CineTechniques, Production Safety, Your Money or Your Life

Forget those tacky digital effects. You can improve the apparent quality of your videos by using creative transitions created in the camera. CineTechniques: The Art of the Transition clearly demonstrates imaginative yet simple approaches that videographers can use to create unique and interesting transitions from scene to scene.
Calling on the work of master film directors as a guide, Jim McDearman clearly demonstrates that less is more when it comes to visual transitions for video. In fifteen minutes, this tight, instructional tape depicts a wide range of in-camera transitional techniques. You'll learn how to connect scenes with a walk-off/walk-on, cut on similar objects, cut to/from similar colors, and how to use focus and zoom to create time-tested in-camera transitions. And there's much more. Never dull, this tape demonstrates that less is more in a way that any video producer can appreciate and all can apply.

Production Safety for Film, Television and Video

Robin Small (2000, Focal Press, www.focalpress.com, 480pp., $38)
As Robin Small points out in this book, the topic of safety isn't glamorous, and therefore, it's often overlooked in the video and film world. However, it can be one of the most important considerations on a shoot.
Production Safety for Film, Television and Video covers nearly every aspect of safety imaginable. Written for professionals and film students, this book not only deals with how to avoid common hazards but legislation about them. Because it was written in the United Kingdom, it focuses heavily on British laws, procedures and organizations. Despite that, there is a wealth of information to be gleaned from its pages.
Discover the hazards of animals, churches, electricity, airports, catering and much more. The book breaks potential safety hazards down into useful checklists describing the risks associated with each topic. The subject of production safety may not be glamorous, but it is certainly very imp…