Video Editing Books

I have spent the last two years learning and improving my editing skills, but I have always been a little (a lot) intimidated and in the dark (no pun intended) when it came to color correction. I'm still working in FC Express, and thought that this book may be pointless, since Express lacks many of the tools discussed. But I started reading the color correction section today and have devoured every bit of it. Although I don't have the scopes to work with, I have really appreciated the clear, concise, methodical way that the book explains the concepts and procedures behind color correction. The subject is now demystified for me, and I feel confident in applying what I'm learning to the tools that are available in Express. I will eventually upgrade to Pro and purchase a monitor as well, and when I do, I'll be well prepared to take on the color correction process.

Now I am an advanced Final Cut Pro user who has made a living with it for going on 5 years now, but still this book gives me new tips and tricks that I hadn't realized, and an excellent section on color correction which is really why I got the book in the first place.

A great reference for for any Avid editing suite. The Avid handbook is packed with strategies for workflow that offer huge time efficiencies. Steve Bayes is a wealth of information not just on Avid editing, but on video in general. He explains the concepts in a clear and concise fashion. I found the tips on exporting and color space considerations particularly helpful. I would highly recommend this book.

This is a "must have" book for all Avid editors. It concentrates on workflow issues and gives the editor insight into what the logic has been in developing how the Avid editing applications function. This book is as much "why" as "how to" and therefore transcends software version changes and updates that cause other manuals to become obsolete.

iMovie2 does not come with an instruction book, and the iMac booklet helps precious little, so I was pleased to find Brad Miser's Idiot Guide (which is a series I like anyway). The book is both imformative and insightful, plus a lot of fun to read. It got me going with iMovie in very short order, and when I emailed Mr. Miser to clarify a point, I got a prompt and effective answer. Highly recommended.

There are few things as satisfying and fun to the videographer as making professional movies - videos that you actually want to watch a second time or more - and Apple's iMovie software is THE tool to do just that. You get superb results from an inexpensive piece of software - IF you can use it. While the program is exceptionally simple, there is only an on screen "Help Menu," and we all know how those work: everything but the question you need answered, it seems. Into the void has rushed Brad Miser with wit and wisdom, and with all the answers and instruction you need and then some. His Idiot's Guide is a marvelous introduction to video/movie making, and he walks you through composition, editing, mixing, enhancing, titling, effects, and stuff you never thought possible when you bought that video camera (or even thought about buying it). Miser is one of those very few authors that are effectively "high tech" and "high touch," he writes with clarity, and with an obvious love of his subject. If Amazon would allow it, I'd give this six stars.

I had noted this book at a friend of mine and ordered one from Amazon.

Excellent book covers all areas and explained with plain language. I would recommend the book for those beginners who wish to understand more about the subject and would like to move on to more complex stuff.

I read the German translation of this book, also published by Dorling Kindersley. I am relatively new to professional video production and this book has given me all the basic knowledge required. It gave me more confidence in the difficult time when I decided to start out professionally.
This book helped me choose which computer, which video editing programmes, which camera and which audio equipment to buy. Apart from offering an introduction to video techniques and giving ideas for projects, it provides an overview of the latest equipment that amateurs, semi-professionals (this category includes indie filmmakers/ documentary makers) and top professionals use.

Digital Video Handbook is split into 7 chapters:
Introduction to Digital Video
Handling Camera

Chawla's book gives an excellent overview of digital and analog video and lists the necessities for optimizing your Macintosh and FCP in a quick and easy language and, more importantly, explains the whys of how things work. I also found the index referencing to be in good working order with easy to find listings. And the book goes over filter effects (left untouched by previous publishers) as well as the basics of importing/exporting alternative media and sound as well as how to incorporate them into your video editing.

I am a digital video producer by trade and this booked proved to me that I really don't know as much as I thought I did. It is simple to understand, but incredibly useful and informative. It will always be kept close to my editing station as an invaluable reference. It has already saved me from a making a couple of mistakes, that I had been making for years. YOU NEED THIS BOOK!

As the co-author of this book, I just want to thank all of our students who inspired the writing of this book with their hunger for practical knowledge on FCP and the great questions they ask in class.

So often, the nature of these questions went beyond the technical text and sample projects that we were using in class. It is also frequently difficult to answer real-world questions about FCP in the classroom context. So many of these answers "depend on the project you are doing . . . "

Consequently, we took to using a series of real-world anecdotes - experiences of our own in postproduction that could illustrate the larger points regarding process and decision-making.

These experiences made the conceptual basis for this book, and those anecdotes became the case studies.

Robbie and I hope that you enjoy what we think is a unique approach!

As a user of Final Cut Pro, but a relative newbie to postproduction I've struggled to understand the "Big Picture" of postproduction workflow.

Final Cut Pro Workflows is an awesome resource that doesn't cover all the same button pushing techniques that every other Final Cut Pro book does, but provides insightful and thoughtful workflow techniques that I've been able to apply to all my projects.

What I found particularly cool, and what I think separates this book from others is the 3rd part of book which is a collection of case studies. These case studies are great because they're written as a narrative and explore quite a few different workflows using Final Cut Pro.

This book is a must have!

Rick Young's Final Cut Express guide is the best I've found, and I've checked out half a dozen. His breezy, informative style is simple, clear and comfortable. Text is profusely illustrated with specific, detailed graphics shown nearby, often within the same paragraph, which greatly enhances learning.
As a novice to this particular nonlinear video editing system, with a background in others, I found the book of great value. While I wish Mr. Young would offer an updated edition covering FCE's recent advances, I think the book is a better guide to the basics -- four years later -- than current books I've seen. I recommend it to video editors of any experience levels who want to learn Apple's Final Cut Express.

Loved the book. Got me started quickly and easily. Would recommend it to anybody.

How to break into print? In competitive Hollywood?
Scott Essman shares the secrets of his success.
He gives writers great advice on freelancing
that is tried and true as well as truly creative.

I really liked Biff L. Peterson's scathing review of my book. It was quite entertaining, well written, and informative. Then I looked him up, to make sure it wasn't a pseudonym for one of the jealous journalists and craftspeople who need to lash out to feel better about themselves. Alas, I discovered that Mr. Peterson's co-wrote a book called "They Don't Wanna Wait: The Stars of Dawson's Creek." I had to laugh. He's calling ME a hack! Good luck in life, Mr. Peterson. I wish you the best. Keep up the good work. Hilarious, indeed.

This little book is wonderful. It is crammed full of information, whith chapters about the fundamentals of video, including excellent descriptions of camera angles, framing and editing principles. It is formatted almost as a list of things you have to know, with the concepts on the left side, and very clear illustrations on the right. I can't think of another book that is so well suited for the beginning student of camera and editing. I highly recommend it.

This is a handy little guide, that is deceptively simple and yet embodies a great deal of the wisdom accumulated over years of classical filmmaking. Basically what you can find here is a set of simple rules for what will "cut well" together. It avoids, wisely, addressing anything about the technology of editing which will change rapidly while the basic "grammar rules" of how to put together shots in ways that flow and convey simple meanings effortlessly will remain. It will be useful for cameramen and directors (and home video enthusiasts) as a guide in shooting elements that the editor will be able, later, to put together into a coherent story form. It will also serve for the beginning editor as a convenient distillation of the principles they should take into account in order to avoid jarring the audience and taking them out of the story. There are numerous ways in which the rules described here can be broken and have been broken to powerful effect throughout the history of cinema, but I think the author is right to suggest that in such cases the power of such effects rests upon the fact that the editor was well aware that he or she was breaking the rules and wanted the effect upon the audience that would result from the jarring or unsettling feeling of something not quite natural being done. This is not the only or ultimate guide to editing, just as Strunk and White's Elements of Style is not the ultimate guide to composing sentences. There is much that is left out of this guide, as the author's primary aim seems to have been to catalog simply but completely at least the uncontroversial and widely accepted principles of composing shots and editing them together. For alternatives and exceptions and when to use them and how to plan for them, you really would need to look elsewhere. For what it is, though, this book is well written and clear and well worth reading as a beginner and returning to for reminders even when it feels as though it has become old hat.

Books published to tie-in with movie releases are a staple of the most sprawling Borders to the airport bookstall. This is no new phenomenon; similar publications were already flourishing by 1914 at the beginning of feature-length and serial productions. Whether reissues of existing novels brought to the screen, or original stories based on a movie, both publishers and the film industry mutually benefitted from capitalizing on each other's product. The plentiful supply of such books over so many decades attests to their rapport with the audiences of both readers and filmgoers.

Despite their endurance, there is little scholarship on movie tie-in books and magazines. In Horror and Mystery Photoplay Editions and Magazine Fictionizations, Thomas Mann provides a major contribution of lasting significance. His investigative skills illuminate the publication, exploitation, and distribution of these tie-ins, even to how they were purchased, read, and sometimes saved by readers.

Mann examines not only book tie-ins, especially the venerable "photoplay editions" of the late 1910s through the 1930s, but also various short story"fictionizations" of the movies, written in popular film magazines at the time of the films' release. These journals were never indexed in their own time, and almost never saved by institutions, who regarded them as ephemeral by comparison with the industry trade journals. Hence the value in Mann's pioneering effort in exploring this untapped resource.

These story magazines, though more apt today to be privately collected than found in library collections, are deeply reflective of film culture. In examining these published versions, Mann offers a fruitful comparison of the surprising fact that often the same movie, such as THE MUMMY (1932), would be retold in a number of different magazines. Moreover, their staff writers came up with strikingly dissimilar narratives, sometimes diverging far from the original screen source. Mann's choice of numerous illustrations from these magazines and photoplay editions help the modern reader to better understand these publishing phenomenon, and how they could lure audiences to the movie theater. Included as an appendix is a reprint of a complete magazine fictionization of the lost 1927 film THE GORILLA.

Not only in his examination of different types of publications has Mann provided a unique contribution, but his focus on specific related genres, mystery and horror, enriches the grounding and insight. The benefits are clear when comparing this volume with other checklists that have appeared, all now outdated save for Arnie Davis's encyclopedic and highly recommended Photoplay Editions and Other Movie Tie-in Books. However, Mann's genre emphasis and his inclusion of magazine stories as well as book tie-ins makes his volume an essential companion piece to Davis's book, for both the collector and bibliographer. Further, Mann's volume is also an essential standalone for the scholar investigating aspects of media reception. For libraries, both public and academic, boasting any significant collection of books on film, Mann's book is indispensable.

Following the 67 page introduction, the catalog of the author's collection spans 100 pages, with over 500 annotated bibliographical listings of photoplay books and magazine fictionizations from the 1910s through 1970. Whatever one's interest within the horror and mystery genres, whether Sherlock Holmes tales, H.G. Wells adaptations, or Lon Chaney films, entries can all be readily located through the comprehensive index.

Thomas Mann (PhD, Loyola University of Chicago) is author of such other publications as The Oxford Guide to Library Research, now in its 3rd edition.

Though the main purpose of the book is to list and describe the author's large collection of photoplay books and magazine fictionalizations from the beginning of the movie industry to 1970, there is also a substantial and entertaining introduction that explains what a photoplay edition is - a novel illustrated with stills from a movie version, either a work the movie was based on or a novelization of a story first on film - as well as reasons to care about them, some of which were a surprise to me. One, they're a useful record of films because in some cases they are the only record of films that are otherwise lost. They become an important record of vanished culture. Two, they're an invaluable primary source for getting a sense of attitudes, anxieties, interests, language, and in general the historical milieu in which they were produced.

Mann offers samples of texts that give the reader (particularly the non-collector) a nice sense of what these publications are like and provides several versions of the opening of different books based on The Mummy to show how differently they sometimes treated the same material. And he even describes and analyzes some of the markings people made in the books - the author's training as a private investigator and document examiner coming into play. As a bonus in an appendix, there's a novelization of a very silly 1927 movie, "The Gorilla" that is now lost except for this textual version and a few stills.

All in all, this book offers a lovely sense of these popular culture artifacts being lovingly preserved by someone who knows how to read them contextually and enjoys the heck out of them. For someone who is a collector, this is a treasure. For someone who never really thought about photoplay editions, this is a real eye-opener.

And how can you resist that cover?