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Rating: 
Summary: full to bursting
Review: Each and every page of this book is covered with either words or pictures, and yet none of them seem to be there just to fill the space - if you know what i mean. The book is encyclopedic, coverign every bit of knowledge that you'll need to edit your home movies on your pc.
I've been shootign home movies for years, so some of the first chapter (techniques to maximise the quality of your footage) wasn't news to me, but each tip was obviously born from the same experiences i'd had. How nice it would have been to have read this in a book before having to make the mistakes in the first place.
The rest of the book dealls with the entire process of producign movies on your pc, each step copiously ilustrated and explained in the same detail.
Best of all the book tries to guess the troubles you could encounter and the mistakes that a first timer can make, and paitnely explains who to avoid each one.
The problem with having so much crammed into the book is that if you try to read it all in one sitting you could be overwhelmed, but each part is separate from the others and you can return to, and re-read, the pieces you need as you need them. It can be a little dry in places, but the case studies at the end more than make up for that - they are based on people makign the sort of movie that you will try to make vacations and parties. you can watch the finished results on the book's internet site and they really look professional, it's outstanding that they have been produced with free software.
If you've not dipped your toes into the world of digital video editing before then this book will help you make movies you'll not be embarrassed to show people!
Rating:
Summary: Not an inch wasted!
Review: Every page of this book is crammed with information on using Movie Maker 2. You might be under the impression that it is a simple program that dosen't need a manual - but it does if you really want to make movies like a pro, it needs this book!
There is a chapter on how to shoot better footage, with great little tips like showing you how to avoid all that camera 'wobble' you see on home movies - even when walking around.
It also has troubleshooting tips all the way through that can make using Windows Movie Maker a much less frustrating experience, from how best to set your films to output to editing your movies to replace and correct bad sound - it's all in here.
The book is clear with pictures and diagrams all down the pages showign you exactly how to perform each task, and the writers keep on topic and seldom deviate from the tasks in hand.
Get this book, and I'll assure you that it'll pay for itslef with the great feeling you get when you premeire you first creation.
Rating: 
Summary: Everything About Movie Maker Is Here
Review: I bought this book because Movie Maker 2 is a fairly complex movie editing program, and therefore, not intuitive.
I have to agree with some of the other reviewers that this book contains almost too much material, but for the user who really wants to use Movie Maker to make a near professional product, all the tools are covered.
I am new to the world of digital video and this is the approach I used with this book. Read the first chapter to get an understanding of the nature of digital video, then quickly read the chapters covering collections, the story board, and the time line. Finally, skim the rest of the chapters, to get a general idea of what else you can do with Movie Maker 2. Now go to the 3rd project in the back of the book, on making a video of your vacation, and following the outline there, create your own movie from what ever clips you have in your collection. Refer back to the appropriate sections of the book as necessary. Its only by working with the program that you're ever really going to learn it.
There are two good reasons for buying this book. Number 1 is that it does cover all the features of Movie Maker 2, and number 2 is that friends of Ed will answer your questions. I bought this book about a month ago, and have submitted questions to Ed's website twice. On both occasions I got the answer I needed within 24 hours.
TIP: For those of you with a lot of quicktime and real media clips that you want to edit in Movie Maker 2, you will need quicktime pro ($29.00) and RM Converter v2.21 ($28.45) to convert these movies into a format that you can use with Movie Maker 2.
Rating: 
Summary: Wish the Content we as Good as the Cover
Review: I cannot honestly recommend this text to you. It is just a mess crammed full of material that is poorly organized. We don't need to learn Movie Maker from scratch. It's a task-oriented program! Don't spend time telling me what the File menu is, tell me how to add a transition between two frames quickly! I just don't think the approach in this book is useful for the true Movie Maker user. I'd look into a more general-purpose digital video book that focuses on Movie Maker 2 as the primary software to get the job done easily (such as Perry's Digital Video in a Snap (ISBN: 0672325691)). Unlike a program such as Excel than an investor or financial planner will want to master in great detail, the Movie Maker user needs to know how to do select things at any one time depending on the job they have to do.
Rating:
Summary: Wish the Content we as Good as the Cover
Review: I cannot honestly recommend this text to you. It is just a mess crammed full of material that is poorly organized. We don't need to learn Movie Maker from scratch. It's a task-oriented program! Don't spend time telling me what the File menu is, tell me how to add a transition between two frames quickly! I just don't think the approach in this book is useful for the true Movie Maker user. I'd look into a more general-purpose digital video book that focuses on Movie Maker 2 as the primary software to get the job done easily (such as Perry's Digital Video in a Snap (ISBN: 0672325691)). Unlike a program such as Excel than an investor or financial planner will want to master in great detail, the Movie Maker user needs to know how to do select things at any one time depending on the job they have to do.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic for the DV beginner
Review: I knew nothing about editting video when I got this book - I had a PC and a video camera, but no idea even how to plug them together. Like it says on the cover, "From scratch - fast". If you don't need to learn from scratch, then you'll have to skip bits of the book - but the hero projects are worth their weight in gold to any Movie Maker user. I was surprised by the other review on this page complaining about the book "covering all the bases", so to speak - it's very clear that the book teaches you everything "from scratch" - that's what it's meant to do!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic for the DV beginner
Review: I knew nothing about editting video when I got this book - I had a PC and a video camera, but no idea even how to plug them together. Like it says on the cover, "From scratch - fast". If you don't need to learn from scratch, then you'll have to skip bits of the book - but the hero projects are worth their weight in gold to any Movie Maker user. I was surprised by the other review on this page complaining about the book "covering all the bases", so to speak - it's very clear that the book teaches you everything "from scratch" - that's what it's meant to do!
Rating:
Summary: First and best!
Review: I've had this book for a few months now. I was sceptical initally because I hadn't seen any other books about MM2, and hadn't heard of the authors or the seiries, but it really is fantastic- straight to the point and fun too! Each section is divided up into small chunks that answer all the questions you've got about how to make and edit films with your pc. Best of all it doesn't assume anything at all - it's all in there - you simply skip the bits you like. The bit I really liked though was the section at the end, where you are walked through a selection of types of movie that you might make - although getting them to look as good will take some practice. I've seen some other MM books now and I think that this one is by far the best - forget the ones on Movie Maker 1 (they just have Movie Maker -no 2- in the tile) as the programs are just too different, and the Microsoft book is a litle too wordy and makes you follow exercises step-by-step - not quite what you want when you're making your own movies!
Rating:
Summary: 'PapaJohn' & Co really hit the spot
Review: One of the authors of this book will be well known to many MovieMaker 2 users as 'PapaJohn' who seemingly answers everyones questions on the online forums and on his website. Well, he and his co-authors cover all the bases in this title, they really give every aspect of MovieMaker throurgh coverage - from import to export!
Get this book and you can make pro movies on the cheap too!
Rating:
Summary: too crammed, if anything
Review: The other reviews make refference to how full of info this book is - and they're right it is full to bursting! So much so, in fact that sometimes you just pray for there to be a bit more white space on the pages. For an old feller like me a few more pages would have been easier on the eyes. The book is very very good content-wise though, just wish it was a little lesss packed!
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