For someone who's never made a film before, this book will be very useful in laying out the steps that need to be taken at every stage of pre-production, production and post-production. It covers everything from writing the script to funding and payment contracts to editing your final cut. However, due to the changing nature of the film business, after reading this book, you might want to move on to something more recent for more timely information.
The datedness of the book shows in the financial guidelines (when it offers price quotes on services at a lab, for example), which are five years old at this point. It also shows in the section on editing. The author promotes editing on a work print of film rather than on a digital video system, such as AVID. It may have been more cost-effective to do so in 1995, but today non-linear editing is much preferred. The book has detailed instructions on how to edit film, but none on how to use one of these computer systems, which in many larger communities, are readily accessible.
For a more realistic financial picture of making a film, try the more recent IFP/West Independent Filmmaker's Guide, which uses the budgets from the movie "Swingers" as examples.