How
to Do Everything with Online Video, 1st edition
Reviewed
by Dr. Eric Flescher
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Author: Andrew Shalat
McGraw-Hill
Osborne Media;
http://www.osborne.com
Released: November 19, 2007
Pages: 270
$30USD, $39CND 15 GBP
ISBN-10: 0071496432
ISBN-13: 978-0071496438
Strengths: The book is very readable. The book simplifies tutorials but included
in-depth information. This book has a nice objective oriented listing in the
inside cover of the front cover page as well as a nice website resources
listing on the inside of the back cover. The Chapters are well thought out
and have easy to read numbered tutorials. |
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|
Good solid information for both Macintosh and
PC/Windows users was well done. The index is well written. A nicely written
resources listing and more are included on the inside back page.
Weaknesses: The book has only black/white text which makes
the chapters a little drab. There a few screenshots and they don't have
screen pointers or anything else within these to explain how to use hardware
or software. The weaknesses are mainly cosmetic in terms of the sequencing of
the chapters depending upon whether you are novice, intermediate or advanced
user. |
Introduction
A book that shows you how to shoot
professional-quality videos has to demonstrate how to edit files, prepare clips
for posting online, and then provide solid information about sharing video
projects via blogs, websites, and podcasts. If you are looking for a book to
meet these needs, then the book, "How to Do Everything with Online
Video" is a nice one to buy.
The author, Andrew Shalat is a designer, writer, author, and is the coauthor of CNET
Do-It-Yourself Mac Projects.
Hands-on tutorials for the easiest and best video
editing software for use on PCs and Macs are included.
This 270-page book has 12 chapters, a nice index, but
no glossary of terms, which would have been nice. The inside front cover has a
real nice listing of 25 objectives that tell how the book can help you and what
you can learn. These 12 chapters are packed with useful information. These
include starting off with; Shooting videos; editing your video; uploading your
videos (including using YouTube, embedding websites, MySpace, your own web
pages and launching Vodcasts with iTunes); understanding and working with
“tags” and using them with Google (another great part was emailing your tags
through network sites); film school in a book; telling a story; storyboarding
(very well thought out); information concerning directing your video; basic
editing with either Adobe Premier Pro, Final Cut Express HD and/or iMovie O8
and finishing your video had good solid information.
While I have dabbled with YouTube, the book let me
know more of my potential.
What I particularly liked is his information about
adding audio tracks, nice converting and embedding a video to a flash video
(including some interesting codes to use), extending my utilization of tags
with Google and more. Even though I have created and sold videos, I found more
“food for thought”.
Conclusion
The black on white text and the lack of color within
the chapter makes things a little dull. The author explains how to use the
hardware and software information but also includes specific helpful techniques
concerning what kinds of videos to create with videos. However I really don’t
like the order in which the chapters are sequenced. Novice and possibly
intermediate video users, especially those trying to learn new techniques,
should start with Chapter 2 and then Chapter 5- 8. If you want to get to the
heart of working with software, for either Mac or PC users , you should start
with Chapter 10 or 11.
The screenshots will not explain visually how to use
YouTube especially if you run into a little trouble. But what I have found
YouTube is not that difficult to use and this book can help start and master
using the Video editing and sharing capabilities. If you need more information
another book may suffice.
There are few pages for YouTube utilization but that
might be enough to get your started as it is fairly easy to use except for more
complex techniques. As a confirmed Macintosh user, I like that the author
included information about iMovieHD as well as the new version iMovie 8. There
are advantages or disadvantages and reasons for using either/or or both of
these iMovie versions, The author includes a section about the compositional
use of video involving "the rule of thirds”, This was really nice as I
found this idea this technique only used for photography. It is
"little" specific gems, like this, that are integrated throughout the
chapters and really make this book a very useful one for learning about
working with video in several ways.
In short, this book is "crammed" with good
solid information. This book will not only have you " up and running
" in no time but also help you in your improvement of your YouTube movies,
ideas and creativity or enhance skills your already possess. The additional
technigues and ideas will take your farther over time. Mostly for novice or
intermediate users, even Advanced users may learn a trick or two as I did. It
might not be the ultimate guide to Online video creation and usage, but it will
get your started and take you far.