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"iMovie 4 & iDVD: The Missing Manual": Step-By-Step Video Editing for Thumbs-Up Moviemaking

September 15, 2004

Sebastopol, CA--"You know what it's like watching other people's camcorder footage," says author David Pogue. "You're held prisoner on some neighbor's couch after dessert to witness 60 excruciating, unedited minutes of their trip to Mexico, or maybe 25 too many minutes of the baby wearing the overturned spaghetti bowl." Let's face it: even our own videos can be a snore as we await "the good parts" . . . unless, that is, we put iMovie to work. This popular video-editing software lets anyone create pro-quality, thumbs-up-all-around movies with ease.

But first, people have to know how to use iMovie (and iDVD, if they want to distribute their masterpieces on DVD), and they can't count on the printed manual that comes with the software because, well, there isn't one. The new iMovie 4 & iDVD: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly/Pogue Press, US $24.95) delivers a complete course in Macintosh filmmaking and DVD design.

iLife '04 comes with deliciously polished editions of both iMovie and iDVD--complete with new tools, new techniques, and even new menus--and this witty, authoritative, updated guide to the software is really three books in one: it's the artistic filmmaking background people wish they had (including advice on lighting, sound, and composition as well as how to actually put all those buttons on the modern camcorder to use); it's the technical grounding and the tools and tricks people need to take advantage of each and every feature of iMovie; and it's the thorough iDVD guide to making Hollywood-style (and maybe even Hollywood-worthy) DVDs.

This all-inclusive, step-by-step book covers:

  • Essentials of film technique: Pogue provides readers with the know-how they need to give home movies professional polish.
  • Editing basics: These pages burst with clever workarounds, hidden features, and editing tricks from the Hollywood film world.
  • Finding an audience: With this guide, readers can export their finished masterpieces back to tape for high-quality TV playback--or save them as a QuickTime movies for posting on a web page, emailing to friends, burning as a video CD, or even uploading to a Bluetooth cell phone.
  • Mastering DVDs: With a Mac equipped with SuperDrive, people can distribute their movies at much higher quality than VHS tapes or QuickTime movies by creating Hollywood-style DVDs. The book-within-a-book on iDVD includes dozens of undocumented secrets for extending the program's design tools.
  • Whether they plan to make the next "Blair Witch Project" or just improve their home movies, videographers will find everything they need in iMovie 4 & iDVD: the Missing Manual to marry the stunning quality of digital video with the power of their imaginations.

    Additional Resources:

    iMovie 4 & iDVD: The Missing Manual
    David Pogue
    ISBN: 0596-00693-4, 504 pages, $24.95 US, $36.95 CA
    order@oreilly.com
    1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000

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