Customer Rating: 
Summary: Don't Leave Home without it!
Comment: I haven't even finished reading it and I don't know how I ever lived without it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: thank you stu!
Comment: this book was a very welcome change to all the theory books i've been reading on directing & cinematography.
the author writes in a very direct, concise, and clear manner... he's even got a real sense of humor. he knows his target audience, and he communicates very effectively to us, because he's really not that different than us.
he has tons of examples, pics, practical explanations, tables, reference material, and even a DVD-ROM that came with the book loaded with more writing, project files, media files, and so on.
this is the most practical and accessible book on indie filmmaking i've ever read.
definitely recommend!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Cool pictures, wish requirements for use were more clearly stated...
Comment: Do you have Adobe After Effects? If not, I wouldn't purchase this unless you are just an armchair filmmaker because this book's techniques are based on that program. I wish I had Adobe After Effects and this book would be useful, not just entertaining.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but not an entry level book
Comment: Enough good things have been said about the Guide and they're all true. Having said that, the technical chapters on the book may seem to you (at least they seemed to me) as a conversation between two experts on the matter. In all fairness, the book is tagged as an Intermediate, Advance one and the author does advise early on the first chapters that the book assumes the reader has some background knowledge. Well, I don't consider myself as a beginner and I have more than some background knowledge (including After Effects) and I had (and still have) a hard time understanding some topics. You see, when I buy a book (specially a book that's advertised as having all the info I need), I expect the book to open my eyes and my mind and provide me with enough information so that I can be on my way. I don't like it when I have to supplement my reading with lots of other resources to understand what the author is saying. Also, books that refer to a certain software sometimes recommend that you be able to run that software in order to gain a better understanding of the topic; this one does this. However, most books with this characteristic can be read and understood without the software. Not this one. The way I see it, this book costs around $1030.00 if you don't have the After Effects. You need it to be able to grasp about 50% of the book's information.
Also, if you're looking to understand workflow, image optimization and effective editing techniques but action is not really your cup of tea, meaning that you are driven mostly towards making visual stories without the action element, you'll feel that you're using about $15.00 of the $30.00 price tag of the book. Topics like special effects, color correction and onlining are covered with a subtle assumption that your film is about action (I guess that's the reason for the title).
In general, the book's benefits outweigh its flaws. I would say that if I go into a set of an independent movie or if I meet the director of a short film being made and I see this book among his resouces, I would think that the guy knows what he's doing. I suggest suplementing the book with the DV Rebel's Cafe (forun) and other entry level books on DV and HD workflow.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Just for Action Movies
Comment: I have been studying film since I was a little nerdy kid, writing down the names and titles from the credits of every Happy Harmonies or Merry Melodies cartoon I watched, but in all that time (yes, a lot of time) I have never encountered a more fundamental and essential guide to just picking yourself and your idea up and making a movie, from start to finish. If you have tried in the past and gotten overwhelmed or bogged down in the mire of details involved in making a film on your own, then this book will help you out bigtime.
I have to admit, I am not into action movies, but the principles in the DV Rebel Guide are not really action-movie specific, and what's more, the truth is that if you are making a movie for audiences, it had better keep moving, which is essentially what an action movie is about. You will have literal explosions and bullet holes in your movie, or you will have artistic-symbolic explosions and bullet holes in your movie, but either way, you will have them.
The important reasons to own and read this book, if listed concisely, would be about as long as the book itself. Why? Because everything in the book is *essential information* for making your movie--especially if you're not rich (and maybe nerdy enough to not have a long list of people to call in favors from).
Do you hate wading through 500 page tomes that painstakingly sidetrack on a zillion different flavors of what you might or might not need to know about several aspects of whatever? The best book on C programming is only a half inch thick, and the best book on getting out there and actually making your idea into a film (digitally), with or without a budget, is The DV Rebel's Guide. And that's because you will be able to read it cover to cover without ever falling asleep, and you will know just what to do when you are done. From the amazingly insightful concept of the "resource list" to a nutshell run-through of the daunting field of color correction, as applied in the very accessible software, After Effects, this book will give you the answers you need long before you might have given up in frustration reading another book (or pile of books).
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