Toile: The Storied Fabrics of Europe and America (Schiffer Design Book)

Book Description

The art of editing in a nonlinear mode cannot be gleaned from software application manuals. This book is designed to convey the artistic considerations and techniques that both new and experienced editors need to employ in editing digital stock. Readers learn the importance of timing, emotion, and art in assembling a cohesive project that tells a story with the appropriate flow and pace. Each chapter features interviews with professionals and exercises relevant to the subject matter under discussion.

Nonlinear Editing is chock full of provocative ideas, insights, resources, tools, and exercises that will inspire you to making better decisions in the edit bay and in your career. For editors, directors, producers, and screenwriters.

Customer Reviews:

A must read!.......2003-06-10

I Bought this book as a reference for technical issues (formats, standards, procedures) but I got much more. Button gives you the whole layout of this art/craft of film editing. The topics covered range from editing equipment to film theory, color harmony&design basics to writing resumes. Light, sound - this book covers it all. Not all topics are discussed in great length, but there are excellent reference lists for further reading and websites.
Bryce Button seems to be an experienced editor and a film scholar and clearly enjoys teaching.
I have been a film editor for 10 years -I've still learned a lot. Some of the information will be redundant to the more experienced but still- very well written, packed with knowledge, insight - in short, a real inspiration. Well Done!

Very good advice for beginners.......2003-05-24

The book contains tons of very good advice for novice editors. The tips on planning will save a lot of time when the real work begins. The suggestions on the practical and aesthetic (including sound) aspects of editing will speed up the process and improve the quality of the finished work, perhaps by the equivalent of at least a few month's apprenticeship. The chapters on dealing with stress and team members, clients and the business, give an idea of the work environment to be expected. After reading the whole book, chapter 13 summarizes the most important tips as "cheat sheets" - very useful.

The only thing I didn't like was a number of typos, and what I thought was an occasional lapse in a couple of explanations.

Average customer rating:
Nonlinear Editing: Storytelling, Aesthetics and Craft.
Bruce Button
Manufacturer: Publisher Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UYJ2X2

Book Description

The history of the planet Earth has become splintered, each splinter vying to become the prime reality. But there can only be one true history. The Doctor has a plan to ensure that the correct version of history prevails -- a plan that involves breaking every law of Time. But with the vortex itself on the brink of total collapse, what do mere laws matter? From the Bristol riots of 1831, to the ruins of the city in 2003, from a chance encounter between a frustrated poet and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, to a plan to save the human race, the stakes are raised ever higher -- until reality itself is threatened.

Customer Reviews:

Plot Engineering.......2004-06-27

I've read the argument stating science fiction stories have fewer interesting people in them because the author must spend so much extra time setting up their alien and/or futuristic worlds, they have less time to spend developing believable characters. I'm not sure I agree that this is a necessary or inherent failing in science fiction, although I must admit it does successfully describe a phenomena that occurs with some regularity. And I think the heuristic it expresses goes double for alternative universe stories. The author must not only evoke the real-world historical and physical setting, but he or she must also spend time meticulously explaining how, why and in what way it differs from our own Earth, leaving even less time for the story's characters. This may explain how Nick Walters could present us with a very detailed look at an alternative Bristol, 2003, yet populate it entirely with cardboard.

I found much to enjoy in RECKLESS ENGINEERING, but character development was not one of those pleasures. I wouldn't have minded so much (I'm perfectly capable of appreciating a plot-intensive story which exists at the expense of character), except that the book kept making half-assed efforts at injecting life into these people. There's a bizarre love-triangle subplot handled so clumsily that I wondered why the author bothered including it. The supporting characters are uniformly bland, with the sole exception of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. IKB is, of course, a historical figure, although one which I don't know a lot about, so I'm unsure how faithful this portrayal is. However, he works well here; the grumpy engineer is exactly what the story needed.

Despite not caring much for the characters, I found myself racing through the book's second half much faster than I expected. The reason for this was that I was completely engrossed in the plot and shot through it intent on finding out what was coming next. The TARDIS crew has landed in an alternative, post-apocalyptic 21st century, where the last remains of humanity have been slowly rebuilding their world for the past hundred and sixty years. There's a lone mansion that seems to hold the key to the mystery of how history became corrupted, and there's apparent alien influence in that situation. There's a hell of a lot going on, and while it's generally presented very well, I felt the ending was a bit short. Careful reading and going back to reread earlier passages suggested to me that everything necessary was actually there, it was just a bit rushed. It could have benefited from an extra ten or so pages, hopefully without unduly disturbing the pacing.

Another thing I enjoyed was the fact that we are not shying away from the consequences of the Doctor's actions. Putting the timeline (or space-time continuum or whatever it is) back to its proper state means having to wipe out these alternatives that are springing up. Remember how this was hand-waved in the final few pages of BLOOD HEAT, way back in the New Adventure days? Thankfully, we are getting a little more discussion concerning these side effects of the alternative universe arc than we did the last time. Walters puts the argument in favor of fixing the universe in the mouth of the Doctor (as it should be), while leaving the "what about...?" and "doesn't that mean...?" questions for Fitz to ask. This arrangement seems to work quite well. The audience realizes that the Doctor may be ultimately correct in his assessment, but that doesn't stop us from thinking the same questions that occur to Fitz, and it's only right that the book should address them in this way. I quite like how Walters handled this.

There are some wonderful descriptive passages detailing how Bristol has changed in this alternative timeline. Walters wipes out a huge percentage of the world's population in the 19th Century, and then flashes forward to the 21st to see what the world would look like after that amount of time had passed. He spends a lot of time mapping out this universe, describing what the population has become and how the physical world has decayed. And he balances out these lovingly written pieces of very effective prose with violent scenes that are almost cartoonish in their banality. I think this strange counterpoint sums up my opinion of the book as a whole: stunningly great in some places, but truly painful in others.

I liked Nick Walter's prose style, something I don't remember being particularly tickled by in his previous books. I was taken by his ability to create a genuinely oppressive and depressive atmosphere, and then to momentarily break the mood with a clever joke. Not to give away any punch lines, but I loved the bit near the end about the poet who isn't famous.

Despite some fairly serious problems, I did ultimately enjoy RECKLESS ENGINEERING. The pacing is just right. We leave events just before they can become tedious. For example, the storyline concerning the settlements is relegated to the sidelines in the book's second half (prior to it become stale) and the plot then becomes a series of time-travel hops. Since so much of the book's successes revolve around its plot, I wonder if I'll care for it as much the second time I read it when I'll already know how things unfold. Perhaps it won't be a book with much longevity, but it's a bit too soon for me to make that judgment. On my first reading though, I thought it was a pretty decent book.

A darker, more depressing Who........2003-09-09

This is quite possibly the darkest Doctor Who book that I have read to date (although it should be noted that I have read about 7 books in the series). It has several very good qualities to it- terrific description, an astounding and complex plotline and a truly Who ending using unusual elements of time travel to solve the problems.

It has a very dark side to it as well, and when the book ends, I couldn't help but feel a bit depressed. While I will not give the ending away here, I will say that Fitz learns a bit about the Doctor that he wishes he didn't, and the possibility of more unhappiness in future novels seems to loom ahead.

Though I came away from this book a touch saddened, I feel that the better qualities of this installment made up for it. Four out of five stars in all, that last star simply for the great plotline.

Book Description

A humorous and intriguing glimpse of the remarkable life of one of the world's most famous comedians, combining fascinating biographical facts with a selection of his witty and forthright quotations.

Customer Reviews:

The World According to Groucho Marx by David Brown.......2007-09-04

Light reading and very enjoyable. Groucho had an extremely interesting life and I enjoyed reading about it. Humorous, entertaining, and informative.

Average customer rating:

World According to Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Manufacturer: O'MARA MICHAEL
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K4T7Y6

Book Description

In the silent era, American cinema was defined by two separate and parallel industries, with white and black companies producing films for their respective, segregated audiences. Jane Gaines's highly anticipated new book reconsiders the race films of this era with an ambitious historical and theoretical agenda.

Fire and Desire offers a penetrating look at the black independent film movement during the silent period. Gaines traces the profound influence that D. W. Griffith's racist epic The Birth of a Nation exerted on black filmmakers such as Oscar Micheaux, the director of the newly recovered Within Our Gates. Beginning with What Happened in the Tunnel, a movie that played with race and sex taboos by featuring the first interracial kiss in film, Gaines also explores the cinematic constitution of self and other through surprise encounters: James Baldwin sees himself in the face of Bette Davis, family resemblance is read in Richard S. Robert's portrait of an interracial family, and black film pioneer George P. Johnson looks back on Micheaux.

Given the impossibility of purity and the co-implication of white and black, Fire and Desire ultimately questions the category of "race movies" itself.

Fire and Desire: Mixed-Race Movies in the Silent Era

Average customer rating:

Fire and Desire: Mixed-Race Movies in the Silent Era
Jane M. Gaines
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OP1ZV4

Book Description

The torch song has long been a vehicle for expression--perhaps American song's most sheerly visceral one. Two artists in particular have built upon this tradition to express their own unique outlooks on their lives and the world around them. Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello, and the Torch Song Tradition combines biographical material, artist commentary, critical interpretation, and selected exemplars of the writers' work to reveal the power of authorship and the creative drive necessary to negotiate an artistic vision in the complicated mechanisms of the commercial music industry. Author Larry David Smith, as in his Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and American Song, considers the complicated intersection of biography, creative philosophy, artistic imperative, and stylistic tendencies in the work of both Joni Mitchell and Elvis Costello--two songwriters with seemingly nothing in common, one famously confessional and one famously confrontational. Yet, as Smith shows so incisively, they are two personalities that prove fascinatingly complementary. Mitchell and Costello both yielded bodies of work that are cohesive, coherent, and rich in meaning. Both have made historic contributions to the singer-songwriter model, two rebellious respones to the creative and commercial compromises associated with their chosen field, and two distinct thematic responses to the torch song tradition. Smith examines these responses, offering a unique and invaluable exploration of the craft of two of the last century's most towering musical figures.

Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and the Torch Song Tradition

Average customer rating:

Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and the Torch Song Tradition
Larry David Smith
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORB9YK

Book Description

Things aren't always what they seem, and if you keep that in mind, you'll be in the right mood to solve these slippery lateral-thinking puzzles. They all start with a situation that appears completely normal; then suddenly something strange happens, and with only a couple of hints you have to figure out the reason why. Stay alert as you run into all kinds of fantastic situations--people climbing prison walls, ocean cruises, shoplifter arrests, rich men who give away pennies, deliberate car crashes, shooting rare eagles for prizes, paying to have your silver taken away, and dozens of other weird experiences that make perfect sense once you come up with the lateral answer. 96 pages, 25 b/w illus., 5 3/8 x 8 1/4.

Customer Reviews:

Things Aren't Always As They Seem............2006-07-24

This book is full of clever puzzles that test your brainpower and leave you wanting more. They all star with a very ordinary situation, and then things quickly turn tricky. Each puzzle is provided with hints and solutions.

This book is an excellent way to test and expand your problems solving ability.

This is an example of the type of puzzles you will find in this book:

Nick and Dave were just leaving work at an ambulance dispatcher station. "We're off tomorrow, right?" said Nick "Right", replied Dave. "What do you say we meet in the shopping center parking lot", suggested Nick. "Get in the car I just bought and head out to the lake?". "Let's do that" agreed Dave. Nick had just bought a used car, which he mentioned to Dave, but without describing it in any way. It had license plates tat were unfamiliar to Dave and were not new. It had not parking stickers or other identifying marks of any kind. Nevertheless, Dave identified it easily when he drove to the shopping center parking lot. How?

If you find the problem hiding behind this little story to be interesting, then this book is for you.

Mind expanding.......1998-07-10

I find the puzzles by this author really tease the brain. I have the 2 other lateral thinking puzzle books by this author and I enjoy them. I hope to see more books of this type by this author.

Book Description

In today's dwindling job markets, people who rely on want ads and headhunters succeed about 5 percent of the time. But those who have mastered the art of networking find new positions nearly 66 percent of the time. Writing for job seekers and career builders alike, networking superstar Diane Darling shows how to cultivate a rich network of professional contacts and use it to find success.

Download Description

Any way you look at it, other people are your greatest resource. Diane Darling's in-depth, easy-to-follow instructions will fill your life with opportunities to meet these people and reap the rewards.""--Nicholas Boothman, author of How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less and How to Connect in Business in 90 Seconds or Less

Customer Reviews:

Really helpful guide!.......2007-05-24

This is the best book on networking that I've come across! Starts at the beginning and keeps getting better! Really easy to understand and apply in your own life/business. I bought another book on networking and found this book at the library. I wish it had been the other way around, and I'd bought this and borrowed the other! This book answers questions about everything you need to know, and includes things you probably wouldn't have thought to ask.

The book is divided into 18 chapters. Each chapter begins with a relevant quote, dives right to the meat of the subject and has sub-headings, questions and advice then ends with a summary.

I love this book and will be getting my own to refer back to! If you are looking for a great book on networking, this is it!

Too much good advice.......2006-09-19

This book contains lots of useful advice. Following all the advice requires a larger commitment to networking than I can make at this point, however, it has honestly changed the way I approach and interact people in social and professional situations. It's worth what I paid for it in the store and even cheaper online.

Good refresher.......2006-08-03

Many lists of very specific, practical things to do. A good, easy refresher and you'll learn some new tips.

A GREAT NETWORKING RESOURCE.......2006-04-21

Ms. Darling gives practical techniques for developing a profile for the value of each of one's contacts. She reinforces the concept that networking is not sending junk email, but providing real value to real people in return for the same. I like the fact that she reminds the reader that networking doesn't just happen in business, and that the contacts one makes elsewhere can be part of one's network. Her book is excellent and I was lucky enough to hear her speak once.

You Schmooze You Lose.......2005-09-08

Great networking opportunities are constantly around us, but never confuse networking with schmoozing. That's one of the great lessons of Diane Darling's "The Networking Survival Guide: Get the Success You Want by Tapping Into the People You Know." As someone who coaches independent professionals on how to find new clients, I found the book to be excellent. Schmoozing has the connotation that you are getting something from someone with no benefit to the other person, says Darling. So you schmooze, you lose. Instead, to woo and win new clients, you need to be willing to give before you get in networking situations.

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