The DV Rebel’s Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap (Paperback)
by Stu Maschwitz
ISBN: 0321413644

Price: USD 31.49
85 used & new available from USD 15.70

Summary

A guide to doing things with your indie film that all other books tell you not to do. You will learn the basics of color correction, the basics of safely using guns, the basics of story, more than the basics of production value, and much more.

The Good

The DV Rebel’s Guide is very easy to read. There’s a lot here and you will likely put the book down with a plan to try almost everything in it.

Editing is introduced well, as is cinematography. I learned some new things about editing, something I tend to read books on and go, “I knew that already.”

This is the only book I’ve read that goes into production value in any depth. The entire first chapter (and the rest of the book) is devoted to this subject. Get that and story down, and you have the “killer action movie” specified on the cover.

The Bad

Occasional mild language. The section about faking a shooting is rather gory, as is the brief bit on blood. Tons of action movies I’d never seen (I likely will never see most of them) are referenced to explain effects.

I walked away from the section on squibs with plans to up the amount of objects destroyed in my next film. Guess that should be in The Good, since that sort of thing is the book’s mission.

Parts I Couldn’t Review

The book is supposed to include a DVD with bonus chapters, After Effects files, Excel spreadsheet calculators, and other stuff. I got the book from the library and they didn’t have the DVD.

Overall

As stated above, the book fulfilled its mission. I’ve been thinking about production value a lot more lately, and I’m excited about the possibilities of effects I had previously ruled out.

iSundae II: Attack of the Cones – Part 10 of 10 from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Stay tuned! We’ll have outtakes for you later on, and I’m planning on a behind the scenes video on the tower top scene.

iSundae II: Attack of the Cones – Part 9 of 10 from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Be sure to stick around for a peek behind the scenes of the flying machine sequence and all the craziness of shooting blue screen all day.

iSundae II: Attack of the Cones – Part 8 of 10 from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the movie on YouTube.

Stick around! This week, Rebekah will tell you how we worked around needing ten people for a scene, when we only had eight.

iSundae II: Attack of the Cones – Part 7 of 10 from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Be sure to stick around. We have a very special behind the scenes video this week!

iSundae II: Attack of the Cones – Part 6 of 10 from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo. 

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Later this week, Rebekah will show you what went into the creation of the weather machine.

iSundae II: Attack of the Cones – Part 5 of 10 from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

As always, you can watch the video on YouTube, too.

iSundae II: Attack of the Cones – Part 4 of 10 from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Be on the look out for a behind the scenes post later this week. This time, Rebekah is going to tell you about how we re-used costume elements.

iSundae II: Attack of the Cones – Part 3 of 10 from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Be on the lookout for a behind the scenes post this week. Rebekah will be discussing how we brought General Public from script to film.

iSundae II: Attack of the Cones – Part 2 of 10 from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Be watching for a behind the scenes article this week. We’re going to tell you about how we did one of the biggest scenes (set and actor-wise) in the movie.