Rating: 
Summary: A fantastic read
Review: After reading Mac OS 9: The Missing Manual, and recognising the quality in these books, I knew buying this one wasn't a fatal mistake. This book just about got me into the DV excitement. It taught me what to do. Obeying everything in this book, I could really create movies that basically exceeded my expectations. I got most of the gear David Pogue suggested I get, and the result was one fantastic movie I made. Truly a highly recommended read.
Rating:
Summary: Simple Simon
Review: Can it get any simpler !! ha ha ha ha ha
I found this book to be extremely informative and easy to understand (especially since i am yet to purchace a mac and digital video cammera ).. I will have no hesitation now to go out and purchase a Mac and a Digital cammera .. and feel confident making my first feature film or "Home Movie " LOL
Rating: 
Summary: You Save Huge Amounts of Trial-and-Error Learning
Review: David Pogue is a seasoned veteran of "How to" Mac computer books. Mr. Pogue is a Personal Technology columnist for the New York Times. Quick Rewind to MacWorld 3 Years Ago I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Pogue at MacWorld over three years ago. Dave was at the Oreilly.com book's kiosk telling his adventures of getting information from Apple's Steve Jobs on the release of date and information on the new iMovie 2 program. David Pogue was not happy on Apple Computer's negative release of information. Dave was amazed that Microsoft was very "Mac friendly" in releasing information on Microsoft applications for the Macintosh. Dave was still upbeat on iMovie and promised that any and all updates would be available at the Oreilly.com's Missing Manual website. Fast Forward to the iMovie 2 Review If you are trying to learn iMovie 2, this is the book for you. Writer David Pogue has an entertaining way of writing that makes if very easy to get through his book. This Missing Manual is notable for its consistent quality of presentation and content. The book is well written, contains good technical information and is easy-to-follow for all levels of Mac users. Mr. Pogue delivers value in iMovie 2: The Missing Manual. Composed in Pogue's friendly style, I found this book a valuable treasure. I consider the Pogue book an excellent buy for anyone starting out in editing home movies on the Mac. Quick Table of Contents Part 1 - Capturing DV Footage (How to buy and use camcorders for new moviemakers.) Part 2 - Editing in iMovie (Heart of the book with seven chapters.) Part 3 - Finding your Audience Part 4 - Beyond iMovie 2 Part 5 - Appendixes Interesting Pages to Develop Your Movie Skills Page 242 - Importing Quicktime and exporting from Quicktime Pro conversion to DV Stream.
Page 255 - Still Pictures and Quicktime Movies Page 308 - Posting a movie on your website using FreeServers.com Pro Reaction iMovie 2 "The Missing Manual" has a good table of contents and index. Excellent screenshots of iMovie 2 dialogue screens. Good "thumb index" like dictionary indexes. Also, Colophon: How I Wrote this Book" was interesting. This Pogue book is easy to read and helps the reader in learning how to use iMovie 2 by providing highlighter tips and screen shots of iMovie 2 windows and messages. The instructional text is broken up with useful sidebars titles for quick references for the Mac user. iMovie 2 "The Missing Manual" is a handy reference book for new and veterans movie makers. Con Reaction iMovie 2 "The Missing Manual" is missing a Quick Table of Contents. (Page 3 -could have been Quick Table of Contents.) Missing was the CD-ROM with this book... Final Comments I find that iMovie 2 "The Missing Manual" an excellent book without the smart comments and cliché headlines of most Dummy Series books. David Pogue does a good job covering the basic videography to the newest iMovie 2 editing options. If you use iMovie you need this book and the software that it allows you to download from Pogue's Web site...
Rating:
Summary: Great Resource & Fun to Read!
Review: Everyone pointed out how useful this book is and I agree. It had great technique tips as well as excellent information about using the program. But what really made it stand out was that, unlike most computer how-to books, Pogue has a great dry sense of humor that makes his examples memorable and lively. It was not just a dry reference manual -- I had trouble putting it down.
Rating:
Summary: The Must-Have iMovie book -- a bit outdated though
Review: First I have to give props to David Pogue and his Missing Manual series. As a bookseller and computer geek I've long favored the Dummies books as the best entry-level source for third-party information on software. However, O'Reilly made a smart move when they turned their attention on that market and grabbed Dummies standby Pogue to headline the new series. The Missing Manuals (and their mutant-dogcow mascot) are a credit to O'Reilly and a must-have... assuming, that is, that they cover the program you need. The series is still too small, but I'm sure it won't stay that way. Now, to the book itself. If you need to do something with iMovie, it's in there. That pretty much covers what I need to say in this review, but it doesn't cover everything the book has to offer. Remember back in the 80s when the Mac made desktop publishing a reality, only to unleash a torrent of wretchedly amateurish graphic design? Well, Pogue spends much of the first couple of chapters attempting to prevent that from happening. This book starts off with a very basic primer on video production and how to use your equipment -- assumed to be a typical consumer-grade MiniDV camcorder, but it covers other options as well, particularly video bridges and the like. The meat of the book discusses iMovie 2's capabilities, including discussions of its weaknesses and how to work around them. Effects, titles, and transitions are discussed in detail, including some useful information on crossfades (never fade straight to black -- instead, you want a black stillframe). Conversion to other formats is also an issue, and a significant part of the book discusses postproduction using QuickTime Pro. Directions are given for converting your work for DVD or VCD as well. The issue I have with the book is largely its focus on iMovie in MacOS Classic, and the bugs that are present in that version that might not be in the OS X version. Screenshots all come from 9.x, with the only Aqua material being the interface of iMovie itself. I don't mark down for this since the program operates more or less the same, but an inexperienced user may have trouble. (I might note as well that the book works just as well for iMovie 3, which has a superficially different interface but handles more or less identically.) So, yeah. If you're doing video production on iMovie, this is the book to get, hands down.
Rating:
Summary: Informative, Clearly Organized and Useful
Review: I bought three books to teach myself how to produce DVDs. The Erica Sadun book is for advanced users and was not helpful to me. The Bob LeVitus "Little iDVD Book" is probably one of the most poorly organized and edited books I've ever come across on any subject. Pogue's "Missing Manual", on the other hand, is comprehensive, clear and well-organized. I've produced about half a dozen DVDs since reading (and re-reading) Pogue's book and it clearly made a huge difference in what I was able to construct using iDVD. In my opinion, this is the only book you need to read to learn how to produce movies using iDVD. Beyond teaching readers to work with iDVD, Pogue also offers loads of helpful suggestions about editing in general. This book is outstanding.
Rating:
Summary: Informative, Clearly Organized and Useful
Review: I bought three books to teach myself how to produce DVDs. The Erica Sadun book is for advanced users and was not helpful to me. The Bob LeVitus "Little iDVD Book" is probably one of the most poorly organized and edited books I've ever come across on any subject. Pogue's "Missing Manual", on the other hand, is comprehensive, clear and well-organized. I've produced about half a dozen DVDs since reading (and re-reading) Pogue's book and it clearly made a huge difference in what I was able to construct using iDVD. In my opinion, this is the only book you need to read to learn how to produce movies using iDVD. Beyond teaching readers to work with iDVD, Pogue also offers loads of helpful suggestions about editing in general. This book is outstanding.
Rating:
Summary: Informative, Clearly Organized and Useful
Review: I bought three books to teach myself how to produce DVDs. The Erica Sadun book is for advanced users and was not helpful to me. The Bob LeVitus "Little iDVD Book" is probably one of the most poorly organized and edited books I've ever come across on any subject. Pogue's "Missing Manual", on the other hand, is comprehensive, clear and well-organized. I've produced about half a dozen DVDs since reading (and re-reading) Pogue's book and it clearly made a huge difference in what I was able to construct using iDVD. In my opinion, this is the only book you need to read to learn how to produce movies using iDVD. Beyond teaching readers to work with iDVD, Pogue also offers loads of helpful suggestions about editing in general. This book is outstanding.
Rating:
Summary: Better than "the other" manual
Review: I first purchased "the other" iMovie2 manual, and found that any references to Troubleshooting were not present. "The Missing Manual" provides everyone with the basics right through the more sophisticated capabilities of iMovie2, plus adds brief reviews of the more common "pro" video editing software avaialble, for those who wish to "move up" later. Five "thumbs up" to David Pogue ... his writing style/technique allows the reader to find answers quickly. (And, yes ... the troubleshooting elements were most helpful.)
Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Best
Review: I have been working with computers professionally for 25 years, and this is quite simply the best how-to book I have ever read on a piece of software. iMovie 2 may be simple, but it has great depth, and this book shows you how to exploit every inch of it.
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