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Rating: 
Summary: The one-stop solution
Review: "Scott Billups's Digital Moviemaking is the best one-stop guide you can buy, not just to the new digital technology, but to any form of low budget filmmaking. We couldn't find a wasted word." TONY KEILY, EDITOR...
Rating:
Summary: Even better than the 1st edition
Review: Billups' first book was a significant endeavor. Beginning w/ the film industry itself (read: Hollywood), Billups explained, enlightened, entertained, & debunked the "Hollywood Myth". "Whoever has a camera is the new Hollywood", he said, & proceeded to show you how to (a) make that miniDV camera cough-up an excellent image, (b) corral enough like-minded ppl to put a Production together, (c) Direct those ppl & Produce a completed project, & (d) Edit your image while keeping maximum resolution for film-out (printing to film). Well, he's got a new version of the book. Few books add significant value in their second edition -- fix a few errata, add a new chapter, walla. Instead, Billups has extensively reviewed/updated the WHOLE DARN BOOK, & it's amazing. Now, if you're a frequent visitor to his web site (or read his articles in DV mag, etc.), a lot of the new material you'll have seen before -- albiet it's integrated well w/ the first-edition material. You'll find LOTS of good, practical advice both on how to use digital cinema, & when *not* to. The recommendation to NOT buy anything over miniDV (& rent instead) is particularly refreshing, as-is the debunking of the "HD is cheaper" school. Billups is at his best when he gives the technical overview of the Industry, as well as a state-of-digital-hardware... but [again] he goes further & expands his quite-good sections on Cinematography, Production & Directing... all w/ emphasis on digital [ie, small-scale] production. Only 3 quibbles: (1) some of the pictures from the first text are so small now as to be nearly useless (ie, frame comparisons of miniDV vs HD, of CCD image vs image-on-tape, etc. don't work when they're too-small to see a difference), (2) the highly-useful color plates are gone, & (3) a teensy technical quibble. Billups tries to be objective about hardware, but really isn't when it comes to the XL1/s unit. {techie alert} Sure, it's got a manual lens... but it's crippled by the lower-quality ccd imager (ask DVfilm, etc. about comparisons of film-out w/ PD150, etc.), FAKE "progressive" mode which is death on film-out (he admits this), & non-ideal anamorphic 'squeezing', which again is not-great for film-out. Similarly, the DVX100 is highly-recommended in the book, but it has no 16:9 anamorphic lens available, so you have to lose res. by using the internal "cropping" method. As the book emphasizes "miniDV for film-out", these oversights are a tad glaring. A manual lens that doesn't "never stop spinning" might be absolutely mandatory for high-end production, but quite a few InDiGent features (for example) have used the PD150 PAL + anamorphic via film-out to non-insignificant theatrical release, Sundance Awards, etc. Billups himself used a similar unit for the David Lynch Playstation2 commercial. Regardless, all is forgiven, however, if the XL2 is as promised, & under $6k. We all want Sony-quality HAD 16:9 ccd imagers coupled w/ Canon manual lens & true 24p/30p operation. Now, about that low-light capability.... I *highly* recommend this book, to be read & re-read. You absolutely *can* make miniDV look *better* than BetaSP, using his methodologies (as I've found-out myself). Thanks, Scott!!
Rating: 
Summary: A fun, down-to-earth read, held back by some minor errors.
Review: I got this book a matter of days ago, and upon finishing the introduction, I hated the author with a passion. He had me furious with his no-nonsense, kick-in-the-crotch attitude that went against everything I believed. Or so I thought. After a good night's sleep, I realized that most of what he had to say was correct, and I found my way around to agreeing with most of his points. I decided to give the rest of it a chance, and I'm glad I did, because although Billups continues telling it like he thinks it is (he's right pretty much all of the time, to his credit), he manages to inject a sense of humor into the proceedings, and keep the book light hearted enough so as not to scare you away. This helps tremendously in making him seem more like a working professional, and not a pompous, self-important windbag.
I haven't got much to say about the GOOD parts of the book; they are numerous indeed, and I learned a good deal from them regardless of the fact that I don't see myself doing this for a living.
No, what struck me most about this book was the liberal sprinkling of spelling, grammatic, conceptual, and structural errors. Never before have I encountered such nonsense in a FIRST edition book, let alone a second. What am I talking about? Well, the spelling errors are usually minor, and easily overlooked, but the grammar is another thing entirely. "Orientated" instead of "oriented", "bandpass" instead of "bandwidth", things like that. "Orientated", I suppose, is technically correct (though it makes one look about as ridiculous as "irregardless" does), and "bandpass" may very well be the proper term in certain situations, but it's like the difference between "GNU/Linux" and "Linux": NO ONE uses the "proper" term, NO ONE is going to be confused, and as such it is completely unnecessary. Insisting on the techie version serves only to make you look like a pretentious tightwad.
When it comes to conceptual errors, I mean the way he, in one situation when discussing 3D modeling/rendering, confuses alpha channels with bump maps. Alpha channels control the transparency of a material, bump maps make the bumps. Again, even if what he said was correct (I'm no expert, maybe bump maps really are alpha channels in a stricter sense), the fact remains that NO ONE speaks this way, no manuals define things this way, nor do special interest technical books or training videos. If you ask someone to put an image with the letter H in the alpha channel of a material, and place that material on a surface, you're going to get a big H-shaped hole in your surface, not an H-shaped bump on top of it.
He also flip-flops between describing image dimensions as width by height and describing them as height by width. Even though the vast majority uses the width by height description, something I agree and feel comfortable with, I would hardly mind him using the other if he were the least bit consistent. He's back and forth throughout the course of the text, and it can be quite disorienting (not "disorientating", you'll note).
Then we have the more basic structural errors. The only way to adequately demonstrate this phenomenon is to provide a fictional example (note that he is NEVER this blatant, and doesn't even touch on this subject):
"The default lens package included with Camera X is absolutely wonderful, but the lens they give you along with Camera X is pretty darn great."
See what I mean? That he repeats himself, saying the SAME thing about the SAME product in the course of one sentence for no reason is disturbing enough; more troubling is his use of "but" when he should be using "and". If you're going to tack a positive comment about an object on to an existing comment about the same object that's already positive, you use "and".
There's also a tendency to use common words and phrases over and over and over again. I do this all the time (my parenthetic comments in this review, for example), but in a professionally published work? You'd think somebody would do a "Count Instances" in their word processor.
Things like that contribute to an overall sense of "wha...?" when reading this book. At first I attributed this stuff to an absolutely abysmal proofreader, but firstly, I own several other books from MWP which sound far better. Secondly, as we reach the end of this book, we start to see more and more quotes--eventually interviews, and entire guest-written chapters--from others in the field, typically people the author has worked with and known for some time. None of their writing exhibits this behavior.
In short, this book is like certain types of music and movies: the content may be great, but the way it's put together makes you a bit nauseous. You don't know exactly why, but sounds with certain frequencies and/or images with certain kinds of movement make you sick, no matter how moving the song/film may very well be.
It IS worth full price, it IS worth reading several times over, and you WILL get something out of it whether you want this hobby to become a career or not. The errors are not world-ending, and the overall idea gets through loud and clear.
They're big enough for someone like me, though, to feel that something, however small, is missing.
Rating:
Summary: Best book on the subject
Review: I reviewed this Book for High Definition Magazine in 2003. I was so impressed that I thought this information should be available generally. Back in the 60's Scott Billups would have been known as a video freak. The subtitle of his book Digital Moviemaking: "All the skill, techniques and moxie you'll need to turn your passion into a career": also betrays his understanding that digital moviemaking is a business as well as a technicians paradise - and I have to say right here right now, what this man don't know about video - ain't worth knowin' ! "Those who know will always have a job, those who know why, will be in charge." From Chapter two. Digital Moviemaking is a very readable book and there are a plethora of technical details for all but the most seriously anoraked of our readers. Scott's approach to High Definition is to take you on a journey of understanding through the underlying principles of the digital realm. There are many many technical descriptions that allow the reader easily into a highly complex digital world - He begins with a basic description of the fundamentals of analogue to digital conversion, through the systems of compression, up through DV all the way to High Definition. This is a necessary path because the understanding of High Definition issues lay within the undergrowth of simple digital encoding and compression. I haven't come across a book as clear as this one before. Scott is the Richard Dawkins of digital technicalities - he can make even the most dense technical information fun: "While RGB theoretically creates the most robust ITU-R 601 signal, the most common reference to 601 as colour difference, component digital video, sampled at 4:2:2 at 13.5 mhz with 720 luminance samples per active line, digitized at either 8 - or 10 bit. Whew, it hurt me to write that too". This fundamentally technical book actually made me understand and laugh out loud ! What's more, it's an energetic enough book to begin with image capture, work its way through the editing process, then out and onto film - and beyond. At the end there's a reference section in which you'll find an extremely concise guide for the newly fledged HD Cinematographer. But this book is also a rant against Hollywood which is fun in itself and Scott is on a mission to re-educate and re-inform his audience who he sees as enthusiastic but slightly wayward idealists who want to invade Hollywood's hallowed avenues without the right information. "Just imagine if the snakes that slither through the gutters of Hollywood actually had a say in matters. They'd glut the market, take their booty, and retire in a heartbeat. You know it, I know it, and they know it." Scott has worked with many great filmmakers, including David Lynch, and he was even assistant to the great James Wong Howe, so you know that what he's got to say has real authority, though I get the feeling he'd poo poo that suggestion himself. He's also at the very cutting edge of invention - he'll think nothing of capturing bits of a movie he's shooting on 35mm, on his laptop from a small digital camera for later compositing at the edit with the 35mm footage. Digital Moviemaking is a great way into digital video and High Definition in so many areas, and Scott insists you understand why you're making the choices you're making, and why you should let craft and technique lead you in the end. As Jerry Rubin, and possibly Scott too might advocate - read it, even if you have to "steal this book!"
Rating:
Summary: The Book
Review: I've read this book about ten times now and I count my lucky stars every time I open it up. Actually, Billups shows us the entire Milky Way. It's unbelievable!
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth it!
Review: If you're looking for a book that will give you practical, nuts and bolts, down to brass tacks advice on how to make a quality, professional looking DV movie on an ultra-low budget then "Digital Moviemaking" by Scott Billups is NOT the book you're looking for. This book was obviously written by a tech-nerd for other tech-nerds.
The majority of this book is technical information and history and should instead be entitled:"Hi-Definition Video Moviemaking" as this is what Billups spends the majority of the book discussing. There is precious little in this book that a low-budget filmmaker will find of use. Billups and co. are apparently of the opinion that it's a waste of time shooting on anything other than HD video or 35mm film and seem to have nothing but contempt for Independent, low-budget filmmakers.
If you are an aspiring filmmaker who has a good movie idea and want to know how to shoot it on an ultra-low budget then don't waste your money buying this book. I recommend instead reading "Digital Filmmaking 101" by Dale Newton and John Gaspard which is a much better book that explains in layman's terms how to shoot a quality, professional looking movie on digital video. It was written by 2 guys who have made good low-budget films and have a lot more respect for and understanding of independent, low-budget filmmakers than Scott Billups.
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