This book is written by Stu Maschwitz is a great overview of production tips and tricks that will take you low budget project to another level. The book focuses on what the average person can do given a little time to get the best bang for the buck out of production and post production. It has great how-to's for special effects you can do at home that you would expect to cost a lot more. It frames the advice for action films but is really appropriate for projects in all genres. Its very After Effects focused but many of the techniques can be used with Motion, Apple Color or other effects program.
