I rather enjoyed this book, I must say, although I read it at the wrong time.
I have been spending a lot of time at my boyfriend's house in the evenings lately, and because it is his house and not mine I sometimes find myself waiting for him as he puts on the washing etc. I loathe incidentally watching TV just because I have nothing better to do - sitting down to watch a show I like is one thing; sitting in front of any old crap is another - so I decided that I would fill the gap with reading, which has been on my "I should do more..." list (next to exercise) for ages.
I have been concerned that I need to develop my "visual eye" for film more, and so I chose two books; the one I am writing about now, and another that I will write about once I read the last chapter. I decided that if I read a practically focused book and a theoretically/aesthetically focused book at the same time then they would enhance each other - the aesthetic would give me greater curiousity for the practical and vice versa. And the technique has been a success! So I shall continue this method through the summer.
Anyway, 'Digital Video Production Cookbook' is essentially a collection of cheap and easy tips and tricks for film-makers, divided up into chapters devoted to various areas of film-making – lighting techniques, editing tricks, special effects make-up etc. And I thoroughly enjoyed the book and all of the ideas it gave me – I just wish I had read it before making my last short film! It’s not necessarily that I would have used many (or any?) of the techniques suggested, it’s just that reading this sort of thing gives you an outside-the-square way of thinking that might have been really helpful in finding some short cuts during the filming process. But never mind; I’ve read it now, and at least now I know where to look as a reference when I do need these tricks!
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