Single-Camera Video Production
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"Single-Camera Video Production is easy reading for the newcomer yet it has enough depth for the video professional. Chapters on digital video, nonlinear editing and a full description of pre-production treatments and contracts make it an excellent resource." - Videomaker
Product Description
"Single Camera Video Production, Fifth Edition" is intended for the beginning media student and as a reference for experienced media professionals to review the rapidly changing technology and production techniques in the digital media production field. "Single Camera Video Production" provides an overview of the entire video production process and is especially geared to present production techniques used in single-camera video production. Presented in a concise, easy-to-understand format, readers gain the insight they need to create their own (digital) video productions. Clear illustrations demonstrate the techniques presented in the book. An update is needed to reflect the rapid changes to the technology and industry, including nonlinear editing, digital production techniques, and high definition video production. This new edition expands the concentration on digital equipment and production techniques applicable to single camera video production. Field production is accentuated without ignoring studio single camera production. There is also detailed coverage of digital non-linear editing, digital audio, and lighting for digital productions. A new section is included on production workflow designed to carry out the importance of advanced and consistent planning of a production from audience analysis to format choices and eventual distribution methods that must start during the preproduction stage. Presented in an easy to follow, two-page spread layout, the topics are concise and clear. More than 100 new illustrations show the latest equipment and techniques. An expanded production bibliography and glossary complete the additions to this book. Don't miss the other Media Manuals from Focal Press! Check out "Grammar of the Shot, 2e" and "Grammar of the Edit, 2e". The praise for the last edition includes: '"Single-Camera Video Production" is easy reading for the newcomer yet it has enough depth for the video professional. Chapters on digital video, nonlinear editing and a full description of pre-production treatments and contracts make it an excellent resource' - "Videomaker". 'The Focal Press Media Manual series sets out to deliver practical advice, technical know-how and practical skills in a direct, no-nonsense way, without information overload, making sure the essentials are all well-covered. Musburger's "Single Camera Video Production", now in its fourth edition, faithfully sticks to this format, with surprising clarity for a complex technology...What is really good about this manual is that it explains every aspect of production and every role on set, but also how they dovetail to support each other...This is a manual that as the name suggests, you should keep close at hand. It is invaluable as a quick-access reference...a pocket book that will pay for itself time and time again throughout many productions'. It covers single-camera video production in a clear and concise manner. It focuses especially on digital video production techniques and workflow, including non-linear digital editing, digital audio, and lighting for digital productions. The new section covers preproduction planning and designing your production for the types of audience and distribution methods. More than 50 new illustrations demonstrate the topics presented in the book. It is a low cost alternative text to pricier texts in the market.
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18 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Updated, yet outdated
28 Aug 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
The great thing about digital video is that it's democratized video production, expanding access to the tools of production to virtually anyone. The downside of this is that most people are ill-trained in how to use these tools properly. They need to learn some of the basics of visual communication. "Single-Camera Video Production" aims to convey these basic techniques, but largely misses the mark.
This 5th edition is this book's first update since 1993, and it shows. A fair amount of the info seems outdated and it's obvious the author is unfamiliar with newer digital technology. From constantly calling a computer a CPU, to not knowing what AVI stands for, to actually stating that an editing application will "respond to the instruction you give the CPU through the menus and keyboard," Robert B. Musburger doesn't seem to be the most up-to-speed teacher of digital video technology.
A major gripe with this book is the editing. A big portion of this slim 250-page book is unused blank space. It's common to see a two page spread with 3/4 of it blank. Given all that emptiness they could have easily fit in more pictures to illustrate some of the book's more visual points, such as the concept of look space. Otherwise the publishers could've saved a lot of paper.
An even bigger problem is the sheer amount of typos that litter this book, especially in technical data. There's one table of video format info that has 5 typos in it. It gets to the point where I can't trust the numbers the author is using because they often seem slightly off from the common formats I've seen in my years of working with video.
The writing is often needlessly technical without being informative. The author says there are such things as 4:1:1 and 4:2:2 color spaces, but fails to mention what that actually means. Other times what he says is simply unnecessary. It's well explained in the book that video cameras used to use tubes to convert picture to video, but now use CCD chips. I have no idea how knowing the basic specs of a 30 year-old camera I'll never use helps my production skills.
The photos in this book are sparse and largely generic not actually serving a specific purpose. The section that actually deals with how to set up cameras and lights on a set is depicted completely in diagrams with no photos to how things will actually look. Plus for all its talk of white balance and color temperature there's no photos explaining it, though they would've been in black & white anyways. For a book on a visual medium, it's not very visual.
If you have some previous knowledge on video production, be it classes or self-taught, this might be a useful book to flip through as a refresher, but if you're new video production, this book probably won't help you learn essential video skills.
This 5th edition is this book's first update since 1993, and it shows. A fair amount of the info seems outdated and it's obvious the author is unfamiliar with newer digital technology. From constantly calling a computer a CPU, to not knowing what AVI stands for, to actually stating that an editing application will "respond to the instruction you give the CPU through the menus and keyboard," Robert B. Musburger doesn't seem to be the most up-to-speed teacher of digital video technology.
A major gripe with this book is the editing. A big portion of this slim 250-page book is unused blank space. It's common to see a two page spread with 3/4 of it blank. Given all that emptiness they could have easily fit in more pictures to illustrate some of the book's more visual points, such as the concept of look space. Otherwise the publishers could've saved a lot of paper.
An even bigger problem is the sheer amount of typos that litter this book, especially in technical data. There's one table of video format info that has 5 typos in it. It gets to the point where I can't trust the numbers the author is using because they often seem slightly off from the common formats I've seen in my years of working with video.
The writing is often needlessly technical without being informative. The author says there are such things as 4:1:1 and 4:2:2 color spaces, but fails to mention what that actually means. Other times what he says is simply unnecessary. It's well explained in the book that video cameras used to use tubes to convert picture to video, but now use CCD chips. I have no idea how knowing the basic specs of a 30 year-old camera I'll never use helps my production skills.
The photos in this book are sparse and largely generic not actually serving a specific purpose. The section that actually deals with how to set up cameras and lights on a set is depicted completely in diagrams with no photos to how things will actually look. Plus for all its talk of white balance and color temperature there's no photos explaining it, though they would've been in black & white anyways. For a book on a visual medium, it's not very visual.
If you have some previous knowledge on video production, be it classes or self-taught, this might be a useful book to flip through as a refresher, but if you're new video production, this book probably won't help you learn essential video skills.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A fine resource
23 Sep 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
As a total novice who is interested in making some amateur movies for fun, I was interested to see what type of advice this book could give someone like me. I liked the book, and I think it will be an excellent resource for me as I continue on this fun venture.
This is a very practical and simple book that covers just the basics. It deals with what tools you will need during the actual filming process and has a bit at the end about post production.
Musburger talks about the various types of cameras and lighting systems and mics (among other things). He discusses how to take metered readings of light from the scene to determine if you have an appropriate amount of light. He discusses framing. He does a quick overview of how to edit your work in post production.
What I was impressed with:
-He is easy to read and understand
-He uses lots of pictures
What I wished for:
-This was a quick overview of the basic nuts and bolts. I wished for a book that spent more time on each subject.
To sum up, don't expect more than a quick, concise overview of what tools you'll need and simple instructions of how to do it. For what it is, this is a good resource. The author seems to really know what he is talking about.
This is a very practical and simple book that covers just the basics. It deals with what tools you will need during the actual filming process and has a bit at the end about post production.
Musburger talks about the various types of cameras and lighting systems and mics (among other things). He discusses how to take metered readings of light from the scene to determine if you have an appropriate amount of light. He discusses framing. He does a quick overview of how to edit your work in post production.
What I was impressed with:
-He is easy to read and understand
-He uses lots of pictures
What I wished for:
-This was a quick overview of the basic nuts and bolts. I wished for a book that spent more time on each subject.
To sum up, don't expect more than a quick, concise overview of what tools you'll need and simple instructions of how to do it. For what it is, this is a good resource. The author seems to really know what he is talking about.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Dated, some errors, should be put out of its misery
2 Sep 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
You would never know that this is the brand-new, 2010 5th edition of a book on video production. Some of the photos and content are clearly left over from a first edition written in the long-forgotten past. I built my first commercial video studio 26 years ago in 1984, and some of the content here was out of date then. Here are specific examples:
Chapter Three, "The Equipment," bounces between equipment photos, descriptions and techniques. Unfortunately, the photos are dated and often unclear. For example, those illustrating wide and narrow depth of field are indistinguishable from each other, and the light meter shown gathering incident and reflected light readings looks like it is from the 1960s or 70s.
On page 77, a photo labelled "6 pin Firewire connector" is actually an HDMI connector, while the connector labelled "Firewire" is actually the 6-pin variety. The 4-pin connector is labelled correctly.
Chapters Four and Five, "PreProduction" and "Production" are a bit dated, but still viable. These techniques have not changed much for non-CGI productions. No big complaints here.
Chapter Six, "Postproduction," is where the book fails utterly. The author tries to cover both linear and non-linear editing but succeeds at neither. Clearly, no professional editor was involved with publishing this book, because if there was one, he/she would have recognized that paragraphs like these were content-free filler written by a non-computer user:
"A CPU loaded with an editing application will respond to the instruction you give the CPU through the menus and keyboard. Most editing applications come with a special keyboard, key stickers or an overlay that covers the keyboard keys and shows you the special editing commands. The keys "J", "L," "K," "I," and "O" each allows (sic) for special commands designed to speed your editing process. Once you become familiar with all of the operations, menus and commands of the application mounted on the CPU you use to edit, you are ready to edit your project." Thirty seconds of your life gone forever, with nothing to show for it.
Repeated references throughout the book refer to film editing on manual cutting equipment. This has not been done for years. While many (most?) Hollywood productions are indeed shot on film, they are captured digitally within hours of shooting to take advantage of the ease and flexibility of NLE. Sometimes the final cut is done using film, but more often on Final Cut Pro. Outside of Hollywood movies, virtually all productions are video cut on NLE.
Chapter 7, "Your Future," covers job hunting. This material is completely superfluous in an era when far better job resources are found on the web. It should be cut.
Perhaps this book was good in its day, but that day is long past. Shame on the publisher for releasing this out of date junk. My copy went in the paper recycling bin. Don't waste your time.
Chapter Three, "The Equipment," bounces between equipment photos, descriptions and techniques. Unfortunately, the photos are dated and often unclear. For example, those illustrating wide and narrow depth of field are indistinguishable from each other, and the light meter shown gathering incident and reflected light readings looks like it is from the 1960s or 70s.
On page 77, a photo labelled "6 pin Firewire connector" is actually an HDMI connector, while the connector labelled "Firewire" is actually the 6-pin variety. The 4-pin connector is labelled correctly.
Chapters Four and Five, "PreProduction" and "Production" are a bit dated, but still viable. These techniques have not changed much for non-CGI productions. No big complaints here.
Chapter Six, "Postproduction," is where the book fails utterly. The author tries to cover both linear and non-linear editing but succeeds at neither. Clearly, no professional editor was involved with publishing this book, because if there was one, he/she would have recognized that paragraphs like these were content-free filler written by a non-computer user:
"A CPU loaded with an editing application will respond to the instruction you give the CPU through the menus and keyboard. Most editing applications come with a special keyboard, key stickers or an overlay that covers the keyboard keys and shows you the special editing commands. The keys "J", "L," "K," "I," and "O" each allows (sic) for special commands designed to speed your editing process. Once you become familiar with all of the operations, menus and commands of the application mounted on the CPU you use to edit, you are ready to edit your project." Thirty seconds of your life gone forever, with nothing to show for it.
Repeated references throughout the book refer to film editing on manual cutting equipment. This has not been done for years. While many (most?) Hollywood productions are indeed shot on film, they are captured digitally within hours of shooting to take advantage of the ease and flexibility of NLE. Sometimes the final cut is done using film, but more often on Final Cut Pro. Outside of Hollywood movies, virtually all productions are video cut on NLE.
Chapter 7, "Your Future," covers job hunting. This material is completely superfluous in an era when far better job resources are found on the web. It should be cut.
Perhaps this book was good in its day, but that day is long past. Shame on the publisher for releasing this out of date junk. My copy went in the paper recycling bin. Don't waste your time.
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