"Teach Yourself Visually - Digital Video" - Good book for newbies and others too
 

I ran into this book at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Rochester, Minnesota. I was bored to death from being holed up at the Mayo Clinic for 2 days (no offense to any Rochester residents out there, but your TV stations suck!)

Anywho...

This book's first 6 chapters cover just about everything:

Lighting - equipment, techniques, gels & filters, light color temperature, etc.

Working with sound - understanding sound properties, microphone placement, recording tips, etc.

Planning your video - creating storyboard, etc.

Shooting video - zooming techniques, frame composition, shooting chroma keys, etc.

The last nine chapters are specifically for users of Apple iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premier, Windows Movie Maker. These chapters offer visual learning tools for using editing software and it's various features.

The information in the book is very simplified, basic, and straight-forward. To me, the book is almost like an encyclopedia... a good source of reference. I was flipping through the pages of this book and ran across a couple terms I see being tossed around this forum and I was like.... "hmmm, so THAT's what they're talking about!".

Really, really good reading. For me, this book is the bomb. I have learned and have a much better understanding just from the one day I have had it!

Oh yeah - Teach Yourself Visually - Digital Video
By Jinjer & Richard Simon

Thank you for the tip, Linda. I think that this is the book at amazon, eh? (Geez, I had no idea there were so many "Teach Yourself Visually..." books!

p.s. Let's hope your next reading is made in a more pleasant locale.