Don't forget, there's an entire chapter in here on color correction, along with scripts and tools to make it easier!

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Product Description

Written by Stu Maschwitz, co-founder of the Orphanage (the legendary guerrilla visual effects studio responsible for amazing and award-winning effects in such movies as Sin City, The Day After Tomorrow, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), this book is a must-have for all those budding filmmakers and students who want to produce action movies with visual effects but don't have Hollywood budgets. The Orphanage was created by three twenty-something visual effects veterans who wanted to make their own feature films and discovered they could do this by utilizing home computers, off the shelf software, and approaching things artistically. This guide details exactly how to do this: from planning and selecting the necessary cameras, software, and equipment, to creating specific special effects (including gunfire, Kung Fu fighting, car chases, dismemberment, and more) to editing and mixing sound and music. Its mantra is that the best, low-budget action moviemakers must visualize the end product first in order to reverse-engineer the least expensive way to get there. Readers will learn how to integrate visual effects into every aspect of filmmaking--before filming, during filming and with "in camera" shots, and with computers in postproduction. Throughout the book, the author makes specific references to and uses popular action movies (both low and big-budget) as detailed examples--including El Mariachi, La Femme Nikita, Die Hard, and Terminator 2.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19970 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review

 "I'd been wanting to write a book for the new breed of digital filmmakers,
but now I don't have to. My pal and fellow movie maker Stu Maschwitz has
compressed years of experience into this thorough guide. Don't make a movie
without reading this book!"
 -Robert Rodriguez, filmmaker and author of Rebel Without a Crew

About the Author
Stu Maschwitz is a director, visual effects supervisor, renowned technologist and founding partner of The Orphanage, a leading VFX and film production company based in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Hailed by Shoot Magazine as one of the “Ten Commercial Directors To Watch,” Maschwitz has quickly gained a reputation for his ability to tackle extraordinarily complex visual challenges while injecting his signature wry sense of humor and kinetic filmmaking style. An innovator in filmmaking technology, Maschwitz is the creator of The Orphanage’s revolutionary Magic Bullet software—which gives inexpensive digital video the lush look of film. Prior to joining up with his fellow co-conspirators to start The Orphanage, Maschwitz spent five years at George Lucas’ Industrial Light + Magic. He is a graduate of CalArts School of Animation.

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Customer Reviews

Don't Leave Home without it!
I haven't even finished reading it and I don't know how I ever lived without it.

thank you stu!
this book was a very welcome change to all the theory books i've been reading on directing & cinematography.

the author writes in a very direct, concise, and clear manner... he's even got a real sense of humor. he knows his target audience, and he communicates very effectively to us, because he's really not that different than us.

he has tons of examples, pics, practical explanations, tables, reference material, and even a DVD-ROM that came with the book loaded with more writing, project files, media files, and so on.

this is the most practical and accessible book on indie filmmaking i've ever read.

definitely recommend!

Cool pictures, wish requirements for use were more clearly stated...
Do you have Adobe After Effects? If not, I wouldn't purchase this unless you are just an armchair filmmaker because this book's techniques are based on that program. I wish I had Adobe After Effects and this book would be useful, not just entertaining.