Digital Moviemaking: All the Skills, Techniques and Moxie You'll Need to Turn Your Passion Into a Career

I liked this book. After getting a degree in film school, then going to a post production school you learn what books and what information is real, is for beginners, and is for the business people looking for a quick buck thinking they can run Hollywood over with their copycat movies. This book has some guts, although not 100% correct on some issues, but well worth the read. As Charles Henry Blackledge says in his review--some i agree with and others I do not... Chuck writes--------------------------------------------------------------- If you're looking for a book that will give you practical, nuts and bolts, down to brass tacks advice on how to make a quality, professional looking DV movie on an ultra-low budget then "Digital Moviemaking" by Scott Billups is NOT the book you're looking for. This book was obviously written by a tech-nerd for other tech-nerds. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Chuck!! I find that of you are making your own movie, one NEEDS to BE a tech-nerd. Self movie creation and publication is not for the creative types, you have to be all the above. We are not talking that you can be one and hire the rest, this is not what the book is about. Yes I agree the title should be changed to fit the information, but why make the title ruin what information is in there? Chuck writes---------------------------------------------------------------- If you are an aspiring filmmaker who has a good movie idea and want to know how to shoot it on an ultra-low budget then don't waste your money buying this book. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- If you ARE an aspiring moviemaker (we are shooting it on video; therefore, we are MOVIEMAKERS not filmmakies) you should NEVER use any home movie camera or home movie media (miniDV, any if them)--as you so call it low budget. People should only use these for practice, never for publication or projection. Seriousness shows what you will do with your time, money, and craft. Of course one could have a wonderful, exciting, and entertaining story done on VHS, but why would one waste their efforts putting it on it. IT DOES NOT SHOW how serious or their commitment to their craft. Save up, borrow, or beg for the better stuff. Chuck writes----------------------------------------------------------------- I recommend instead reading "Digital Filmmaking 101" by Dale Newton and John Gaspard which is a much better book that explains in layman's terms how to shoot a quality, professional looking movie on digital video. --------------------------------------------------------------------- I also have this book and found it informative as well. With any information, news, gossip, and so forth, why do people read it from one source and call it truth or real? Read more than one paper, watch more than one news program, look at more than one weather station, and read more than one book on moviemaking--the more you do this better informed

I reviewed this Book for High Definition Magazine in 2003. I was so impressed that I thought this information should be available generally.Back in the 60's Scott Billups would have been known as a video freak. The subtitle of his book Digital Moviemaking: "All the skill, techniques and moxie you'll need to turn your passion into a career": also betrays his understanding that digital moviemaking is a business as well as a technicians paradise - and I have to say right here right now, what this man don't know about video - ain't worth knowin' !"Those who know will always have a job, those who know why, will be in charge." From Chapter two.Digital Moviemaking is a very readable book and there are a plethora of technical details for all but the most seriously anoraked of our readers. Scott's approach to High Definition is to take you on a journey of understanding through the underlying principles of the digital realm. There are many many technical descriptions that allow the reader easily into a highly complex digital world - He begins with a basic description of the fundamentals of analogue to digital conversion, through the systems of compression, up through DV all the way to High Definition. This is a necessary path because the understanding of High Definition issues lay within the undergrowth of simple digital encoding and compression. I haven't come across a book as clear as this one before.Scott is the Richard Dawkins of digital technicalities - he can make even the most dense technical information fun:"While RGB theoretically creates the most robust ITU-R 601 signal, the most common reference to 601 as colour difference, component digital video, sampled at 4:2:2 at 13.5 mhz with 720 luminance samples per active line, digitized at either 8 - or 10 bit.Whew, it hurt me to write that too".This fundamentally technical book actually made me understand and laugh out loud ! What's more, it's an energetic enough book to begin with image capture, work its way through the editing process, then out and onto film - and beyond. At the end there's a reference section in which you'll find an extremely concise guide for the newly fledged HD Cinematographer.But this book is also a rant against Hollywood which is fun in itself and Scott is on a mission to re-educate and re-inform his audience who he sees as enthusiastic but slightly wayward idealists who want to invade Hollywood's hallowed avenues without the right information. "Just imagine if the snakes that slither through the gutters of Hollywood actually had a say in matters. They'd glut the market, take their booty, and retire in a heartbeat. You know it, I know it, and they know it."Scott has worked with many great filmmakers, including David Lynch, and he was even assistant to the great James Wong Howe, so you know that what he's got to say has real authority, though I get the feeling he'd poo poo that suggestion himself. He's also at the very cutting edge of invention - he'll think nothing of capturi

I've read this book about ten times now and I count my lucky stars every time I open it up. Actually, Billups shows us the entire Milky Way. It's unbelievable!

Billups' first book was a significant endeavor. Beginning w/ the film industry itself (read: Hollywood), Billups explained, enlightened, entertained, & debunked the "Hollywood Myth". "Whoever has a camera is the new Hollywood", he said, & proceeded to show you how to (a) make that miniDV camera cough-up an excellent image, (b) corral enough like-minded ppl to put a Production together, (c) Direct those ppl & Produce a completed project, & (d) Edit your image while keeping maximum resolution for film-out (printing to film). Well, he's got a new version of the book.Few books add significant value in their second edition -- fix a few errata, add a new chapter, walla. Instead, Billups has extensively reviewed/updated the WHOLE DARN BOOK, & it's amazing. Now, if you're a frequent visitor to his web site (or read his articles in DV mag, etc.), a lot of the new material you'll have seen before -- albiet it's integrated well w/ the first-edition material. You'll find LOTS of good, practical advice both on how to use digital cinema, & when *not* to. The recommendation to NOT buy anything over miniDV ( & rent instead) is particularly refreshing, as-is the debunking of the "HD is cheaper" school. Billups is at his best when he gives the technical overview of the Industry, as well as a state-of-digital-hardware... but [again] he goes further & expands his quite-good sections on Cinematography, Production & Directing... all w/ emphasis on digital [ie, small-scale] production. Only 3 quibbles: (1) some of the pictures from the first text are so small now as to be nearly useless (ie, frame comparisons of miniDV vs HD, of CCD image vs image-on-tape, etc. don't work when they're too-small to see a difference), (2) the highly-useful color plates are gone, & (3) a teensy technical quibble. Billups tries to be objective about hardware, but really isn't when it comes to the XL1/s unit. {techie alert} Sure, it's got a manual lens... but it's crippled by the lower-quality ccd imager (ask DVfilm, etc. about comparisons of film-out w/ PD150, etc.), FAKE "progressive" mode which is death on film-out (he admits this), & non-ideal anamorphic 'squeezing', which again is not-great for film-out. Similarly, the DVX100 is highly-recommended in the book, but it has no 16:9 anamorphic lens available, so you have to lose res. by using the internal "cropping" method. As the book emphasizes "miniDV for film-out", these oversights are a tad glaring. A manual lens that doesn't "never stop spinning" might be absolutely mandatory for high-end production, but quite a few InDiGent features (for example) have used the PD150 PAL + anamorphic via film-out to non-insignificant theatrical release, Sundance Awards, etc. Billups himself used a similar unit for the David Lynch Playstation2 commercial.Regardless, all is forgiven, however, if the XL2 is as promised, & under $6k. We all want Sony-quality HAD 16:9 ccd imagers coupled w/ Canon manual lens & true 24p/30p operati

"Scott Billups's Digital Moviemaking is the best one-stop guide you can buy, not just to the new digital technology, but to any form of low budget filmmaking. We couldn't find a wasted word." TONY KEILY, EDITOR...