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Rating: 
Summary: Great way to learn the practical aspects of FW moviemaking
Review: I have been using a camera for many years (... has my boating/flying clips), know how FireWire Macs work, can throw a decent amateur home video together, and now with my PowerMac G4 and Apple's movie making magic apps I am begining to expand my horizons. So, I was pleasantly surprised at how much useful information I got from this book. I think the title is a bit misleading. FireWire has nothing to do with film making, IMHO. After all, that is like saying that I can become a better writer if I have DSL at home instead of a dial-up connection. (I do have DSL, and believe me, it did not make me a better writer ;-) ).So, it is more appropriate to say that is is an excellent book for people planning to use FireWire ENABLED devices to get into the art, business or hobby of making movies. (Interesting that we still call it Film making when in fact most of the stuff we do on these technologies will never see a frame of film). The book simplifies many of the mysteries that novice moviemakers may face as they not only try to learn how to use things like Final Cut Pro (or iMovie/iDVD etc. from Apple {... is a great resource)) but also figuring out what and how FireWire can do for them. This book simplifies that part quite a bit. I do most of my moviemaking with a decent consumer FireWire equipped Panasonic DV-701 and found this book helpful in deciding what level of camera to buy, for example, and why some day I will want to buy a 3-CCD camera instead of the one this camera is based on. It helped me understand what kind of techniques I could use in making movies with my equipment. It helped me understand some of the issues I would face if I wanted to make movies that would play in non-US parts of the world that use a different standard, etc. In short, I found the book extremely useful, extremely easy to read, detailed enough to be useful, not so detailed as to be boring and left unread or put on a shelf and forgotten. If you are looking into making movies, ideally with a FireWire equipped set of tools, this is a great book, but even for people not ready to invest in all that FireWire equipment yet, the book will be a useful addition to their toolset.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for most of us
Review: If you use the Macintrash and has tons of money for high-end software, this may be for you. For 99% of the world, this book doesn't give you anything you can put to use. Avoid.
Rating:
Summary: Not for most of us
Review: If you use the Macintrash and has tons of money for high-end software, this may be for you. For 99% of the world, this book doesn't give you anything you can put to use. Avoid.
Rating:
Summary: Not for general crowd - for intermediate/advanced amateurs
Review: This is overall a good book, although I did not find it too
useful for myself or my son (he is 12 and into moviemaking).
Not useful for two major reasons:
- mostly (if not exclusevely) oriented towards Mac hardware
and software (and higher end software),
- is for more advanced users, since it discusses semi-pro and
pro video equipment, and more than trivial editing tricks
and effects.
Nevertheless it is entertaining and educational to read and
includes a DVD ...
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