Stocking Stuffer: Missing Manual

Looking for a stocking stuffer in the $20-30 range? Hot on the heels of our own Dave Caolo's podcast on iMovie, and just in time for all those home movies you'll be shooting over the holidays comes iMovie HD & iDVD 5: The Missing Manual from the O'Reilly Network (list price: $29.95, Amazon price: $19.77 as of this writing).

In addition to covering these two great iLife applications, the book also offers tips on some of the most important elements to shooting movies: capturing quality footage, including tips on composition, the ever-important lighting and even filming special events. You'll learn how to work with the timeline, adding transitions, narration, effects and sound. The book then goes beyond the creation process to teach you how to export your movie to various formats including tape, QuickTime movie, CD, the web and even that all-too-viewable 1" screen on your cell phone. Finally, iDVD makes its debut, as you'll learn how to add some style to your movie and burn it to DVD.

O'Reilly offers two ways to get your mits on this book, but only one (to my knowledge) can be used as a gift: you can always use the Safari Bookshelf service which allows you to read the book online and download individual chapters, or you can snag the more real-world and gift-friendly print version. Either way, this is a great book for an excellent application, just in time for the big holiday shopping season.