Technical

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Originally published in 1985, Neil Postman's groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. Now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic media—from the Internet to cell phones to DVDs—it has taken on even greater significance. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining controlof our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.

The Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide: A Down & Dirty DV Production

So you want to make a documentary, but think you don't have a lot of time, money, or experience? It's time to get down and dirty! Down and dirty is a filmmaking mindset. It's the mentality that forces you to be creative with your resources. It's about doing more with less. Get started NOW with this book and DVD set, a one-stop shop written by a guerrilla filmmaker, for guerrilla filmmakers. You will learn how to make your project better, faster, and cheaper. The pages are crammed with 500 full-color pictures, tips from the pros, resources, checklists and charts, making it easy to find what you need fast.

The DVD includes:
* Video and audio tutorials, useful forms, and interviews with leading documentary filmmakers like Albert Maysles (Grey Gardens), Sam Pollard (4 Little Girls), and others
* 50+ Crazy Phat Bonus pages with jump start charts, online resources, releases, storyboards, checklists, equipment guides, and shooting procedures

Here's just a small sampling of what's inside the book:
* Putting together a crew
* Choosing a camera
* New HDV and 24P cameras
* Shooting in rough neighborhoods
* Interview skills and techniques
* 10 ways to lower your budget
* Common production forms

* Pull off your vision in creative and cost-effective ways
* Bonus DVD with video and audio tutorials, interviews, bonus pages with forms and checklists, and more
* 500+ full color illustrations: this book shows you, not tells you

Video Basics

Herbert Zettl draws on his expertise and field experience to bring you the new edition of VIDEO BASICS, the handiest and most authoritative, current, and technically accurate student guide to video production. Meeting the need for a briefer book, this text distills comprehensive video instruction so that it can be covered in a single semester. The book moves students from video concepts and processes to production tools and techniques, and finally, to the production environment (studio and field, inside and outside) and its effects. A more conceptual framework leads the student from the idea (what to create) to the image (how to create) on video.

Apple Pro Training Series: DVD Studio Pro 4 (2nd Edition) (Apple Pro Training Series)

Now the best-selling book on DVD Studio Pro is even better. Updated for DVD Studio Pro 4.2, this Apple-certified book uses striking, real-world footage (including the HD documentary One-Six-Right) to build four complete DVDs. This revised edition covers integration with Final Cut Pro 6, Motion 3, and Compressor 3, as well as the new SD-to-HD workflow. Each chapter presents a lesson in an aspect of DVD creation and finishing, with hands-on projects for you to complete as you go. After learning how to storyboard your DVD and plan its interactions, you’ll set chapter markers, create stories, build still and motion menus, and add overlays and subtitles. You’ll also learn to work with multiple audio tracks and camera angles, create smart buttons and custom transitions, professionally encode audio and video files, and create useful scripts.

Master Handbook of Acoustics

The goal of this book is to apply the principles of acoustics to the audio arts. This involves serving as an interpreter of major trends and the literature for students and practitioners in the audio field. Along with covering the more theoretical aspects of acoustics, the book applies the theory to the design of specialized audio spaces such as the home listening room, the control room, and the multi-track-recording studio.

The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction

Provides direct access to the skills, insights and techniques of some of the postproduction industry's most prominent digital video colorists, delivering practical skills to the postproduction pro seeking to improve their color grading craft. The author interviews and observes 8 professional colorists as they grade a series of real world video images, describing the methods and techniques each artist uses to reach their finalized image. These video images are included on a DVD that allows you to work lockstep with each artist as they grade their images.

Though some tools provided may differ from one product to the next, the basic process of video color correction (grading) remains the same. Application agnostic and sure to inspire, The Art of Digital Video Color Correction will further your artistic skills, whether you're an editor, compositor, or colorist, and allow you to apply those skills to the grading process, making your finished image sharper, crisper and more aesthetically pleasing in general.

* Digital video color correction tips and techniques from the pros grading the films, shows and commercials we all see everyday, thus advancing the artistic coloring skills of the reader
* Is non-software specific, with lessons that are applicable to any postproduction workflow
* DVD includes samples of the same video images that the colorists featured in the book were working on, providing direct access to the techniques and process of professional grading

This Business of Television

•Practical and comprehensive—the only book of its kind •Revised edition focuses on the changing world market for television

Broad in scope and rich in detail, This Business of Television has been the essential sourcebook for producers, writers, broadcasters, network executives, and other television professionals since the first edition was published in 1991. And as the television business continues to evolve This Business of Television evolves along with it. This comprehensive guide to the legal, economic, and production aspects of the industry has been completely revised and restructured to reflect the rapid changes in television today, both domestically and internationally, A user's guide to television contracts, plus directories of associations, governmental agencies, and producers and distributors, make this book an invaluable resource for anyone involved with—or simply interested in—the business of television.

Digital Video For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

So you have a camcorder and visions of being the next Spielberg. But how do you progress from shooting so-so footage to showing your own finished movie? Digital Video For Dummies, 4th Edition gives you the know-how and the show-how! Find out how to shoot and edit great movies, using iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, or Adobe Premiere Elements to add the finishing touches like special effects and your own soundtrack. With the latest information and lots of illustrations and screen shots, this friendly guide walks you through:

• Getting your computer ready to work with digital video (complete with information about FireWire)
• Choosing a camcorder, including features to look for and features that are useless
• Digitizing old VHS videotapes to preserve memories
• Purchasing other movie making gear, including audio and lighting equipment
• Shooting better video, with tips on lighting, panning, using the zoom, and recording better audio
• Creating your own sound effects such as footsteps, bones breaking, fire, thunder, insects buzzing, and more
• Capturing digital video using iMovie, Windows Movie Marker, or Premiere Elements
• Editing, including understanding timecode, organizing and previewing clips, and assembling clips in Storyboard and Timeline
• Adding transitions, titles, and special effects
• Importing and integrating video from phones and digital cameras
• Using audio rubberbands in iMovie, Premiere Elements, and other editing programs
• Adding narration, importing and working with CD audio, and adding a music soundtrack

Keith Underdahl has extensive professional video production experience developing kiosk and marketing videos for Ages Software. Realizing that you’ll want to polish and premiere your movie, he includes information on:

• More advanced video editing, including animating video clips, improving light and color, compositing video (bluescreen or greenscreen), and more
• 13 categories of video effects, ranging from blur and sharpen to transform
• Working with still photos and graphics
• Sharing your video online using QuickTime (/QT), RealMedia (.RM), or Windows Media Video (.WMV)
• Making tapes or burning DVDs in 9 steps

With a handy cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts, a chart comparing 10 video editing programs, a glossary, and more, with this guide you’ll soon be saying “Lights, camera, action” and producing your own movie attraction.

Video Demystified, Fifth Edition: A Handbook for the Digital Engineer (Learning Made Simple) (Learning Made Simple)

What doesn't have a video component nowadays? IPod, cell phone, computer, they all have video. And, of course, television which is a major source of our entertainment and information. Any engineer involved in designing, manufacturing, or testing video electronics needs this book!

Each edition of Video Demystified has sold thousands of copies and answered many questions for electrical engineers across the globe. This fifth edition will keep the engineer up-to-date with next-generation digital video formats - Blu-ray and HD-DVD, development of new audio and video codecs - Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD, etc. - along with the all the latest information on HDTV, HDMI and IPTV(TV over the Internet). All broadcast, cable, and satellite standards will be updated to reflect these new codecs and specifications. The book will also aid in the design of devices and infrastructures from analog to digital television transmission - with analog transmission ceasing in early 2009 or before.

*The next generation of digital video - Blu-ray and HD-DVD thoroughly introduced
*All broadcast and satellite standards completely updated
*Essential information for the upcoming transition of television signals from analog to digital

This is by far the most definitive, informative video reference available, made more compelling by the author's inclusion of the hottest new trends and cutting-edge developments in the field. Finding another single-volume source for the huge amount of information in this book is impossible. Professionals in this rapidly changing field will need the new edition of this book to keep up with the latest technology developments and industry standards. With the major worldwide push to switch to digital broadcasting, adoption of new technology standards and protocols take place at a rapid pace and no-one can afford to be left behind. This means that over the next few years, utilization of digital video in broadcast, internet and other medai will skyrocket. This book will serve as an invaluable guide to the designers and engineers who will design, create, and deliver these products and services.

Practical Home Theater: A Guide to Video and Audio Systems (2008 Edition)

How can an average person navigate the maze of audio/video technologies in a home theater system? Turn to Mark Fleischmann's Practical Home Theater: A Guide to Video and Audio Systems, now in its seventh edition, thoroughly revised and updated for 2008. The ultimate answer book, it tells you everything you need to know when shopping for HDTV and surround gear-including how to read a spec sheet, how to separate fact from hype, and how to get good value for your money. It weighs the pros and cons of HDTV display technologies such as plasma, LCD, DLP, and tube-based sets. It explains the differences between Dolby and DTS surround, including the new Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master standards. It dispels the confusion surrounding such topics as HDMI and 1080p. And it covers all formats under the sun including the new Blu-ray and HD DVD discs and anything that plays in an iPod. The book also explores often ignored topics such as buying a DTV antenna, power-line accessories, and cables. A richly detailed connections chapter tells how to hook up every component and how to solve common problems. By knowledgably guiding readers through the briar patch of video and audio, Practical Home Theater has become the standard reference work for home theater buffs. Future annual editions will continue to track changes in home theater technology.