Review: Digital Video Hacks at DVinfo.net

Robert Nagle · December 6th, 2005, 01:58 PM

Digital Video Hacks: Tips & Tools for Shooting, Editing & Sharing Joshua Paul et al. 0596009461 432 pages O'Reilly; 1 edition (May 27, 2005) $29.95 US PDF Samples http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/digit...ter/index.html

Digital Video Pocket Guide Derrick Story, Oreilly, 2003, 128 pages 0596005237 $14.95 US PDF Samples http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dvideopg/

Does anyone know when Oreilly stopped putting animals on its book covers? & started adding (gasp!) illustrations to their technology books? Camels & monkeys & birds still adorn the programming books, but a lot of recent Oreilly books have targeted user applications (i.e., The Missing Manual series) & a more graphically-oriented approach (some might say a comic book approach) to highly technical subjects (see the Headfirst Series http://www.wickedlysmart.com/ or their recent Make magazine http://www.makezine.com/ ). The newly released Digital Video Hacks offers a more user-friendly approach, providing lots of tips & ideas to how to produce a video project.

This book (like other Hacks books) lists 100 hacks & how to do them. It includes contributions from about a dozen writers, most notably filmmaker Michael Dean (who directed the film DIY or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist http://www.kittyfeet.com/diy.htm ) & Derrick Story who wrote the terrific Digital Video Pocket Guide (which I'll speak more about later).

Unlike Digital Video Pocket Guide (which focuses more on the shooting part of the production process), Digital Video Hacks walks you through production, post-production & even a little bit of distribution. First, here's a list of things you won't find covered in this book(not in enough depth to be useful). You won't find much discussion about HD production (a good source is the HD For Indies weblog http://www.hdforindies.com/ ); you won't find much advice about buying equipment or how to comparison shop (camcorder.info http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ might provide better information about that). You won't find a handbook of non-linear editors (NLE) or even a comparison of those currently on the market. Interestingly, the NLE screenshots come from various applications, & in fact they even mention Linux & open-source options on occasion (it doesn't mention Kino http://kino.schirmacher.de/article/static/2 , though it goes over a neat open source encoding tool called ffmpeg http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/index.php ). Acknowledging that people will be using different NLEs, the book talks about NLE tricks in a generic way. Aside from postproduction, this book doesn't cover managing a video project (getting clearance, making budgets, etc), or the aesthetics of videography. You'll have to check other books for that (see below).

That aside, the book is great. For basic videography, the book talks about things you can improvise: using roller skates or baby carriages for dolly shots, windshield shades for bounceboards, parchment paper or pantyhose for light diffusion. I also learned a lot of great tricks: how to mount your camera on your car (PDF)http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/digit...ter/hack27.pdf, log your footage & fix timecode/digital transfer problems http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/digit...ter/hack48.pdf (PDF) . The book covers lots of gotchas: Why you should edit with both a TV monitor & computer monitor, cleaning audio (with high-pass or low-pass filters or applications like Soundsoap http://www.bias-inc.com/products/soundsoap/ ). All great stuff. The portion on lighting was ok; unlike many video production books (which go into excruciating detail about lighting equipment way above an individual's budget), the book describes an on-the-go lightkit assembled by a director for shooting in Thailand. This was cool & interesting, but I definitely could have used more buying information about something above no-budget lighting. I would have liked a discussion of common lighting scenarios. (I guess this is just something you have to learn on your own). Aside from a discussion of monopods, I'm surprised that the book didn't weigh in on do-it-yourself steadicams. I really wanted an extended discussion of that (luckily, there seems to be a a slashdot discussion on the topic http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/09/1929235 ).

I had the same complaint about the audio section. While it contained some interesting sound tricks (regarding the soundproof car interior as a mobile studio for example) I missed information about the different types of microphones & how to place them correctly. Such basic stuff isn't properly considered a hack & thus not included here. That is unfortunate. To be fair though, the audio hacks given here were excellent. To wit, hack #57 (Fool Your Audience's Perception (PDF)) describes in detail how to use the McGurk effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGurk_Effect to cover mistakes & yes, even to edit out profanity without your audience catching on.

For readers looking for more information about the shooting process itself, the cheaper & more succinct 2003 Digital Video Pocket Guide by Derrick Story covers that information superbly. Story's book goes into more detail about equipment to buy as well as how to resolve lighting & sound problems. There's only so much you can say in 112 pages, but 30 of those pages are devoted to solving practical shooting problems (i.e., the walking interview, dealing with wind http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dvide...apter/Tip5.pdf (PDF), etc.) Another 30 pages consists of reference material & tables about basic camera concepts (i.e., how aperture relates to depth of field). Also, this book in particular has a high percentage of color photographs, which (like those in Digital Video Hacks) make it easier to understand what the writer is getting at. Some of the information from Digital Video Pocket Guide is duplicated in Digital Video Hacks, but lately I've found myself referring more often to the Pocket Guide than the Video Hacks book.

In contrast, Digital Video Hacks spends a lot more time on post-production, resolving sound problems & image discrepencies. It also contains lots of tricks (special techniques for appropriate certain contexts). Some examples: time-lapse video of a sunset, constructing a DIY blue screen shot (really cool & not as complicated as I thought), controlling your camera remotely, making your own "weather report," creating a "freeze-time" sequence (a la Matrix), creating a video for 3-D viewing, making DVD menus, defeating the Macromedia protections on commercial DVDs to import clips into your project, shooting a computer monitor (the discrepencies in refresh rates causes flickering) & rotating your video from vertical to horizontal. The book also contains postproduction tricks (such as changing a scene from day to night) as well as other advanced techniques: Removing an unwanted object (like a microphone) from your video image using your NLE or using XML config files to create custom effects & transitions in MS Movie Maker http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...e&hidetoc=true.

The book did a fairly good job talking about distribution, encoding & rendering. There was a good discussion about setting up bit torrent, videoblogging, live feeds, video catalogs, creating DVD menus & encoding for media players on portable devices (using 3GPP file formats). This is important & amazing stuff, especially as video aggregators like FireAnt http://help.antisnottv.net/index.php/Main_Page become more popular. In addition, some hacks were less about video production than using remote cameras for everyday uses (security, remote tech support). Interesting for some, not terribly important to future Richard Linklaters.

Both books have great color images and are easy to browse through. I like the way that Digital Video Hacks offered suggestions for Linux, Windows & Apple & didn't limit themselves to talking about only one application like Final Cut Pro. Sometimes a a technology book, if its approach to the subject is too generic, will turn out not to offer a practical series of steps for accomplishing tasks. Digital Video Hacks did not fall into this trap.

In summary: Digital Video Hacks is an excellent all-in-one book for video producers at all levels. Great practical suggestions & tricks, although I wish it provided more help for evaluating your equipment needs (& making it fit within your budget).

Robert Nagle , http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/ writes web fiction under various pseudonyms.

* * * *

Other Recommendations:

Books: Lighting for Digital Video & Television, Second Edition by John Jackman

Producing Great Sound for Digital Video [Paperback] by Jay Rose

On Film Editing by Edward Dmytryk (written 20 years ago, but succinct & still relevant)

Directing the Documentary by Michael Rabiger (good on aesthetics, camera technique & project management).

No Budget Movie (FREE PDF book) http://nobudgetmovie.com/

The Conversations: Walter Murch & the Art of Editing Film, by Michael Ondaatje. Extended thoughts on editing & the art of filmmaking.

Forums: dvxuser http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/index.php? , camcorderinfo.com http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/ , dvinfo http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/ , & cinematography.com http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/

Free Tutorials: Sonnyboo Articles http://www.sonnyboo.com/downloads/articles.htm , Indie Film Tech Videos by Scott Spears (free http://www.scottspears.net/filmmakpg3.html ), Cybercollege course on Audio/TV production http://www.cybercollege.org/tvp_ind.htm

December 6th, 2005, 01:58 PM	#1
Robert Nagle Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 29	Review: Digital Video Hacks Digital Video Hacks: Tips & Tools for Shooting, Editing & Sharing Joshua Paul et al. 0596009461 432 pages O'Reilly; 1 edition (May 27, 2005) $29.95 US PDF Samples http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/digit...ter/index.html Digital Video Pocket Guide Derrick Story, Oreilly, 2003, 128 pages 0596005237 $14.95 US PDF Samples http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dvideopg/ Does anyone know when Oreilly stopped putting animals on its book covers? & started adding (gasp!) illustrations to their technology books? Camels & monkeys & birds still adorn the programming books, but a lot of recent Oreilly books have targeted user applications (i.e., The Missing Manual series) & a more graphically-oriented approach (some might say a comic book approach) to highly technical subjects (see the Headfirst Series http://www.wickedlysmart.com/ or their recent Make magazine http://www.makezine.com/ ). The newly released Digital Video Hacks offers a more user-friendly approach, providing lots of tips & ideas to how to produce a video project. This book (like other Hacks books) lists 100 hacks & how to do them. It includes contributions from about a dozen writers, most notably filmmaker Michael Dean (who directed the film DIY or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist http://www.kittyfeet.com/diy.htm ) & Derrick Story who wrote the terrific Digital Video Pocket Guide (which I'll speak more about later). Unlike Digital Video Pocket Guide (which focuses more on the shooting part of the production process), Digital Video Hacks walks you through production, post-production & even a little bit of distribution. First, here's a list of things you won't find covered in this book(not in enough depth to be useful). You won't find much discussion about HD production (a good source is the HD For Indies weblog http://www.hdforindies.com/ ); you won't find much advice about buying equipment or how to comparison shop (camcorder.info http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ might provide better information about that). You won't find a handbook of non-linear editors (NLE) or even a comparison of those currently on the market. Interestingly, the NLE screenshots come from various applications, & in fact they even mention Linux & open-source options on occasion (it doesn't mention Kino http://kino.schirmacher.de/article/static/2 , though it goes over a neat open source encoding tool called ffmpeg http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/index.php ). Acknowledging that people will be using different NLEs, the book talks about NLE tricks in a generic way. Aside from postproduction, this book doesn't cover managing a video project (getting clearance, making budgets, etc), or the aesthetics of videography. You'll have to check other books for that (see below). That aside, the book is great. For basic videography, the book talks about things you can improvise: using roller skates or baby carriages for dolly shots, windshield shades for bounceboards, parchment paper or pantyhose for light diffusion. I also learned a lot of great tricks: how to mount your camera on your car (PDF)http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/digit...ter/hack27.pdf, log your footage & fix timecode/digital transfer problems http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/digit...ter/hack48.pdf (PDF) . The book covers lots of gotchas: Why you should edit with both a TV monitor & computer monitor, cleaning audio (with high-pass or low-pass filters or applications like Soundsoap http://www.bias-inc.com/products/soundsoap/ ). All great stuff. The portion on lighting was ok; unlike many video production books (which go into excruciating detail about lighting equipment way above an individual's budget), the book describes an on-the-go lightkit assembled by a director for shooting in Thailand. This was cool & interesting, but I definitely could have used more buying information about something above no-budget lighting. I would have liked a discussion of common lighting scenarios. (I guess this is just something you have to learn on your own). Aside from a discussion of monopods, I'm surprised that the book didn't weigh in on do-it-yourself steadicams. I really wanted an extended discussion of that (luckily, there seems to be a a slashdot discussion on the topic http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/09/1929235 ). I had the same complaint about the audio section. While it contained some interesting sound tricks (regarding the soundproof car interior as a mobile studio for example) I missed information about the different types of microphones & how to place them correctly. Such basic stuff isn't properly considered a hack & thus not included here. That is unfortunate. To be fair though, the audio hacks given here were excellent. To wit, hack #57 (Fool Your Audience's Perception (PDF)) describes in detail how to use the McGurk effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGurk_Effect to cover mistakes & yes, even to edit out profanity without your audience catching on. For readers looking for more information about the shooting process itself, the cheaper & more succinct 2003 Digital Video Pocket Guide by Derrick Story covers that information superbly. Story's book goes into more detail about equipment to buy as well as how to resolve lighting & sound problems. There's only so much you can say in 112 pages, but 30 of those pages are devoted to solving practical shooting problems (i.e., the walking interview, dealing with wind http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dvide...apter/Tip5.pdf (PDF), etc.) Another 30 pages consists of reference material & tables about basic camera concepts (i.e., how aperture relates to depth of field). Also, this book in particular has a high percentage of color photographs, which (like those in Digital Video Hacks) make it easier to understand what the writer is getting at. Some of the information from Digital Video Pocket Guide is duplicated in Digital Video Hacks, but lately I've found myself referring more often to the Pocket Guide than the Video Hacks book. In contrast, Digital Video Hacks spends a lot more time on post-production, resolving sound problems & image discrepencies. It also contains lots of tricks (special techniques for appropriate certain contexts). Some examples: time-lapse video of a sunset, constructing a DIY blue screen shot (really cool & not as complicated as I thought), controlling your camera remotely, making your own "weather report," creating a "freeze-time" sequence (a la Matrix), creating a video for 3-D viewing, making DVD menus, defeating the Macromedia protections on commercial DVDs to import clips into your project, shooting a computer monitor (the discrepencies in refresh rates causes flickering) & rotating your video from vertical to horizontal. The book also contains postproduction tricks (such as changing a scene from day to night) as well as other advanced techniques: Removing an unwanted object (like a microphone) from your video image using your NLE or using XML config files to create custom effects & transitions in MS Movie Maker http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...e&hidetoc=true. The book did a fairly good job talking about distribution, encoding & rendering. There was a good discussion about setting up bit torrent, videoblogging, live feeds, video catalogs, creating DVD menus & encoding for media players on portable devices (using 3GPP file formats). This is important & amazing stuff, especially as video aggregators like FireAnt http://help.antisnottv.net/index.php/Main_Page become more popular. In addition, some hacks were less about video production than using remote cameras for everyday uses (security, remote tech support). Interesting for some, not terribly important to future Richard Linklaters. Both books have great color images and are easy to browse through. I like the way that Digital Video Hacks offered suggestions for Linux, Windows & Apple & didn't limit themselves to talking about only one application like Final Cut Pro. Sometimes a a technology book, if its approach to the subject is too generic, will turn out not to offer a practical series of steps for accomplishing tasks. Digital Video Hacks did not fall into this trap. In summary: Digital Video Hacks is an excellent all-in-one book for video producers at all levels. Great practical suggestions & tricks, although I wish it provided more help for evaluating your equipment needs (& making it fit within your budget). Robert Nagle , http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/ writes web fiction under various pseudonyms. * * * * Other Recommendations: Books: Lighting for Digital Video & Television, Second Edition by John Jackman Producing Great Sound for Digital Video [Paperback] by Jay Rose On Film Editing by Edward Dmytryk (written 20 years ago, but succinct & still relevant) Directing the Documentary by Michael Rabiger (good on aesthetics, camera technique & project management). No Budget Movie (FREE PDF book) http://nobudgetmovie.com/ The Conversations: Walter Murch & the Art of Editing Film, by Michael Ondaatje. Extended thoughts on editing & the art of filmmaking. Forums: dvxuser http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/index.php? , camcorderinfo.com http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/ , dvinfo http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/ , & cinematography.com http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/ Free Tutorials: Sonnyboo Articles http://www.sonnyboo.com/downloads/articles.htm , Indie Film Tech Videos by Scott Spears (free http://www.scottspears.net/filmmakpg3.html ), Cybercollege course on Audio/TV production http://www.cybercollege.org/tvp_ind.htm