Like numerous other wannabe film makers and/or film and video students who have zero prior experience, trying to find a decent guide book on the subject can be seriously confusing.
Luckily I stumbled across Teach Yourself Film Making and after leafing through decided to buy it instead of the expensive and encyclopeadia sized film and video books on either side of it.
The first thing that impressed me about the compact book is there is no assumption that the reader already has a knowledge of (or possesses) various equipment, processes or some other technical minutae. This is a point that most books of a similar nature fail at. Teach Yourself Film Making starts at the beggining and covers EVERYTHING from start to finish. Not just cameras and fiddly bits of wires etc., but also getting yourself organised, actors, creating the script, finding locations and wait for it...places to try and get funding that you may have never heard of. Also the author illustrates various stages of the film making process from his own experience and basically removes a lot of the 'scary mystery' behind making a film.
I guess this book is a minor revelation to those of us who really want to make a film or video project, but don't have the faintest idea how to get things going - this will certainly open several doors for you.
Yep, nice little book that explains everything in a simple step by step manner and does not get bogged down with confusing lists of technical equipment.
See you on set!