Features:

• Topics include:
• Visual storytelling
• The art of being invisible
• Shooting techniques
• Why angles matter

Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Shoot Great Video with your MiniDV Camcorder NEVER SHOOT BORING VIDEO AGAIN! This 71 minute DVD will cut weeks or months offyour learning curve. We'll show you how to make great videos with no additionalinvestment in expensive software or hardware. Get the results you want without going to film school! We'll take you through the steps that great storytellers use to captivate their audience. You'll learn the techniques and visual grammar that filmmakers have used for over a hundred years. Anybody can pick up a camcorder and start shooting. That doesn't mean the resulting video will be acceptable. Learn from a pro how to make movies your friends and family will envy. Enhance your movies with music, still photos and narration. In about an hour, you will be using your camcorder in a whole new way!

Rating : - Amusing irony, but good basic information
Obviously for people completely new to using video camcorders. Good basic information. Covers lighting techniques, filters, plenty of tips/techniques. There's a whole section, at the end, that walks you through the installing a firewire card in a (Windows-based) PC.

There's a section on using video editing tools, which shows screen shots and illustrations of several programs. I'd prefer to have had this time allotted to more about the use of the camcorder. Taking this editing section, and the firewire card installation section, occupies about a quarter of the video.

Primarily filmed in Portland, Oregon. Total running time, abt 1 hour.

The sound quality is not that great. This is ironic (to me) because the video discusses sound and illustrates the difference between the audio coming from the camcorder's built-in mic, and the use of separate microphones (used in this video!). Still the audio quality of this production sounds like you're hearing it with a cardboard box on your head.

The beginning shots are amusing, in that the auto-focus bounces around a bit. You can see the narrator's face fade in and out of focus slightly, while he's talking.

Worth $20, or so, but begs for an "advanced techniques" version.