In mid-2006, VASST published the second edition of Douglas Spotted Eagle's HDV: What You Need to Know (this time subtitled The Complete Guide), and it's a landmark release for anyone with HDV ambitions. As one of the principals of VASST and Sundance Media Group, Spotted Eagle has provided not only hands-on live training in HDV and other digital video production and post technologies around the world, but he has also produced some of the leading DVD-based training tools in the market, and developed several key workflow-enhancement plug-ins. Although most closely identified with their Sony Vegas training and workflow products, VASST's, well, vast array of current training titles run the gamut of popular NLEs. The Absolute Training series alone includes a seven-volume set of DVDs designed to educate users in the intermediate-to-advanced use of Apple's Final Cut Studio and the assortment of tools therein.
The Complete Guide greets an HDV world that's similarly multifaceted, with HDV cameras at multiple price points and varied feature sets populating the landscape; prosumer NLEs from Adobe, Apple, Avid, Grass Valley, and Sony embracing the format; and all kinds of accessories that have been designed with HDV in mind. Spotted Eagle meets that market with a book that is in fact three books in one: targeted technology overview, buyer's guide, and--most importantly--focused field guide for DV producers making the jump to HDV.
Essential to the positioning of the book is that it assumes you've worked professionally with DV in the past, and want to hit the ground running with HDV, making immediate adjustments to your shooting style and production and postproduction workflows as needed to accommodate the differences between the two formats, and to take immediate advantage of HDV, even if your ultimate delivery medium is SD DVD.
One of the key advantages of HDV acquisition, even for videographers who are delivering in DVD or another SD format, is that when you work with HDV in post, you have a lot more wiggle room in an HD image to reframe or tighten a shot without encountering unwelcome pixelation. Along these lines, we can imagine Spotted Eagle's book as a wide-angle HDV image that's ultimately zoomed in post for a shot that's equally crisp and clear, but much tighter in focus.
Spotted Eagle begins the book with an examination of what HDV is, explaining how LongGOP MPEG-2 compression works, and a discussion of the differences between the two HDV formats and interlaced and progressive video. He also touches on more math-intensive issues like pixel aspect ratios and the necessity of pixel shift in 1440x1080 images. But no matter how technical the topics get, Spotted Eagle keeps the explanations clear and digestible, and the tone appropriately light. He even gives the reader advanced warning every time he's about to throw in a little unavoidable math.
The buyer's guide section of the book kicks in next, with a run-down of the various cameras on the market as of this book's mid-2006 publication date and some significant feature comparisons between the different cameras. Even though a number of new cameras (Canon's XH A1 and G1, Sony's V1U and FX7, and JVC's HD110 and HD200, to name a few) were introduced at IBC or thereabouts this year, the book doesn't suffer from their absence. Most of the issues that define an HDV camera purchaser's decision tree (1080i60 vs. 720p24; audio input support and level controls; lens issues such as filter size, focal length, manufacturer, maximum aperture, and interchangeability) were already on the table when this book was written, and those distinctions are well-examined.
The book does a good job of describing the cameras and the differences between them, and the tone remains balanced and objective throughout. But where it makes the leap from useful buyer's guide to indispensable field guide is in its discussion of how to shoot HDV effectively and how that's accomplished with each of the cameras, right down to the correct settings to use. He provides terrific tips on framing 16:9 shots; he also warns against taking too lightly the increased detail that HDV allows, in that it's more likely to expose a cheap or worn set that might not have been noticed with lower-resolution DV. He also speaks directly to the limitations of highly compressed video in high-motion scenes, and recommends using stabilizing devices or increasing the shutter speed, and avoiding "whipping" the camera around at all times. (This is a recurring theme in the book.)
As useful as this kind of instruction is, readers will appreciate the "Standard Operating Procedures" for cameras and "NLE Workflow" sections the most for their unexpected wealth of specificity and detail. Spotted Eagle gets right down to business with each camera, describing not only its features, but how to make them work, how to modify settings, and what all the settings should be. Sometimes this takes the form of explaining, for example, what Black Stretch is on the Sony Z1U and how it can be used to increase detail in dark or black areas. Or it may mean going into custom settings for advanced looks in the JVC HD100 like, "Bleach By-Pass: Master Black -6, Black Compress 3, CineLike Off, Color Matrix and Gamma at Standard, Level Max, Color Gain-8, R Gain and R Rot. -2, G Gain 1, 24p or 30p." This might sound like too much information if you're not a JVC shooter or aren't familiar with the effect he's discussing, but if you are a JVC user with a yen for film effects (and that describes a lot of EventDV readers), it's exactly what you want to read in a book about HDV, and probably didn't expect you would find in a book that's ostensibly designed to cover the topic so broadly.
The same goes for the "NLE Workflow" section, which describes briefly, but with just the right sort of detail, how to ingest HDV into your system, whether you're using Premiere Pro, Vegas, Final Cut, Liquid, EDIUS, or Xpress Pro, what settings you'll need on your PC or Mac and in your NLE, and how to work with the video once it's in there. Spotted Eagle also gives plenty of coverage to the issue of using intermediate codecs as opposed to editing HDV in native LongGOP MPEG-2, and explains how to convert to intermediate codecs in each tool, as well as the usefulness of faster third-party conversion tools like CineForm's AspectHD and workflow enhancement software like VASST's GearShift plug-in for Vegas.
Any book that purports to tell you all you need to know about HDV would be remiss if it didn't discuss the technologies and techniques used to create a "film look" in the digital format, and any review of this book would be remiss if it didn't mention how well Spotted Eagle explores that issue. Right away he makes it clear that there's much more to making digital video look like film than shooting in 24p. However real the technical differences between interlaced frame modes and "true progressive" shooting modes may be, they're largely imperceptible to the naked eye. Furthermore, he points out that as much as the indie film community (and, I'd add, some advocates of "cinematic" wedding and event video) are championing 24p, big-budget Hollywood is taking pains to distance itself from it.
But the "Film Looks & 24p" chapter isn't primarily an anti-24p polemic. The meat of it is a brief tutorial on all the other things involved in producing a credible film look besides shooting in 24p, such as filters for film-like diffusion; shutter speeds; and techniques for getting a shallower, more film-like depth of field. Essential reading for any HDV adopter with filmic leanings.
HDV: What You Need to Know, The Complete Guide closes with a quick look at Blu-ray (and an even quicker look at HD DVD) as the next-generation technologies for those who deliver on DVD. The book is nearly six months old as I write this and it's ironic that with all the swirling hype surrounding Blu-ray and HD DVD in that time, the book hardly seems dated in that respect. Not much has really happened with these technologies at all in terms of real market impact. They may be growing up in public, but their market isn't maturing any faster because of it.
A year from now, the HD delivery landscape will look significantly different. If 2005 and 2006 were the years of HD acquisition's initial explosion into the prosumer mainstream, thanks to HDV, 2007 and 2008 should bring about the same sort of shift for HD video delivery as Blu-ray and/or HD DVD take center stage, and seasoned HDV videographers will be ready to make the most of it. Those with Douglas Spotted Eagle's Complete Guide in hand are well on their way already.
HDV: What You Need To Know, The Complete Guide (2nd. Ed.) is available from amazon
Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
2/22/2009
The American college town
If a friend should ever ask for a book that epitomizes the best that geography can offer, I recommend Blake Gumprechts new volume as a near-perfect candidate. In The American College Town he takes a landscape familiar to every reader of this journal and makes us see it afresh. He dissects its complexity with astonishing thoroughness, using a rich mix of archival material, personal observation, and field interviews. He offers deep case studies, but remembers the need for broader context. Finally, he assembles the total package with spirited, clean prose, some of the best academic writing I have ever seen.
The American College Town is a beautifully designed and well-conceived book. Sandwiched between an introduction that defines the subject and a conclusion about its future are eight thematic chapters. These range in length between 29 and 44 pages, and each illustrates a characteristic of such towns with focus on a particular community. In order these are: the campus as public space (Norman, Oklahoma), fraternity rows and other distinctive residential areas (Ithaca, New York), campus business districts (Manhattan, Kansas), progressive political attitudes (Davis, California), alternative life styles (Athens, Georgia), sports culture (Auburn, Alabama), high-tech centers (Ann Arbor, Michigan), and town-gown tensions (Newark, Delaware). Each chapter is organized historically and illustrated by 10 or so well-chosen photographs and reference maps. The author, one soon learns, is as skilled with camera and mapping software as he is with words.
College towns are a classic example of voluntary culture areas, those created by people who migrate to wherever they think they will find likeminded souls. As such, we might have expected scholarly work on this subject before 2008. Gumprecht blames the neglect on academic farsightedness and the natural human tendency to overlook what is all around us (p. xvii), but I hope this books success will inspire parallel probes into the many other self-sorted places, from retirement centers to the Pacific Northwests ecotopia.
Extensive work underlies this book. One gets an initial feel for this by paging through 64 pages of endnotes and reading that personal interviews numbered over 200. It is clearer still when reading astonishingly detailed accounts of, say, the evolution of Manhattans Aggieville business district or Daviss political culture and realizing that these were assembled from primary materials such as city hall minutes, old Sanborn maps, nineteenth-century diaries, and on-the-spot interviews. Most telling of all, perhaps, is the authors sad confession that this book ultimately sapped so much time and energy that it hastened the collapse of his marriage.
Even readers who have spent decades in college towns can glean much from Gumprechts work. The first chapter, for example, is an interesting exercise in definition. If one selects American cities where university students constitute 20% or more of the total population and, of these, eliminates big cities and suburbs, the result is about 300 college towns. He notes how these entities are rare in other countries (where urban universities are the rule), explains why they are so numerous here (state as opposed to federal control, a scattered population, religious sponsorship, and local boosterism), and identifies six subtypes. He also relates how many of the phenomenons characteristic traits emerged only after an enrollment surge in the late 1940s.
The thematic chapters are uniformly rich. The University of Oklahoma, with its wooded groves, formal gardens, and public auditoria is a perfect demonstration of the open, verdant nature of most American campuses. Their contrast with cloistered, inward-looking universities in Europe is stark. One learns that fraternities at Ithaca were outgrowths of literary societies and at Manhattan that Aggieville bars were scarce until the 1960s when women were first allowed to enter them freely. Documentation of progressive political initiatives at Davis and the music and art scenes at Athens is interesting, too, including a contradictory reluctance in these increasingly middle-class towns to promote social justice and provide affordable housing. Such conflict between alternative and corporate culture reaches a peak in the Ann Arbor discussion on that towns love-hate relationship with pharmaceutical companies and military contractors.
Unlike any other professors I know, Gumprecht has worked previously as a newspaper reporter, sportswriter, librarian, and music executive. This experience flows into the book. His arguments for five of the chapters also have been honed through previous publication in scholarly journals. All this has helped him to achieve balance between detail and overview, history and the present scene, scholarship and storytelling. In fact, I see self-indulgence in only two places: the preface where he nostalgically recalls his drifter days in Lawrence, Kansas, and the Athens chapter where he obviously identifies with the six artisans he profiles. If I were his editor, I would have shortened these discussions.
A related problem comes from a compulsion to be thorough. Even though this book is a pleasure to read at 348 pages, I think it would have been even better cut by a third. With a little less detail on Shug Jordans coaching career at Auburn, Ann Arbors industries, and Newarks landlords, we would still have a clear picture of the uniqueness of college towns. The bonus might have been Gumprechts dream to interest a trade publisher in the project and to create one of the few geographers books ever to capture the attention of the elusive general public.
The American College Town is a beautifully designed and well-conceived book. Sandwiched between an introduction that defines the subject and a conclusion about its future are eight thematic chapters. These range in length between 29 and 44 pages, and each illustrates a characteristic of such towns with focus on a particular community. In order these are: the campus as public space (Norman, Oklahoma), fraternity rows and other distinctive residential areas (Ithaca, New York), campus business districts (Manhattan, Kansas), progressive political attitudes (Davis, California), alternative life styles (Athens, Georgia), sports culture (Auburn, Alabama), high-tech centers (Ann Arbor, Michigan), and town-gown tensions (Newark, Delaware). Each chapter is organized historically and illustrated by 10 or so well-chosen photographs and reference maps. The author, one soon learns, is as skilled with camera and mapping software as he is with words.
College towns are a classic example of voluntary culture areas, those created by people who migrate to wherever they think they will find likeminded souls. As such, we might have expected scholarly work on this subject before 2008. Gumprecht blames the neglect on academic farsightedness and the natural human tendency to overlook what is all around us (p. xvii), but I hope this books success will inspire parallel probes into the many other self-sorted places, from retirement centers to the Pacific Northwests ecotopia.
Extensive work underlies this book. One gets an initial feel for this by paging through 64 pages of endnotes and reading that personal interviews numbered over 200. It is clearer still when reading astonishingly detailed accounts of, say, the evolution of Manhattans Aggieville business district or Daviss political culture and realizing that these were assembled from primary materials such as city hall minutes, old Sanborn maps, nineteenth-century diaries, and on-the-spot interviews. Most telling of all, perhaps, is the authors sad confession that this book ultimately sapped so much time and energy that it hastened the collapse of his marriage.
Even readers who have spent decades in college towns can glean much from Gumprechts work. The first chapter, for example, is an interesting exercise in definition. If one selects American cities where university students constitute 20% or more of the total population and, of these, eliminates big cities and suburbs, the result is about 300 college towns. He notes how these entities are rare in other countries (where urban universities are the rule), explains why they are so numerous here (state as opposed to federal control, a scattered population, religious sponsorship, and local boosterism), and identifies six subtypes. He also relates how many of the phenomenons characteristic traits emerged only after an enrollment surge in the late 1940s.
The thematic chapters are uniformly rich. The University of Oklahoma, with its wooded groves, formal gardens, and public auditoria is a perfect demonstration of the open, verdant nature of most American campuses. Their contrast with cloistered, inward-looking universities in Europe is stark. One learns that fraternities at Ithaca were outgrowths of literary societies and at Manhattan that Aggieville bars were scarce until the 1960s when women were first allowed to enter them freely. Documentation of progressive political initiatives at Davis and the music and art scenes at Athens is interesting, too, including a contradictory reluctance in these increasingly middle-class towns to promote social justice and provide affordable housing. Such conflict between alternative and corporate culture reaches a peak in the Ann Arbor discussion on that towns love-hate relationship with pharmaceutical companies and military contractors.
Unlike any other professors I know, Gumprecht has worked previously as a newspaper reporter, sportswriter, librarian, and music executive. This experience flows into the book. His arguments for five of the chapters also have been honed through previous publication in scholarly journals. All this has helped him to achieve balance between detail and overview, history and the present scene, scholarship and storytelling. In fact, I see self-indulgence in only two places: the preface where he nostalgically recalls his drifter days in Lawrence, Kansas, and the Athens chapter where he obviously identifies with the six artisans he profiles. If I were his editor, I would have shortened these discussions.
A related problem comes from a compulsion to be thorough. Even though this book is a pleasure to read at 348 pages, I think it would have been even better cut by a third. With a little less detail on Shug Jordans coaching career at Auburn, Ann Arbors industries, and Newarks landlords, we would still have a clear picture of the uniqueness of college towns. The bonus might have been Gumprechts dream to interest a trade publisher in the project and to create one of the few geographers books ever to capture the attention of the elusive general public.
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