The DV Rebel’s Guide is a comprehensive guidebook to planning, shooting, and finishing your own digital movie.
I’m Stu Maschwitz, the author, and this is a little site that I’ve put together to give you a sense of what the book is all about. There are a couple of things I want you to know.
If you look me up on the IMDB, you’ll see that I’ve got a background in visual effects. I’m one of the founders of The Orphanage, a premiere effects house in San Francisco. But my day job is directing commercials. I specialize in spots that integrate complex effects with live action. You can see some of my work on the Orphanage Commercial Productions site.
In 1998–99 I made a short film called The Last Birthday Card. My budget was $5,000, but I included shootouts, helicopters, and car crashes.
At any budget level, I always feel that there’s too much waste in the filmmaking process. Over the years, I’ve developed some tricks for maximizing production value, whether you’ve got $30,000/second or $30 period.
This approach uses some digital visual effects, but you won’t need to become an effects master to put it to use. Not all the effects stuff in the book is digital, either.
I love Adobe After Effects, and that’s the software I focused on when writing The Guide. You’ll use AE for everything from planning your shots to mastering your final film.