So you want to make an action movie?Be sure to pick up The DV Rebel’s Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap and take it with you through the whole process from storyboard to screen.

If you are a true beginner, this book might be a little to advanced for you. Some of the concepts and terms Stu Maschwitz goes over in the book are for people who have worked with a camera and effects programs before. He assumes a bit of prior knowledge, but he lets you know up front that this is the case.

I see this as being a great reference book for the intermediate filmmaker who knows a few of the ropes and is looking to give his action movies (or any movies) for that matter a more polished look. Everything from shot composition to final onlining is covered with step-by-step tutorials, color commentary and a practical, no nonsense approach that is geared towards having you produce a sweet looking flick for less than the price of a used car.

If you buy the book, you get a great accompanying DVD with more tutorials and advice, a sample project to practice on and effects templates you can use in your movie, like smoke and gun flashes. Sweet.

A drawback to this book is that the author gives pretty specific instructions and examples of tricks he’s done for certain effects. In some places he elaborates on the concepts to help you understand the “why” behind the effect, so if you need to create something similar but not identical to his shot you can figure it out. In other spots, the instructions are specific to his experience and he doesn’t elaborate on the concept, leaving you to figure it out for yourself.

Overall, well worth the thirty bucks.

Rated - 8 out of 10

Pick up a copy

Tags: film, making, movie, after, effects, tutorial, resource

Posted by Classic Jef on Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 10:23 pm.