Book and Tape Reviews
Carl J. Bergquist (1997, PROMPT Publications / Howard W. Sams & Co., 2647 Waterfront Pkwy E. Dr., Indianapolis, IN 4
Ever dream of being an electrical technician? If the answer is yes, then you'll probably treasure this book. The Video Hacker's Handbook is less about video production than it is a build-it-from-scratch, Thomas Edison would-be-proud-of-you guide to building your own video toys. Bergquist jubilantly guides you through the steps of building a video lab, a pocket sized TV station, a sync generator, a TV transmitter and a color bar generator. He does a good job covering the basics with diagrams and lists of parts needed, but it's a tad too technical for most people interested in producing video. The Video Hacker's Handbook won't teach you how to produce video, but it will expand your technical knowledge about how video components are built.
Rating = 3
Production Research: An Introduction
Kathy Chater (1998, Focal Press, 225 Wildwood Ave., Woburn, MA 01801, 133 pp., $29.95)
Whether you're a student breaking into the media business or an independent producer, director or writer looking for fresh input, this book is a great springboard into the hectic world of researching for television, film and video.
Kathy Chater, an experienced researcher for British film and television, has put together a solid outline of the steps involved in production research, from presenting ideas to finding locations to casting talent to post production wrap-up. Chater shows how the Internet, newspapers and television can be sources of ideas and inspiration. She also offers numerous anecdotes from professional researchers who bring the theories to life and show how they solve real-life research problems.
The biggest drawback of this book for the American audience is that Chater wrote it with the British researcher in mind. Once you get past some of the British idioms, you'll find the principles and examples Chater presents to be universal and valuable.
Rating = 4
Desktop Digital Video
Ron Grebler (1997, PROMPT Publications / Howard W. Sams & Co., 2647 Waterfront Pkwy E. Dr., Indianapolis, IN 46214, 240 pp., $29.95)
Desktop Digital Video is an introduction for people who are familiar with computers and want to understand the basic technical aspects of digital video. Grebler delves into the nooks and crannies of the hardware and presents a wide shot of the development of desktop digital video for both Macintosh and PC formats.
While he presents this material in a clear and enjoyable manner, Grebler superficially covers the software aspect that is crucial to digital video production. By the end of the book you may understand the difference between JPEG and M-JPEG compression, but you still won't know what software editing package to buy.
While this is not the definitive guide to desktop digital video, it is a fine reference tool that will help clarify many of the misunderstood terms and concepts and help point you in the right direction with your desktop video productions.
Rating = 3
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