Sebastopol, CA--While a car is an essential component of a memorable road trip, a map--though somewhat smaller in scale and price tag--can steer you clear of dead ends, intractable terrain, and save hours of driving in frustrating circles, not to mention your marriage. Likewise, one handy, inexpensive guide can make the difference between soporific home movies that take far too much of your life to produce and oeuvres that your audience actually enjoys watching: David Pogue's iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly/Pogue Press, US $24.95).
Apple's free iMovie software made history by tearing down the barriers to pro-quality filmmaking. Version 3 of this powerful and popular software offers audio enhancements, slick new photo effects, and integration with iTunes and iPhoto. But, notes David Pogue, the personal-technology columnist for the "New York Times" and one of the world's bestselling how-to authors, "iMovie may be simple, but it isn't simplistic. Unfortunately, many of the best techniques aren't covered in the only 'manual' you get with iMovie--its sparse electronic help screens."
Punctuated with Pogue's trademark humor and strewn with bibelots of information found nowhere else, "iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual" puts you on the fast track to quality filmmaking. The book covers every step of iMovie video production, from choosing and using a digital camcorder to burning the finished work onto DVDs. Videographers of all levels also gain a firm grounding in basic film technique. This new edition shows you how to bring in and send out movies, pictures, and sound; for example, you can import audio from iTunes and images from iPhoto, and create chapter markers in movies that automatically turn into scene selection menus in iDVD. In addition, the book examines and explains all the new visual effects, audio controls, and sound effects. It's an all-in-one crash course that will help you maximize your enjoyment with iMovie 3.
This authoritative and up-to-date guide provides:
Essentials of film technique. While the camcorder and iMovie give you the technical tools, this book offers a friendly guide to the artistic side of professional-looking home movies.
Editing basics. Part 2 of this book bursts with clever workarounds, hidden features, and editing tricks from the Hollywood film world.
Finding an audience. You can export your finished masterpiece back to the tape for high-quality TV playback--or save it as a QuickTime movie that you can post on a web page, email to friends, or burn as a Video CD.
Mastering DVDs. If your Mac has a SuperDrive, you can distribute your movies at much higher quality than VHS tapes or QuickTime movies--by creating your own Hollywood-style DVDs. Four all-new chapters cover iDVD 3 in detail, including dozens of undocumented secrets for extending the program's design tools.
Whether you plan to make the next "Blair Witch Project" or just better home movies, "iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual" lets you marry the stunning quality of digital video with the power of your imagination.
What the critics have said:
"Everything you need to know about iMovie 3 and more. Essential reading--and a Manual that Apple would no doubt be very proud of."
--"MacFormat," June 2003"I would rather go without food for three days than miss any of the Missing Manual books."
--Al Fasodt of "The Post-Standard," June 2003
Praise for previous editions:
"If you use iMovie, you need this book. Those who read it will save huge amounts of trial-and-error learning. The book offers instant access to tricks like continuing the sound track from one clip as voiceover to a second one as it fades in, a favorite of the pros but nearly impossible to accomplish without Pogue's handholding."
--James Coates, "The Chicago Tribune""If you're an iMovie novice, you need this book. If you're an iMovie intermediate, you'll want this book. If you're an iMovie expert--hey, you already have this book, and that's one of the reasons you're an expert."
--Jaime McCornack, About This Particular Macintosh
Additional Resources:
iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual
By David Pogue
ISBN: 0-596-00507-5, 456 pages, $24.95 US, $38.95 CA, 17.50 UK
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1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000
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