Article Focus:
Video enthusiast Steven Gotz takes a look at The Focal Easy Guide to Premiere Pro by Tim Kolb and published by Focal Press.
The back cover of The Focal Easy Guide to Premiere Pro spells out these three main points perfectly:
"Get up and running with Premiere Pro quickly"
"Clear and concise coverage in full color."
"All the essential areas are covered: set-up, capture, editing, audio, effects, and working with Photoshop, After Effects and Encore."
From front to back, this 199 page book has very tightly integrated all of the necessary steps to take a video from the camera to the final output. From setting up the software to interacting with other Adobe software, the text is laid out in logical steps. Tim takes you through creating a new project and setting up all of the initial preferences available, and he even adds some personal recommendations. This book was written by an Emmy Award winning director, and his personal opinions, and sense of humor, are not hidden. That is a large part of the book's appeal.
What stand out the moment you open the book are the brilliant graphics. The screen shots are in full color and even the smallest text is easy to read.
Tim doesn't waste any time. By page 34 he is opening the capture window, by page 82 he is on Ripple and Roll adjustments, by page 110 he is creating a title and by page 171 he has exported the final movie.
This one is a winner! 4-1/2 COWs!
It is a good book for the beginner or the professional who needs a jump start using Adobe Premiere Pro. And it makes a good read even while you are not sitting in front of the PC following along. It won't be your main reference book once you get used to using the program, but it will get you started on the road to editing. It can't be beat for the low price and high quality.
I have been working with Premiere Pro since it was first released, and I had to stop and read the excellent section on Audio very carefully. It felt like an old Johnny Carson skit. I kept saying "I did not know that!"
The only shortcoming I could see was a shortage of detail in some of my favorite areas such as the differences between working with single track instead A/B editing. Yet Tim does an excellent job of explaining how to place the transition to end at cut, center on the cut, and start at cut.
There isn't room in a 199 page book to dig into each topic in depth. That is not the goal. The book appears to be designed to help an experienced editor hit the ground running, and new users to get a solid start. I believe it achieves it's goal quite nicely. I was honored to have my web page mentioned in the "Additional Premiere Pro Resources" section. If Tim was to write the sequel to this book and explain not only how to use some of the transitions, effects and audio tools, but why and when to use them, I would be first in line the day the book was released.
