Hollywood Special Effects with Adobe Premiere Elements 3 [With CDROM]

Not repeating the other positive reviews, I just want to emphasize that it teaches "normal" use of Premier as well--- in the course of doing special effects. What is especially interesting is that the book reveals some features and abilities I did not know about or understand. It was written for 3, but I don't think they took away anything with 4 (which IMHO, has very little value added.) Good luck!

The book is excellent guide to using Premiere software. The CD has all the material and style of writing is excellent. All user guides should be written this way. As others have said before, the book will inspire you to create better videos. So happy splicing and dicing.

Beyond helping with the features of the software, the examples in this book provide interesting and meaningful applications of video editing...rolling titles, time-elapse sequences, etc. The book is very well written and illustrated. It doesn't take the place of a true user manual that explains every feature of a software product - it doesn't try to do that. Instead, it answers the question, "Okay, what kinds of things can I do with video editing?". I'm very glad I found this book.

All of the effects in this book are interesting, and each is laid out in an easy to read fashion. First shown for each effect is a list of files you will need from the CD laid out in a box entitled "MEDIA". Next is a table with complexity, skill level, and materials labeling the rows. Within the row, what applies to this effect is labeled in bold print. Next is a box labeled "What You'll Do". This is a broad overview of the steps you will take to create the effect. This is followed by a few paragraphs of introduction that talk about the effect. The rest of the pages on each particular effect go into details on each step in the "What You'll Do" box. All the instructions are heavily illustrated with screenshots of the application so you can easily follow along. The final entry for each effect involves an image that shows what your film should look like if you performed the steps correctly. The effects mentioned are quite interesting and are as follows, with a chapter dedicated to each one: Chapter 1. The See-Through Title Effect - The film is given a title, and you can see a scaled version of the underlying film coloring the title. Chapter 2. The Retro Title Effect - Gives the opening and closing titles a 60's look. Chapter 3. The Star Wars Opening Sequence Effect - Gives opening credits that scroll like they did in Star Wars. Chapter 4. The Passing of Time Effect - Emulate the passing in time by deleting frames and using "dissolves". Chapter 5. The Fast Times Effect - Shows the world rushing by your subject as he or she moves in normal time, thereby communicating a world of information about the character and story. Chapter 6. The Reverse Action Effect - Film motion goes in reverse. Chapter 7. The Pencil Sketch Effect - Your film looks like it was sketched with a pencil, like Photoshop. Chapter 8. The Watercolor Painting Effect - Make the film appear as painted by watercolor, like Photoshop. Chapter 9. The Faded Film Effect - Use dust, scratches, and faded color to make your film look old. Chapter 10. The Nightly News Effect - Adds titles, graphics, and logos to make your film look like a newscast. Chapter 11. The "24" Effect - The picture-in-picture effect popular on the show "24". Chapter 12. The Beam Me Up Effect - Simulates the transporter effect popular on Star Trek. Chapter 13. The Night Vision Effect - Makes your film look like it's being viewed through night-vision goggles. Chapter 14. The Hidden Identity Effect - "Pixelizes" certain areas on the screen to hide the identities of people as is done on crime shows. Chapter 15. The Bleeping Effect - A pure sound effect that puts a bleeping sound where speech should be. Chapter 16. The Enchanted Elf Effect - Shows you how to shrink and add color to someone and place them in a video so they appear to be an elf of some kind. Chapter 17. The Friendly Ghost Effect - Change opacity and other features to give a character the appearance of a ghost. Chapter 18. The Multiple You Effect - Placing mul