This is a good overall guide to working with digital video. While it covers equipment, the real focus is on how to bring everything together to make a movie. Most of the concepts are relevant to making short commercials as well.
OK, but not great
I've been reading several books on the subject, and while this one seems reasonably complete it falls down in alot of areas. The authors starts some technical discussions and leaves the reader hanging. Some parts were really confusing, like the section on NLE software.As a general overview to the process of making DV movies, it was ok, and easy to read. It almost appears the the author was trying to create a book which was a technical how to guide, and an overview to the process, but never fully explained both.
Good advice, but thin in parts
It's easy to tell the author has experience behind the camera. But the book seems thin in parts, perhaps where he's less well grounded--camcorder controls and post techniques, for example. This book was used as the text in a DV production course I took, but the lecturer had a lot more information than it does. I think it was one of the few books on this topic at the time they designed the course, but there are a lot more books on DV out there now.
Who's in the audience?
I've given this book a middle rating because I'm not sure what category of reader is its intended target. It mentions "first time filmmakers" but few start at that point. If it's aimed at the rank beginner who's trying to find a handhold, I'd rate it lower. If it's aimed at those who are knee-deep in the process, or is meant to supplement instruction, I might rate it higher.As someone just beginning to look into digital filmmaking, I bought this book along with Digital Filmmaking 101. I'm glad I bought DF 101. Digital Video, on the other hand, is destined to be donated to my local and impoverished library. Another book-buying lesson learned.
I don't think of it as a really bad book, or an unbalanced book, and if I were more familiar with digital video I might appreciate it more--or less, depending on how correct the information is. As it is, I finished reading it and felt as if I'd gained little "stick to the ribs" information from it. The chapters after chapter 7 seemed especially unsuited to the beginner.
It may be that the book tries to cover too much territory. Obviously, shooting a movie--even with DV--is a complex process where a lot can go wrong. Making a book complex (not necessarily detailed) isn't likely to work well with the person new to the process, especially if the editing isn't up to par.
I suspect the approach taken by DF 101, combined with further reading on various elements of the craft, will serve most of those readers better.
The book comes with a CD, the contents of which are unknown to me, as it appeared to be lightly scuffed and was unreadable in four CD-ROMs, even after cleaning. Hopefully an isolated case.