Online Video book can teach you a lot

How to Do Everything with Online Video (How to Do Everything) by Andrew Shalat

reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS: (dreric1kansas@aol.com)

Author: Andrew Shalat
published: 2008
Publisher: Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition
Released:(November 19, 2007)
Pages: 270
$30 USA
$39 Canada
15 E UK
ISBN-10: 0071496432
ISBN-13: 978-0071496438

Strengths: The book is very readable but are a little lackluster in terms of visuals. Book simplifies tutorials but included in-depth information. This book has a nice objective oriented listing in the inside cover of the front cover page as well as a nice website resources listing on the inside of the back cover. The Chapters are well thought out and and have easy to read numbered tutorials. Good solid information for both Macintosh and PC/Windows users was well done. The index is well written. A nicely written resources listing and more are included on the inside back page.

Weaknesses: The book has only black/white text which makes the chapters a little drab. There a few screenshots and they don't have screen pointers or anything else within these to explain how to use hardware or software. The weaknesses are mainly cosmetic in terms of the sequencing of the chapters depending upon whether you are novice, intermediate or advanced user.

Rating: 5/5

Introduction

A book that shows you how to shoot professional-quality videos has to demonstrate how to edit files, prepare clips for posting online, and then provide solid information about sharing video projects via blogs, websites, and podcasts. If you are looking for a book to meet these needs, then the book How to Do Everything with Online Video is a nice one to buy.

The author, Andrew Shalat is a designer, writer, author, and is the coauthor of CNET Do-It-Yourself Mac Projects.
Hands-on tutorials for the easiest and best video editing software for use on PCs and Macs are included.

This 270 page book has 12 chapters, a nice index but no glossary of terms, which would have been nice. The inside front cover has a real nice listing of 25 objectives that tell how the book can help you and what you can learn. These 12 chapters are packed with useful information. These include starting off with ; Shooting videos; editing your video; uploading your videos (including using YouTube, embedding websites, myspace, your own web pages and launching Vodcasts with iTunes); understanding and working with “tags” and using them with Google (another great part was emailing your tags through network sites) ; film school in a book; telling a story; storyboarding (very well thought out) ; information concerning directing your video; basic editing with either Adobe Premier Pro, Final Cut Express HD and/or iMovie O8 and finishing your video had good solid information.

While I have dabbled with YouTube, the book let me know more of my potential.

What I particularly liked is his information about adding audio tracks, nice converting and embedding a video to a flash video ( including some interesting codes to use), extending my utilization of tags with Google and more. Eventhough I have created and sold videos, I found more “food for thought”.


Conclusion

The black on white text and the lack of color within the chapter makes things a little dull. The author explains how to use the hardware and software information but also includes specific helpful techniques concerning what kinds of videos to create with videos. However I really don’t like the order in which the chapters are sequenced. Novice and possibly intermediate video users, especially those trying to learn new techniques, should start with Chapter 2 and then Chapter 5- 8. If you want to get to the heart of working with software, for either Mac or PC users , you should start with Chapter 10 or 11.

The screenshots will not explain visually how to use YouTube especially if you run into a little trouble. But what I have found YouTube is not that difficult to use and this book can help start and master using the Video editing and sharing capabilities. If you need more information another book may suffice.

There are few pages for YouTube utilization but that might be enough to get your started as it is fairly easy to use except for more complex techniques. As a confirmed Macintosh user, I like that the author included information about iMovieHD as well as the new version iMovie 8. There are advantages or disadvantages and reasons for using either/or or both of these iMovie versions, The author includes a section about the compositional use of video involving "the rule of thirds” , This was really nice as I found this idea this technique only used for photography. It is "little" specific gems, like this, that are integrated throughout the chapters and really make this book a very useful one for learning about working with video in several ways.

In short, this book is "crammed" with good solid information. This book will not only have you " up and running " in no time but also help you in your improvement of your YouTube movies, ideas and creativity or enhance skills your already possess. The additional technigues and ideas will take your farther over time.Mostly for novice or intermediate users, even Advanced users may learn a trick or two as I did. It might not be the ultimate guide to Online video creation and usage, but it will get your started and take you far.