The DV rebel's guide : an all-digital approach to making killer action movies on the cheap / Stu Maschwitz

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Intended for those budding filmmakers and students who want to produce action movies with visual effects but don't have Hollywood budgets, this guide details how to do this: from planning and selecting the necessary cameras, software, and equipment, to creating specific special effects, to editing and mixing sound and music.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. xi)
• Chapter 1 The Approach (p. 1)
• Work Backward, Not Forward (p. 2)
• Mis en Scene, Dans la Cuisine (p. 4)
• Break It Down (p. 5)
• Build It Up (p. 8)
• What Is Production Value? (p. 14)
• Image Quality (p. 15)
• Sound Quality (p. 19)
• Locations (p. 20)
• Lighting (p. 21)
• Effects (p. 22)
• Stars (p. 23)
• But Seriously, What Is Production Value? (p. 25)
• Don't Make Shots, Make a Movie (p. 26)
• Chapter 2 Planning (p. 27)
• Looking for a Producer? (p. 28)
• I Have Bad News for You (p. 28)
• Resources (p. 29)
• A Uniquely Rebel Plan (p. 30)
• Your Script (p. 31)
• Make Waves (p. 31)
• Authenticity (p. 32)
• I Am But a Shadowy Refl ection of You (p. 34)
• Your Storyboards (p. 35)
• Learn to Draw Badly (p. 36)
• Eyelines (p. 38)
• Drawing Through a Lens (p. 41)
• Shoot it, Nerd it, Steal it (p. 42)
• Lines of Action (Big Red Arrows) (p. 44)
• Animatics (p. 48)
• Turning a Storyboard into a Schedule (p. 50)
• Cut 'em and Code 'em (p. 52)
• Binder the Universe Together (p. 56)
• Putting the "Guer" in Guerrilla (p. 57)
• On Asking Permission (p. 57)
• The Pickup Truck Loophole (p. 58)
• Be a Rebel, Not a Jerk (p. 59)
• The Camera on the included DVD Selecting a Camera (p. 2)
• 24p (p. 3)
• HD vs. tSD (p. 6)
• Widescreen (p. 8)
• Wider Screen (p. 11)
• Electronic 16:9 vs. The Real Thing (p. 16)
• 16:9 Adaptor Lenses (p. 19)
• Settings (p. 20)
• Crafting the Digital Negative (p. 20)
• Flatten It Out (p. 23)
• Cinegamma (p. 28)
• Detail, Schmetail! (p. 30)
• Accessories (p. 33)
• Lenses (p. 33)
• Tchotchkes (p. 51)
• Manual Everything! (p. 52)
• Exposure (p. 53)
• White Balance (p. 64)
• Focus (p. 65)
• Chapter 3 Shooting (p. 61)
• Making Memorable Shots (p. 62)
• Slow Down (p. 63)
• Think in Thirds (p. 63)
• Make Triangles (p. 66)
• Free Your Mind and Your Camera Will Follow (p. 68)
• Tell the Story (p. 69)
• Moving the Camera (p. 72)
• Sticks (p. 72)
• Dollies (p. 73)
• Slider (p. 77)
• Wheelchairs (p. 79)
• Steady That Cam (p. 81)
• Cranes & Jibs (p. 92)
• Found Cranes (p. 94)
• Playing with Time (p. 94)
• Slow Motion for Me (p. 95)
• Speed Ramping (p. 103)
• Undercranking (p. 110)
• Narrow Shutter (p. 112)
• Hand-Cranking (p. 115)
• Reverse It (p. 118)
• Lighting (p. 119)
• God Is Your Gaffer (p. 119)
• Bounce It or Block It (p. 121)
• Eventually You May Need, Er, Lights (p. 125)
• Chapter 4 Effects (p. 131)
• Special Effects vs. Visual Effects (p. 132)
• Realism, Schmealism (p. 134)
• Keep 'em Guessing (p. 137)
• Treat the Fake Like It's Real (p. 138)
• Some Effects Basics (p. 143)
• Reference Is God (p. 143)
• Matching Cameras (p. 144)
• Matching Lighting (p. 154)
• The Blue Screen of Death (p. 157)
• Miniatures (p. 163)
• Scale (p. 164)
• Speed (p. 164)
• Hanging Foreground Miniatures (p. 167)
• Cleveland for Paris (p. 171)
• Matte Paintings for Nonpainters (p. 171)
• Copy Paste (p. 172)
• Virtual Worlds (p. 173)
• POV Shots (p. 174)
• Guns Guns Guns! (p. 175)
• A Little About Real Guns (p. 175)
• The Electric Gun On the included DVD What Guns Do (p. 176)
• Blank-Firing Replicas (p. 176)
• Toys & BB Guns (p. 177)
• Digital Ordnance (p. 183)
• Handling the Guns, Handling the Gun Handlers (p. 189)
• Guns Shoot Things (p. 190)
• Light Fuse and Get Away (p. 191)
• BB Guns (p. 192)
• Blood Hits (p. 193)
• Squib That Which Is Squibable (p. 194)
• 52 Card Pickup (p. 194)
• Digital Squibs (p. 195)
• Tinfoil Bullet Hits (p. 199)
• The (Nearly) Free Blood Hit (p. 200)
• Splitsville (p. 201)
• Stunts (p. 203)
• Avoid Killing Your Friends (p. 203)
• What Professionals? (p. 205)
• Cars (p. 211)
• Chapter 5 Editing (p. 213)
• Cut Like a Pro (p. 214)
• Who Shaves the Barber? (p. 215)
• Kill Your Babies (p. 215)
• Manufacturing Reality (p. 216)
• Everything Is Fair Game (p. 217)
• Invisible Cuts (p. 218)
• Pacing (p. 228)
• Do Over (p. 228)
• Sound and Music (p. 229)
• Locking Your Cut (p. 230)
• Prep the Effects (p. 231)
• The Top Ten Percent (p. 233)
• Getting a Handle (p. 240)
• Accounting (p. 241)
• Chapter 6 Onlining (p. 243)
• The Rules (p. 244)
• No Mastering in the NLE (p. 246)
• No Recompression (p. 246)
• No 8-Bit Processing (p. 247)
• Be a Pixel Purist (p. 250)
• Getting Your Movie into After Effects (p. 251)
• Color Correction (p. 251)
• Grade in Layers (p. 253)
• Not So Secondary Corrections (p. 256)
• Order of Operations (p. 258)
• Tools of the Trade (p. 259)
• Color Theory (p. 278)
• A Sample Sequence (p. 298)
• Output (p. 307)
• The Digital Master On the included DVD Boom (p. 307)
• Index (p. 309)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Stu Maschwitz is a director, visual effects supervisor, renowned technologist and founding partner of The Orphanage, a leading VFX and film production company based in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Hailed by Shoot Magazine as one of the "Ten Commercial Directors To Watch," Maschwitz has quickly gained a reputation for his ability to tackle extraordinarily complex visual challenges while injecting his signature wry sense of humor and kinetic filmmaking style. An innovator in filmmaking technology, Maschwitz is the creator of The Orphanage's revolutionary Magic Bullet software which gives inexpensive digital video the lush look of film. Prior to joining up with his fellow co-conspirators to start The Orphanage, Maschwitz spent five years at George Lucas' Industrial Light + Magic. He is a graduate of CalArts School of Animation.