The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap [With DVD]

I don't plan on making any low-budget action epics, but this book is a delight anyway. Stu Maschwitz knows his business, writes well and has a highly developed sense of humor. As a bonus, he also provides a list of most of the best action movies made over the past several decades. Be forwarned: if you intend to make full use of the numerous examples in the book and on the accompanying DVD, you will need a copy of Adobe After Effects. Even though I don't intend to be making any action movies, I really appreciated Maschwitz's insights into how to make such movies on low budgets. There's lots of insights into movie making in general in this book and the knowledge can't help but make you a better videographer even if all you shoot are your kids and family picnics. His dissection of classic action sequences from films like "La Femme Nikita" are more than worth the price of the book. For the serious hobby videographer, the chapters on color and color correction are also very worthwhile. Overall, an excellent book for anyone interested in video in general, making low-budget action movies or simply gaining a greater appreciation of what goes into making a good action movie. A lot of fun between two covers. Jerry

This book contains everything you need to know to produce an excellent action movie with limited resources. It shows you how, using the tools available to everyone, you can create exciting, professional-looking work that will have your friends oohing and aahing. Even if your intention is not to make an action movie there is still a wealth of information that will be invaluable to anyone hoping to go beyond home movies. These are tips, tools and techniques from someone who is actively involved in filmaking at the highest levels - but these are things you can put into practice RIGHT NOW. This is easily the best DV guide I've read - and I've read a lot.

I'm a person who has directed / produced a number of short films, all shot on DV. I own a lot of books on the subject. I can easily say that this guide is my favorite one! It simultaneously confirmed to me that you can make pro-quality imagery and effects, and it flipped my world upside down on how easily it can be done. The guide illustrates to you how to make your DV or HD content look professional. More that that: it shows you how to set yourself up for success so that you can later incorporate visual effects. The guide explains in plain English what a lot of complex terms are, and why you should care. It shows you how to shoot miniatures, how to edit FX footage into your live-action plates, and how to color correct your stuff. Actually, the author gives you some useful tools for doing the color correcting! (In the form of After Effects plugins) This book isn't going to teach you After Effects or any other program. (But he lists books that will). If you are a filmmaker already familiar with these tools, then the guide will help you take the next step in polishing your content. It also gives you a simple step-by-step process for how to build your production pipleline. This pipeline might be the single best part of the book! One other cool aspect of this book is that nearly every page has tips on how to save yourself time, or money, or both. Little things like the Google Maps trick. Or how to make convincing gun-fire. Or how to save your movie in a single format to be transformed later into any format: DVD, iPod, online streaming, etc. Ultimately, I have found this book to be one of my "core" go-to books for making movies. It's goal is not to teach you tricks per say, but rather to empower you to make a great film using easily-accessible tools and modest budgets. It isn't just theory... it's practical guidelines that you can apply to your next DV or HD movie.

Stu's writing style is both infectious and inspirational. This sits alongside Robert Rodriguez's Rebel without a Crew as a mainstay for any Rebel filmmaker. The book teaches, no preaches, for the first time (aside from Rodriguez) that its okay to think big visually in your storytelling, that you can have action and special effects. I wouldn't want to count the number of books written on digital filmmaking that tell you to steer clear and stick to talking head three location features - boring. If you've gone down the DV feature path before or if you're just starting out, Stu has tip and tricks for it all. From prep and pre-prod, to shooting, and post. Oh, the resources on the DVD are worth the price of the book alone. Digital production is all about workflow and Stu has mastered this arena with great adeptness. He is himself a digital pioneer and never seems content (which is a good thing) to accept or constrain his creative vision due to budget or other reasons. He is a true Ninja - and for that we salute you. Have waited a long time for a book like this. It takes pride in my library - though it has spent more time off the shelf than one since its arrival.

This book is a MUST have for anyone who wants to make action movies with almost no money. Well written textbook style handbook made small enough to carry around yet perfect to see and read with no problem. I book the book and didnt put down it gave me the passion to want to make movies. This book covers everything and mean EVERYTHING you need to make an action film. Even the Hollywood FX people can learn from this book.