Video Production Books

I am currently directing on a small stage and have very limited formal training. Instead, my education has been the "trial by fire". Not any more! This book absolutely breaks the code on the craft. I found the language to be accessable; information,immediately applicable. This is a comprenshive guide to the art and craft of directing.

As a first time filmmaker, I highly recommend Ron Richards' Director's Method for Film and Television. He provides the reader with an excellent survey of the languages of film and television cinematography. I am ready to roll. :-)

How often does one get to have inside information behind the films of some really great film directors? I loved the honest and searching answers given as well as the personalities revealed with each interview.

This book provides brief but thorough readings of several of Bunuel's major films. This book is especially useful for those of us who never had a formal education in Freudian imagery, which plays such an important part in Bunuel's film language. Although not the only book you'll want to read on Bunuel, this is a good one.

This book is a great, in-depth look at the Dogme 95 movement. It's the first book I've seen that attempts to cover most of the Dogme films, as well as precursors to the Dogme movement (Godard, Warhol, etc). Jack Stevenson does a great job keeping it interesting, and keeping his perspective on the whole thing too. It's fun to read about the more well-publicized Dogme films like The Celebration and The King is Alive, as well as lesser known but worthy efforts such as Resin and The Sparkle Room. This book makes me want to track down a bunch of films. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Dogme (or Lars von Trier, or indie film in general).

This is an important book for "so called" documentary writers, photographers, and film makers. I say "so called" because we tend to think of documentary work as an accurate representation--literally the truth. Robert Coles pretty much shoots that idea down, showing how the background, beliefs, biases, hopes, and fears of the documentarian color the narrative. I came away believing that the word objective is not relevant here, and that it may be impossible to ever get at the truth. If I read Coles right, the documentarian may, in fact, be more akin to the literary fiction writer/photographer/film-maker, who does seem to get at the truth. This is not to say that documentary work is futile. On the contrary it can be potent, meaningful, and worthwhile. We may just have to look at it differently and face up to the fact that it reflects the person doing the documentary work as much as it does his/her subject. This is a liberating idea. And we owe a debt to Coles for proffering it. There are consequences, too. For instance, in the light of Coles' discovery, a lot of critics may owe an apology to Richard Avedon, whose photographic fiction, "In The American West," may be fine documentary work after all.

This is a fascinating book. If you only know Ealing Studios for comedies such as "Kind Hearts and Coronets" "The Lavender Hill Mob" and "The Ladykillers," this book opens up the whole Ealing output from about 1939 to 1957.

Not only does Barr discuss the classic Ealing comedies, but he puts them in their context in the studio's output, and he shows how the studio's output changed over time regarding the pressures and changes that British society went through in those pivotal decades.

This book is "the rise and fall of Ealing Studios" but in an artistic, not financial, sense. It gets one to think about what movies say about "national character" yet remains enjoyable and jargon-free.

I bought a number of books on using final cut pro and found this book to be the clearest, best-written of them all. When I have questions, I always turn to this book first. It's a fairly short book (130 pages), but it's all great info with very good images.

Editing With Final Cut Pro 4
By Charles Roberts- reviewed by "Book Worm"

This is one of the best books available for learning about FCP. It is clearly written, and addresses all the issues the beginning non-linear editor faces. The illustrations (mostly screen shots) are well selected and well placed. The material is well organized and treated with sufficient depth so that the reader gains a useful understanding of how and why certain techniques work. The book covers set up, work flow and editing technique in a very clear and complete fashion. It's a great text book, and I find it is also a handy reference too (great index).

Another plus is that the book is not limited to mere technical operations, the author is willing to discuss some of the reasons that underlie an editor's choice of when and where to cut. Roberts' attention to workflow and organization is also quite helpful, as is his willingness to show more than one way to accomplish a given operation or task.

I also liked the fact that the book was not organized around a downloadable batch of clips which you manipulate according to the books instructions. This technique certainly makes the teacher's job easier since all the instructions are quite specific, but I find open-ended instruction more palatable and ultimately more useful, especially if you are already working on an editing project of your own.

The chapters about the nature of digital video and a look at storage issues are full of really useful information. One of the best things about this book is that it will grow with you; you may skip some of the more technical discussions at first, but find them useful as your skill level improves.

Also, this book has a real index, not some computer-generated simulacrum that spots all the trivial instances where a word occurs, but seems to miss the meaty parts where the actual information is.

Although this book is listed as an "intermediate" level volume, as a fairly rank beginner I found it to be accessible and very useful. If you want to get a grip on FCP this book will help you do it.

If you are teaching a course that bridges the older and newer technologies in post-production, ie linear and non-linear technology this book will give your students an opportunity to develop a working vocabulary in the linear environment.