Book Review - Digital Moviemaking: All the skills, techniques, and Moxie You’ll Need to Turn Your Passion into a Career - 2nd Edition

Review by Ron Cotton - July 15, 2005

Written by Scott Billups (http://www.pixelmonger.com/)
Published by Michael Wiese Productions (http://www.mwp.com/)
300 pages, Copyright 2003.
U.S. Softcover $26.95
ISBN 1-941188-80-9

Scott Billups’ Digital Moviemaking is not yet another 'How-To-Make-A-Movie' book. Being a direct quote from the back cover, truer words haven’t been written. Sure, Digital Moviemaking opens to a foreword written by legend Roger Corwin, however, this is where all similarities to other moviemaking books end. Digital Moviemaking alternatively turns out to be an indispensable guide, uncovering everything you should have known but never been exposed to before, and proves technique through fact. Most moviemaking books don't enter half the detail that Billups traverses.

Scott Billups lifts the very foundation right from under you, driving home the notion that digital technology and terminology isn’t merely the buzzwords and jargon you spew out to impress your peers. No, these are not issues that you can simply fix in post. Garbage-in, Garbage-out. These considerations you must face before preproduction, and once these basic building blocks are in place, Billups’ reveals how to apply them throughout your filmmaking career.

The Myth of Technology launches with Billups exploration into digital experimentation and camera creations in the early 90’s, before Digital Video came in the prosumer market. Light Beams & Pixel Streams explain the scoping charts, analog and digital media, MPEG2 compression, and interlacing. Format Wars fuels the debate between PAL and NTSC, and proves why PAL is superior in almost every way imaginable. Tools glosses whats needed to professionally produce what you want, strongly urging renting high-quality rather than owning sub-par equipment. The Hi-Definition Transition examines the myths of this recent format, the crew required and the special care needed to film in this youthful format. Spiels and Deals identifies the chutzpahs needed to reach the level beyond what most of them become (i.e. nothing).

That’s just a sneak peek of a few chapters inside this amazing book. The reference section of the book is quite informative. David Corley of DSC laboratories gives details on 'Camera Alignment'. Bill Holshevnikoff of ‘Power of Lighting’ gives tips on using a light meter. Sean Fairburn rounds out the reference area with ‘Hi-Definition Guidebook'.

All and all, an excellent resource and book that you'll be able to apply and reference on the field. Thanks again Bill, for one of my favorite reads to date!

References:
DSCLabs CamAlign FrontBox Series (http://www.dsclabs.com/)