Intended for a wide audience - from newbie to the more experienced videographer or even the keen movie tragic - the ABCinema course is a most interesting approach to improving knowledge on all things movie-related.

After the insertion of a personal registration code the program kicks off and then installs a small application on the computer. This refers to the content held on the DVD and keeps your place in between session. Highly graphical, ABCinema is predominantly text-based but with all points exhaustively emphasised and exemplified by accompanying clips from movies or purpose-created 3D animations. For those who don't wish to read text on a screen, the text can be exported into a browser and printed. However, you would not wish to be far from the computer as otherwise you would miss the movie extracts which serve as excellent demonstrations of the point or principle being detailed.

ABCinema begins with a quite detailed look at the history of the moving image, the passage from black and white silent movies to colour and the incorporation of synchronised sound. Of course, there is a detailed examination of the present state of play and the place of digital technology in today's movies. It then moves on to covering various topics in detail.

The range of film clips used to illustrate salient points throughout ABCinema is extensive and many are of significant historical importance. Who has not seen Marilyn Monroe's signature scene standing on the ventilation exhaust with her dress billowing in 'The Seven Year Itch"? At the other end of memorable is Jack Nicholson's frightening performance in the 'Redrum' scene axing his way through the door in 'The Shining'.
Apart from the chapter on film history, there are headings entitled Video, The Camera, Image Composition, Sound, Behind the Scenes, Script writing, Storytelling and a section of tips for a wide range of movie project genres that might be undertaken. The 3D animations come to the fore when demonstrating various camera movements or principles such as awareness of the 'axis of action' and the use of scaling in the composition of an image.

There is also a feature called 'The Virtual Camera' which allows you to control camera movement for some sections of the tutorials and that does provide some variation to the learning process. The chapters on sound and editing are detailed and contain a lot of information. There is some light weight physics involved in some chapters but not enough to make your eyes glaze over.

Indeed this whole production is a mine of interesting information concentrated into the one DVD. Personally, I found it best to attack this like any other learning endeavour - by taking bite sized chunks in digestible amounts which for me meant about 60-90 minutes sessions. It is not like reading a novel, as without frequent reference to the illustrative film clips, much of the subtleties and nuances described in the text will be missed.

I was really impressed by the ABCinema Interactive Digital Film Course. It is something to which I expect to continually refer once I have completed the entire course. It is easily searched, and the subject index, as the film clip list, makes moving back and forwards through the whole quite simple. There is a wealth of information contained within this DVD's pits and grooves, some of which are more 'for information only' while others are of a more practical bent. However, there is precious little that wasn't interesting.

ABCinema costs AUD$99 but there is an introductory price of AUD$79. It is available from the AusCam Online store.

By Frank McLeod

Dr Frank McLeod is a specialist physician who in his ‘day job' works in the area of Addiction Medicine. Frank reckons he ‘dribbled' into video as a way to get information across to his patients and their families in an accessible way that avoided information overload. From there, the monster just grew. With a long-time interest in things technical and gadgetry of all kinds, he had been writing tech review-type-articles on a casual basis for a medical publication for some time, when an introduction to David Hague led to his continuing this level of activity in the field of video.

Frank says that one of the parts he likes best about his involvement with Australasian Camcorder is the opportunity to play with other people's toys. The downside, he says, is having to give them back at the end of ‘playtime' that precedes publication of the resulting review.

"I suppose I want to present information from the non-professional point of view, which is not difficult, given that I am the only amateur punter in the camp," he says. With a strong commitment to the amateur video club movement, he is the Secretary of his local video club. In part because of this, and with a long time history as an avid DIY-er behind him, Frank has an interest in the do-it-yourself construction of devices for the amateur videographer and strongly wishes to continue this type of contribution as part of his future involvement with auscam