iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

honestpuck writes "As digital video cameras spawn in the hands of you, me, parents and tourists like cockroaches in my kitchen we find ourselves needing the kind of technical and aesthetic help not really seen since the advent of 'desktop publishing'. Once again a 'Missing Manual' has come to my help." Read on for honestpuck's review of David Pogue's iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual. iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual author David Pogue pages 456 publisher Pogue Press/O'Reilly rating 7 - Good book, some flaws reviewer Tony Williams ISBN 0596005075 summary A quality introduction to two closely tied products.

I have previously reviewed iPhoto2: The Missing Manual and said "The target audience for this book would probably be a little less technical than myself or the average Slashdot reader, however when I find myself in a field I don't understand well I don't mind a little stuff for the absolute newbie" -- and once again this is true. iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual finds me in an area where I am technically inferior. Once again I truly appreciated this book and its style.

The book is broken up into four sections, one devoted to video cameras and shooting a movie, a large one on editing in iMovie 3, and smaller sections on exporting out of iMovie 3 and on using iDVD. At the end are two useful appendices: the first is a menu-by-menu look at iMovie 3, and the second is an iMovie 3 troubleshooting guide. The latter is often needed and always useful -- iMovie 3 still has more than one bug.

The first section gives a great deal of incredibly useful information about video cameras and how to use them, including hints on various types of shooting such as sporting events, interviews and weddings. The technical information on cameras is perfect if you have yet to buy a camera, including a guide to which features are essential and which unnecessary as you can do the same thing (only better) in iMovie 3. When it goes on to the 'how to shoot' section, you get pretty much the same advice you'll get anywhere, but since we didn't really read all of from the last book on video we read (and forgot half the bits we did read) it's nice to have it there again.

The second section does a good job of explaining the details of iMovie 3, even down to some of its shortcomings and bugs. I also appreciated the way it spent as much time on improving the quality of the finished film as it did telling me how to use the various parts of the software. It follows a logical sequence through the movie-making process, giving good details on how iMovie does the job, how to get the best result and what sort of things to avoid -- particularly useful for things like transitions and effects when less is best.

The third section, titled "Finding Your Audience," is a bit more of a problem. It really has nothing to do with finding an audience and a lot more to do with QuickTime. The section first spends ten pages telling us how to get our edited film back onto the camcorder or onto a VCR, then it spends a lot of time dealing with exporting to QuickTime, including posting movies to the web and some info on using the QuickTime player, including some "tricks" with QuickTime Player Pro.

The attention to the finished product in the second section carries through to the fourth section on iDVD, though the writing here is not quite as good. It is incredibly informative, however. I learned a great deal about putting together all sorts of iDVD projects, including ways of customizing almost every aspect of the finished product.

O'Reilly have the usual marketing stuff while Pogue Press have the handy little Missing CD section with links to all the free and shareware software mentioned in the book. Neither has a sample chapter or the table of contents, you can't even get either at Amazon.

One of the drawbacks of getting free software is that we don't get good free documentation. One of the benefits of free software is that we can choose which 'documentation' to buy. Some people might prefer the style of the 'Dummies' books, others the style of Peachpit's Visual Quickstart Guide. I've had a look at all three and like the balance of depth and explanation that Pogue has in his 'Missing Manual' series. I once again find myself recommending a 'Missing Manual' to everyone. While catering to the beginner, this book goes deep enough that all but the most long-term user of these two pieces of software will find something to learn in this volume.

You can purchase iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Re:Um say what?

[Mononoke]

[yes this is flamebait and yes I hate stupid people who buy incomplete products then rant about how great they are....]

You missed where it said this was free software.

They'd only be stupid if they tried to get their money back. You, however, would be stupid for commenting on something you know nothing about.

Re:ummm, just a point

[p4ul13]

Have you seen the stats? 90% of slashdot users use windows or mac's ..
Not saying that nobody here is a tech, but honestly, the majority are actually not really techs.

I'm not sure I see the connection. You're infering that because the majority of the slashdot readers use the most widely used operating systems to read this site, that they're not technically adept?

As much as I might enjoy working with *nix systems at work; the fact that my workstation and home machine are Windows and Mac respectively doesn't have anything to do with my or anybodys tech-iosity. (End Rant)

I've found that the iApps are pretty intuitive for most of the stuff you'd want to do with them. With some playing around and a quick check of their included help screens you can figure most basic stuff out. In other words I don't think a manual needs to be included (No manuals to be found with most linux / windows bundled programs anyway); but the fact that O-Reily chose to publish one will likely benefit folks who want to dig deeper into these Apps features.

Re:ummm, just a point

[iSwitched]

Hey - not here to argue with your point, sure there's all kinds of people who read /. -- I for one think that's fine, it's grown far too big over the years to be a clique.

But I've seen this linux-centric nonsense far too many times over the years to just let it go anymore. This site is, was, and will probably remain "News for Nerds" -- just look at the topics on any given day: Space travel, physics, electronics, games, books, current events, political debate, legal issues, coverage of all computer platforms. WTF is linux-centric about all that?

Granted, it is easy to mistake the sites, and its readerships pro-free-software stance for "linux-centric-ness", but sorry, you don't have to subscribe to any particular philosophy (or OS) to get a huge amount of entertaining, and sometimes even useful info here.

Re: iDVD, etc.

[djupedal]

Too many users seem chagrined about not being able to create fluid epics via iDVD. I'm always amused by the ones that complain about the 60~90 minute limit of iDVD. It wasn't that long ago that it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to push video around the way we can with iMovie and iDVD. I can make worthwhile video with both of them. Your expectations sound appropriate.

While I would never attempt to catagorize one person's efforts, the line between hobby and serious is clear when the limits of the free apps are encountered. I have no issue with this practice. I can find out if I really want to go deep into video making without spending the money for FCP or DVDSP. Seems ironic, however, that to get the most out of the 'free' apps, you need to spend $$ to buy this book :)

For those that think they're getting the world with the iLife suite, think again. After spending +/-$3k on the computer and +/-$2k on the camera, another grand or so for 'real' software seems fair.