The Techniques Of Film And Video Editing is a great book for both those who are fans of the movies in general, and those who wish to learn the basics to improve the editing of their college film projects, commercial video productions, or the quality of their YouTube clips.
From The Earth To the Coffee Table
In a way, the same can be said of Richard Rickitt's Special Effects: The History And Technique, which in contrast to the handy portable paperback size of The Techniques Of Film And Video Editing, is a hefty hardcover coffee table edition. It's profusely illustrated with plenty of color movie stills, with a foreword from special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen. Rickitt's book covers the history of special effects from their earliest days in movies such as George Melie's A Trip to the Moon to mid-'50s Hollywood blockbusters like War of the Worlds and Forbidden Planet. And then the double-barreled technological revolution of and Star Wars, and beyond.
An Army of Roddenberries
As hinted by its cover sleeve, which features Gollum from Peter Jackson's recent Lord of the Rings trilogy, Rickitt's Special Effects: The History And Technique explores the movie industry's effects techniques up to mid-'naughts', and thus covers the ongoing digital era in special effects which began about twenty years ago.
The same computer technology that empowered digital effects in Hollywood can now empower do it yourself productions. I'd call it an "Army of Davids," but I think that title may have already been taken. Or as Jason Apuzzo of the Libertas film blog wrote a few months ago, "We live in an era in which there may be better - and cheaper - film equipment available at your local Apple Store or Fry's Electronics than is available at your film school (or at your Hollywood studio, frankly)."
That's where books such as Trish & Chris Meyers' After Effects In Production come into play. While their book has been on the marketplace for a few years, it demonstrating how Adobe's After Effects program can create professional-quality video graphics — because it has created professional-quality graphics for the Meyers' big name clients — making it an inspiration for anyone who wants to add a network TV polish to projects shot on a Diet Coke budget.
Article comments