no beginner guide anywhere?

A

actionheo7

Hello all,

I am new to filmmaking and photography as well. I have a Nikon d70 camera and a Canon ZR960 camcorder.

My goals are to understand my d70 just good enough to where I can take pretty ok pictures with it so I can use them on my website that I will have made for me pretty soon. I have already gone through my entire user’s manual for the d70 and used Google for the stuff that I didn’t know how to do. So, I “think” I am good with that. I just have to start using it and practice.

For my Canon camcorder, I would like to be able to make home videos with it and also make home movies with it. I am posting this thread here because I would like to inquire to all of you professionals about the best website or book or whatever that I can read online or check out from my library to make some pretty nice videos with. As far as I know, to make these nice videos I need a camcorder (which I have) and then some type of really good editing software. I have Camtasia Studio. I don’t know how to use it yet but I just want to know if that is all I “need”. I get the feeling that this is a kind of vague plea for you all to act as librarian here but I’m not sure how else to word it.

OR I can just get to learning about the “best” or most versatile editing software that you all recommend and then everytime I see something in a video online that I want to replicate, I can record it (via Snagit...?) and then post it here to inquire how to do that film/tv/video technique... Does this make sense? Thank you in advance!

P.S. - I searched the forum here using the terms “beginner” and “guide” and I didn’t see anything that was too related to what I am looking to do here. I am not trying to be a professional actor or director or anything like that. I just always wanted to have fun with a camcorder and camera and I finally got some spare money to purchase them. I need guidance on how to make videos like I see online (me w/ cartoon characters, music in background, commercials, etc.)
 
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I personally like "Digital Filmmaking for Teens" with the accompanying DVD. I think it does a better job at finding the middle ground between "these are the technical thingydoowhatzies" and "Look at all the old art cinema and learn to make films by watching" (which is more like the Prof. Harold Hill method of filmmaking)... these are real example from an actual shoot they did for the book presented for a more hands on audience.
 
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knightly - So, this book will give me pretty much the definitive basis/foundation that I need to know and thereafter I presume I can just post here in this thread examples/vids of special effects or video things that I want to mimic in my future videos? If so then great, I'll read that book quickly and get to posting videos of effects that I would like to learn how to mimic/incorporate.

That book is from 2005 though, I assume that you all will let me know of what kind of software that I will need based on the type of special effects that I want to imitate later on.
 
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I really like this book. Inexpensive, easy read, very informative, great jumping-board.

Best website? You're there, dude! Just hang around and you'll pick up on things that you never would have known to ask about. And when you do have something you can't figure out, just ask. There are some active members of this forum who came here with ZERO experience, and now they're churning out pure awesomeness.
 
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Just to keep things clear...

All of the technical knowledge in the world will not replace talent and creative instinct. What is important is to know your "tools" inside and out so that your talent and instincts can take over.

My wife is a photographer from the "old school" - she loved black and white and developing her own negatives. She went through rolls and rolls of film and gallons of developing fluids learning what to do. She has a fine arts background - painting, drawing, inks - and later took fashion and architectural illustration. The two things she always pays attention to is composition and lighting. Even today with a digital camera and lots of software she still adheres to the old computer dictum: Garbage In, Garbage Out. The shot has to be great in its own right even before you begin manipulation.

Now, I'm aware that you just want to have some fun, that this is not a career. But learning the proper techniques leads you to a more satisfying result. And, by the way, once you learn the proper techniques and protocols go ahead and break the rules in radical and extreme ways. You'll learn what works and what doesn't, and when those crazy off the wall ideas can become a part of your style.
 
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knightly said:
I personally like "Digital Filmmaking for Teens" with the accompanying DVD.
Click to expand...
I just finished reading this book from cover-to-cover. I didn't like the heavy Mac focus but seemed to be informative.

@Cracker Funk - The book you recommended I found it on archive.org but it's a daisy file that requires an NLS key so I can't read it... I'll have to see if a library has it somewhere.
http://archive.org/details/barebonescamerac00schr

So, I read my D70's user manual and that 'filmmaking for teens' book. I'll guess I'll start taking random pictures everyday and getting some daily footage as well. I'll post my work here soon hopefully. (in another separate thread though)
 
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actionheo7 said:
I just finished reading this book from cover-to-cover. I didn't like the heavy Mac focus but seemed to be informative.
Click to expand...

The DVD that accompanies the book (I'm a very visual learner) is full of goodies and examples that really cement the stuff that's in the book.

anything you find is going to focus on a single particular toolkit, they had Macs... I've learned to use Shake as a compositor by watching Videocopilot which is strictly an After Effects tutorial site. The techniques translate from software to software and platform to platform... the techniques are what you're looking for, not the specific buttons to click (those are found through exploration of the software you have access to).

Computers store information and vomit it out to a display based on user input, there's no difference between macs and PCs other than personal interface preference... software is fundamentally the same thing. 90% of your time editing will be making nothing more than straight cuts. That doesn't take any specialized software, you could do all the same stuff from their DVD with Windows Movie Maker as easily as iMovie, FInal Cut, or Avid.

I was most impressed that they actually covered some lighting and how to find creative angles in your location (most other books stick to craft and ignore art -- the part I really needed to learn).
 
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knightly said:
The DVD that accompanies the book (I'm a very visual learner) is full of goodies and examples that really cement the stuff that's in the book.
Click to expand...
I have not seen the DVD yet. I couldn't find it online when I found the book itself. But I'm not sure if Google search is a good alternative for it. I just Googled the terms/examples that I was supposed to be looking at in the DVD. My library doesn't have the DVD as well. (unless you can up it...)
 
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At the end of the '90s I walked into the local library to find books about filmmaking.
Looking backwards, I'd say that was a good (very) basic start on the theoryside of filmmaking.
 
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