer David Pogue has an entertaining way of writing that makes if very easy to get through his book.

This Missing Manual is notable for its consistent quality of presentation and content. The book is well written, contains good technical information and is easy-to-follow for all levels of Mac users.

Mr. Pogue delivers value in iMovie 2: The Missing Manual. Composed in Pogue's friendly style, I found this book a valuable treasure. I consider the Pogue book an excellent buy for anyone starting out in editing home movies on the Mac.

Quick Table of Contents

Part 1 - Capturing DV Footage (How to buy and use camcorders for new moviemakers.)

Part 2 - Editing in iMovie (Heart of the book with seven chapters.)

Part 3 - Finding your Audience

Part 4 - Beyond iMovie 2

Part 5 - Appendixes

Interesting Pages to Develop Your Movie Skills

Page 242 - Importing Quicktime and exporting from Quicktime Pro conversion to DV Stream.

Page 255 - Still Pictures and Quicktime Movies

Page 308 - Posting a movie on your website using FreeServers.com

Pro Reaction

iMovie 2 "The Missing Manual" has a good table of contents and index. Excellent screenshots of iMovie 2 dialogue screens. Good "thumb index" like dictionary indexes. Also, Colophon: How I Wrote this Book" was interesting.

This Pogue book is easy to read and helps the reader in learning how to use iMovie 2 by providing highlighter tips and screen shots of iMovie 2 windows and messages. The instructional text is broken up with useful sidebars titles for quick references for the Mac user. iMovie 2 "The Missing Manual" is a handy reference book for new and veterans movie makers.

Con Reaction

iMovie 2 "The Missing Manual" is missing a Quick Table of Contents. (Page 3 -could have been Quick Table of Contents.) Missing was the CD-ROM with this book...

Final Comments

I find that iMovie 2 "The Missing Manual" an excellent book without the smart comments and cliché headlines of most Dummy Series books.

David Pogue does a good job covering the basic videography to the newest iMovie 2 editing options. If you use iMovie you need this book and the software that it allows you to download from Pogue's Web site...

One reason I say "buy it" is not necessarily because it's fabulous.

It IS very good. It DOES deliver what I expected. It is solid, complete and good value for the money. Despite the fact that it constantly refers to the program "iMovie," it IS a manual for iMovie 2, thoroughly revised for iMovie 2, and not just a retread of the earlier iMovie book.

But the main reason I say "buy it" is that the time when you'll get the most value from this book is when you're just starting to use iMovie 2. Or, even better, BEFORE you've started to use iMovie 2, maybe even before you've bought your Mac.

Don't dither. Don't delay. Don't pinch pennies. By all means, feel angry at Apple for not including any manual with iMovie 2. I know I do. But don't cut off your nose to spite your face. Just go ahead and buy the book, already. Buy it first, fume about the twenty bucks later.

If you wait, you'll stumble your way through iMovie on your own. You CAN get by with iMovie's built-in help, but that's what it is--getting by. Buy the book afterwards and it will just be confirming guesses you've already made. Buy it first and it will save you time and trouble.

Pogue does a very skillful job of using sidebars and inline "tips" so that the needs of both beginning and proficient users are addressed in a single unified narrative.

Part 2 of the book--about 200 pages is the "missing manual" per se. The rest of the book covers topics such as recording DV on a camcorder, readying it for Web publication, and summaries of more advanced editing tools (Final Cut, Premiere, EditDV). I found this material to be excellent. I found the section on using Quicktime Pro particularly helpful. Traditional manuals act as if the software they document is the whole world. This "manual" is better.

In fact, Pogue is at his best when he goes a little beyond what a normal manual would cover. For example, there are very sensible couple of pages on what you reasonably can and can't expect if you try running iMovie on an older Mac. There's an excellent discussion of just what iMovie does at different screen resolutions.

So, why didn't I give it five stars? Well, it's mostly a matter of taste. I feel that Pogue has too much of the breezy, uncritical, if-you-can't-say-something-nice-don't-say-anything-at-all magazine style. Everything is just sooooo great.

"It's fascinating, important, and useful to note that iMovie never actually REMOVES the audio from a video clip." Are all THREE adjectives really necessary? Useful, yes; important, OK. But "fascinating?"

Is it necessary to laud the little first-time demo clip as "gloriously filmed" with a "catchy little guitar lick" and "children dancing in exquisite lighting conditions?"

You can sure tell that "Pogue Press" has a different editorial style than "O'Reilly." And, for the record, I prefer the O'Reilly style. I honestly don't think you'll find a better guide to iMovie than this one. But if there were such a thing as an O'Reilly Nutshell Guide to iMovie--with an animal woodcut on the cover--I'd reconsider.

This is book is, in a word, phenomenal. David Pogue covers not just iMovie, but basic filming and editing technique. He also discusses technical items like choosing a camcorder and the necessary accessories for different types of video productions.

The chapters about the different effects, titles, and transitions are great, as the author not only describes what each one each and how it functions, but also what situations might merit using the different elements. Even better, he has lots of little tips and tricks that can make your movies much more interesting. One of the best that I found (and have since used) is that you can actualy apply one title "on top" of another one. This is great for having one title overlap into another, or having mutliple titles appear at once in different locations on the screen.

There are also a number of great usage tips from real-world users who contributed their stories to the book. These give great real-world examples of things you can do with iMovie that you might never have considered (for example, creating "time lapse" movies).

The chapters on filming and editing technique, while short, are absolutely great for improving your movies from both the pre- and post-production sides. I used many of his filming tips when on a vacation last summer, and I think it made a tremendous improvement in the quality of the video I took. I'm still no Spielberg, but at least my home movies now look a fair bit more polished and "professional".

If you use iMovie at all, do yourself a huge favor and get this book. With everything it offers, it's worth its price many times over.

First I have to give props to David Pogue and his Missing Manual series. As a bookseller and computer geek I've long favored the Dummies books as the best entry-level source for third-party information on software. However, O'Reilly made a smart move when they turned their attention on that market and grabbed Dummies standby Pogue to headline the new series. The Missing Manuals (and their mutant-dogcow mascot) are a credit to O'Reilly and a must-have... assuming, that is, that they cover the program you need. The series is still too small, but I'm sure it won't stay that way.

Now, to the book itself. If you need to do something with iMovie, it's in there. That pretty much covers what I need to say in this review, but it doesn't cover everything the book has to offer. Remember back in the 80s when the Mac made desktop publishing a reality, only to unleash a torrent of wretchedly amateurish graphic design? Well, Pogue spends much of the first couple of chapters attempting to prevent that from happening. This book starts off with a very basic primer on video production and how to use your equipment -- assumed to be a typical consumer-grade MiniDV camcorder, but it covers other options as well, particularly video bridges and the like.

The meat of the book discusses iMovie 2's capabilities, including discussions of its weaknesses and how to work around them. Effects, titles, and transitions are discussed in detail, including some useful information on crossfades (never fade straight to black -- instead, you want a black stillframe). Conversion to other formats is also an issue, and a significant part of the book discusses postproduction using QuickTime Pro. Directions are given for converting your work for DVD or VCD as well.

The issue I have with the book is largely its focus on iMovie in MacOS Classic, and the bugs that are present in that version that might not be in the OS X version. Screenshots all come from 9.x, with the only Aqua material being the interface of iMovie itself. I don't mark down for this since the program operates more or less the same, but an inexperienced user may have trouble. (I might note as well that the book works just as well for iMovie 3, which has a superficially different interface but handles more or less identically.)

So, yeah. If you're doing video production on iMovie, this is the book to get, hands down.

It's OK. It has about the same amount of material as the "iMovie 2 for Macintosh Visual Quickstart Guide" - The missing manual is fatter because it contains additional stories and things that a reader might find amusing, but that are not particular relevant to the topic. The section on movie making basics is very good. For an expanded view see "The Five C's of Cinematography". I thought I would find more information in this book since it is fatter than in the VQG, but it ended up that they are about even in content.