Techniques of Special Effects of Cinematography

I've had this book in my possession before, but never owned it. I used it as a reference for a student film and I learned a lot from it. Sure, you can do a lot of the stuff in Avid now, without having to do it the old fashion way, but how can you make the SFX if you don't know what you're trying to achieve? This book tells you how the effects were done practically, and then from their it may inspire you to see NLE in a new way. Personally, that's how I feel about this book. It taught me to have new found respect for all the work that went into filmmaking before I came along. So, if you want to learn more about the filmmaking process and really open your mind, get this book. As far as I know they aren't making any more copies, and some are going for well over [...]bucks. So obviously somebody thinks it's valuable, that's why I finally ordered my copy. It really is an amazing book. If you want to be a DP or knowledgeable camera operator, then you should know your past.

For many years, Raymond Fielding's "Techniques of Special Effects Cinematography" was the quintessential "how'd they do that?" manual for the field of Visual Effects. Apart from back issues of American Cinematographer magazine, if you lived outside the Los angeles area, this was your best source of info on everything from stop-motion and front screen projection to matte paintings and miniatures. Since many of the techniques in the book are now accomplished digitally, it makes this book a great film HISTORY book as well. But even still, for the filmmaker who wants to utilize tried & true, old school effects techniques (out of curiosity, artistic choice or necessity) this is THE book that covers it all. My only reason for giving it 4 out of 5 stars, is the lack of info on Digital Effects and CGI.