With all the ever-evolving cameras, tripods, and other gadgets available for making videos these days, the choices of what to buy and how to use them can seem overwhelming. This book cuts through the informational clutter and provides a clear, step-by-step path for transitioning from video beginner to fully informed videographer. The advice is real world, well-reasoned, and rooted in experience. Moreover, the approaches for progressing from idea to completed video are laid out logically. The book is packed with insider tips about video budgeting, sizing up the audience and the competition, selecting equipment (and whether to rent or buy), pre-production planning, writing a script, shooting the video, post-production tasks, and other important aspects of making polished videos. Along the way, the book addresses an assortment of conundrums, such as whether to use a smart phone camera vs. an actual video camera. For anyone who’s dreamed of saying, “Lights, camera, action!”, this book provides ample grounding.