Video Editing Books

There was no description of the book when I bought it, so I did not realize that it was a dry technical read. It is not for the creative person, and offers little to nothing on the how to make dynamic layered audio in post. It's about notch filters, and VITC timecode. Very techincal, very non-creative. Maybe that's the point, but is wasn't for me.

Extremely basic and rudimentary information on color correction.
It only covers the basics, such as setting white and black levels and white balance.
If you're interested in this book just go to the bookstore and skim through it. There is not that much information in this book; it'll take you around 30 minutes to skim through it.

I have bought and used many Visual Quickstart Guides and they have always been great when getting started with something new. However, Final Cut Express 2 for Mac OS X is an exception.
Instead of explaining a sample project and then taking you step by step so you can get your feet wet, Lisa Brenneis instead decides it is more valuable to explain each item on each pulldown menu: whether you will need it or not.

She discusses in excruciating detail the various ways to save a project and how to open previous projects whose files have been misplaced, etc...without ever mentioning how to start a new project. In Chapter 3 she explains how to make a 'Custom Shortcut Button.' That's nice, but since she doesn't explain how to get video IN to FCE2 until Chapter 6, I have no idea what I would want to create a custom shortcut button for.

The first couple of chapters were full of so many details with no hands on experience or practical explaination...I was asking myself: "where's the quickstart?" oh...that doesn't come until page 145.

In Chapter 2:
"To restore a project:
1. Choose File>Restore Project
2. In the Restore Projects dialog box's pop-up menu, select the archived project you want to restore
3. Click Restore"
DUH!

Now at this point, reading from the beginning of the book, I have no idea what restoring a project means, why I would want to do it, nor do I even have a project to restore!

I sat for a few hours with this book and a simple video project I wanted to complete in FCE2 and instead of getting some good experience and information, I decided a better use of time would be to come here and write this negative review. Afterward, I am going to work on the project in iMovie; possibly tomorrow I'll look for another book and try again.

Visual Quickstart Guides are usually great, but this book is NOT like the rest.
Do yourself a favor, find yourself something else. But if you still really want this book, send me a message, I'm selling mine.

This, the only widely available volume on the great films of Robert Wise, is a tremendous disappointment. Each film receives its own chapter consisting of photos and a brief quotation from Wise himself. Although some chapters are informative,Wise's comments often seem distant and non-committal, as if he were hesitant to reveal his true feelings about the films he made and the people with whom he worked. Most tragically, these miniscule quotations do not enrich the experience of viewing the films themselves. Both Robert Wise and his vast body of work deserve a lengthy biography and detailed critical study. Unfortunately, this is neither.

This book apparently had a bad printing run. I have ordered it twice, and both times the pagination was all messed up. Amazon has not figured this out yet, despite several attempts to tell them.

I do not write many reviews but you must be warned that this book is simply bad! The CD's tutorials and video are too amateurish to provide serious learning. I was becoming so frustrated with the lack of depth, lack of organization and lack of clear explanation. Instead, buy Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop by Tom Wolsky OR Final Cut Express 2 Digital Video Editing for Everyone by Weynard.

Please dont thing that you are getting e book. Tthis thing is just 2 pages of useless document & I feel like a silly.