iMovie 6 & IDVD: The Missing Manual

by David Pogue

While the last version of iMovie gave moviemakers the ability to capture and edit widescreen High Definition Video (HDV) from the new generation of camcorders, iMovie 6 is all about the ease of moviemaking itself. iMovie 6 includes five professionally designed themes with backgrounds, motion graphics, titles, and effects that act as building blocks for your projects. You can preview transitions and stunning new video effects--such as time-lapse video--in...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596527268
• ISBN13: 9780596527266
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Pogue just gets better and better.

I'm a Mac "fossil." My first machine was a MacPlus. David Pogue has been there the entire time, and we old timers always appreciated his talent, but when he began "The Missing Manual" series, he rocketed into the tech writing stratosphere. I have almost every book he's written and when another Mac user asks me a question, I often say, "Look it up in Pogue's book. He explains it so brilliantly and thoroughly." Recently, a friend of mine was invited to speak before a high profile audience in his field of expertise. He needed a presentation and support materials within three days. I said I'd do the best I could, but I was new to certain iLife applications, particularly, iMovie and iDVD. I added, "I just got a book by my favorite author, but I haven't read it." He said, "Is this the guy who does those Missing Manual books you can't live without?" and I said, "Yes." "Great," he said. "I'll be there in an hour. You should have a handle on it by then." We laughed. He said he had a CD with about 50 photos. Immediately, I found exactly what I wanted to know in this book. It is so well organized, illustrated, and explained, I think it's Pogue's best yet. Very few books have a structure and content that serves so many user levels, from the beginner, to the seasoned pro, plus the technical details for those who want them. I don't even own a video or digi-cam and found his chapters on them highly informative, clarifying the different "standards" and formats. My friend's presentation was successful. I imported his photos into iMovie, and then used iDVD to burn the presentation on a DVD disk. I'm not saying it was an artistic masterpiece, but it was a lot more professional looking and jazzier than a straight slide show. I couldn't have done it without Pogue's book. His writing has enriched my Mac life so much over the years, if he ever writes a book about Photoshop, I may create a shrine to him.

YOU WANT TO BE IN PICTURES...!!

Are you a Macintosh filmmaker and DVD designer? If you are, then this book is for you. Author David Pogue, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that is designed to give you a grounding in professional filming and editing techniques. Pogue, begins by covering what happens before you get to iMovie. Then, the author shows you how to transfer your footage into iMovie, editing your clips, placing them into a timeline, adding crossfades and titles, working with your soundtracks, and more. Next, he helps you take the cinematic masterpiece on your screen to the world. Finally, he provides an extensive overview of iDVD 6. This most excellent book is designed to serve as the iMovie/iDVD manual. More importantly, it explores each iMovie feature in depth, offers illustrated catalogs of the various title and transition effects, offers shortcuts and workarounds, and unearths features that the online help doesn't even mention.

Great Book For Home Video Editers

Perusing some of the other reviews listed for this book, I couldn't help but notice 1 individual complain about the lower quality paper that was used to produce 'iMovie 6 & IDVD: The Missing Manual' by David Pogue. I feel the need to comment on this because I am a HUGE fan of the Missing Manual line of books and feel the need to defend the line as it is as good as technical books come for your everyday user/reader. Is the quality of the paper lower than it could be? The answer is YES but you have 2 choices: better paper with a $35 retail price that is 200 pages in length or the same price with slightly lower quality paper and FIVE HUNDRED pages of material. As with all the other Missing Manual books, this is an outstanding piece of work that will enable all Mac users who want to do video editing or even make top-notch home movies in no time at all. Written exceptionally well, laid out into 17 chapters which are as follows: 01. The DV Camcorder 02. Home Video to Pro Video 03. Special Effects 101 04. Camcorder + Mac = Pure Joy 05. Move Making 06. Transactions & Special Effects 07. Titles, Captions, Credits 08. Narration, Music, Sound 09. Still Pictures & QuickTime Movies 10. Professional Editing 11. More Camcorder Fun 12. iMove to QuickTime 13. Movies on other Devices 14. QuickTime Player 15. iDVD Projects 16. iDVD Themes 17. iDVD Secrets If you have a Mac and want to do movie editing or you currently perform movie edits and want to learn to do them on an easier to use platform that is made for the task at hand, pick up this outstanding book and get editing today!!

Worthy Update in the iMovie Series

I want to concentrate mostly on the differences between this edition (iMovie 6) and the previous (iMove HD (5)). Physically, the book is solid. As other reviewers mentioned, the pages are no longer the glossy kind, but they are thick and smooth, and I can't see any loss in detail in the graphics or screen shots. In addition, since the pages are no longer glossy, they don't reflect light when the book is sitting on my desk. So, it is easier to read. For my money, this is an improvement. The book is about half a dozen pages lighter, but physically it is slightly thicker, so you know the pages still feel solid not thin or flimsy. One final note, the front cover did separate from the binding after reading it for a couple days. It did not detach in the back. This doesn't bother me, but I wanted to mention it. That's probably way too much on the physical. What's inside? Pogue and Sadun (who writes the iDVD chapters) have thoroughly updated the book. I'm impressed with the small changes through out to make the entire book better. The book is slightly shorter, as I mentioned, but it is the same font type and size. Obviously, some material has been deleted. Pogue spends less time reviewing the older camcorder technologies. Also a few minor features that have disappeared from iMovie are gone too, like importing songs into your movies directly from CD. Some sections are streamlined, like how the trash (and disk space usage) works. This topic, in particular, used be in various places, but the new book represents a consolidation of that material. In the iDVD section, they've eliminated the section on how to customize iDVD and also the themes catalog. The latter was a disappointment to me. I like having a reference all in one place where I can review the various iDVD themes. I also liked the short advice associated with each theme, regarding when to use the theme and when not to (sometimes that advice was "never"). There is, of course, plenty of new material. All the new features of iMovie 6 are included: a new section on time-lapse recording and importing of footage, the graphic iMovie themes, GarageBand integration and movie scoring, audio "fx" (like reverb, etcetera), new sections on volume adjustments and locking audio clips to video (though these are not new features). Of course, creating video for the iPod is covered. This is new, since the video iPod is new within the last year. He has a small section on video sharing sites ("youtube" anyone?). And, the new "Share" menu is covered, although little on that menu is new, it's new that it is now in a menu. Finally the appendix on Troubleshooting has been reorganized and updated, although, understandably, much of the advice is the same. Other new features are covered like full-sized previews or the ability to open mutltiple projects simultaneously, but these are covered as part of existing sections and not new sections. In addition to missing the catalog of iDVD themes, there is no catalog of iMovie them