Books on making movies with DV

[Dan Dorsey]

Does anybody have any good books to recommend on how to produce a feature length movie with mini-DV, and on a budget? There are books I have found at my local book store, but most deal with Film.

Thanks

[Luis Caffesse]

There are numerous threads in this forum covering the same topic.
(in fact, there is a thread right below this one).

I'll tell you, top on my list is Scott Billups' book.
Check out www.pixelmonger.com

If you're looking for a book that deals strictly with video, his book is the best you're going to get in my opinion. Many books deal with film as well, but that can still help in terms of budgeting, preproduction, etc.

Here are some links to other threads that cover a similar topic,
or do a search through this forum:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...&threadid=5533

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=20354


Hope this helps,
-Luis

[Jared Thomas]

a book by michael dean named $30 film school is a really good book on making a cheap dv film. and info on how to promote and other intresting stuff.

[Brendan Marnell]

I've just finished ploughing through Scott Billups Digital Moviemaking to find that it is largely irrelevant to someone with a GL2 or less.

Lots of punchy language BUT NO INDEX ... what a waste of my time and money!

Unless you're into big plant & machinery, perhaps ... I wouldn't know.

Marcus van Bavel's Shooting Digital is more relevant to my set-up but his presentation of info is frequently unhelpful e.g. P.42 Lines of resolution ... second sentence reads... "Don't be confused by the resolution of the lens, etc. " What did you really mean to say, Marcus? because that sentence tells me almost nothing, and there are too many like that all over the book; See P.95 for a real bloomer ... under the list of wares are the words "This is everything you need to edit digital video." But you don't mean that and I wish you wouldn't write what you don't mean ... I want to learn but my time is running out and i can't be wasting it trying to figure out what someone meant to write ... that's your job, if you put pen to paper. And again where is the INDEX ... surely the greatest convenience offered by every work of non-fiction for 500 years? Appendices are no substitute for an index ... smell of padding. Without an index it took me too long to discover the useful information which is there but scattered.


Brendan

[Barry Gribble]

I really liked this book:

Digital Filmmaking 101: An Essential Guide to Producing Low Budget Movies, by Dale Newton and John Gaspard

I think that they originally wrote this about film, and then updated for digital. They produced several xtra low budget feature films - mostly in 4 consecutive long weekends.

The book was an overview and mostly from a producer's perspective. It was a great overview and definitely got me in the correct mindset for filmmaking. They had some great practical stuff, including budget sheets, etc.

Some advice that stuck with me the most:

- Rent over holiday weekends, you take it on Friday and bring it back on Tuesday for a 1-day rate.
- Schedule shots so that extras can be there in the AM, or the PM, but not over lunch time (saving food cost)
- If your actors are working free, write at least one really good line for each in the script (even the smaller roles) - it will reward them and keep them interested

They also had pretty extensive advice on how to structure a non-profit to legally use free labor.

It is definitely a strong overview worth having if you are looking at producing shorts or feature length DV titles.

Good luck.

[Gints Klimanis]

I liked this book. It's a broad overview of most aspects of video production but offers lots of advice.

Video Shooter : Storytelling with DV, HD, and HDV Cameras - Barry Braverman