The Right Equipment

Dorian Quell · March 12, 2004

I'm 17 and have been making ametuer films since i was ten. Ive just now been increasing in my directing and editing skills. but no matter what kind of talent you still need your essential gear.

So far I have access of a Gl-2 and a tripod, adobe premeire, a friend's mag light and my imagination and things have turned out decent (i suppose judging from my standars)

So now im wanting to take it up a notch. What all do you suggest i seriously invest in? I thinking Lights, my own DVX100, lens and filters, and mics. (in general speaking)

How bout it? glad to be here and thanks for not shooting me on site.

March 12, 2004

wait for NAB; there may be some new HDV cameras, better than the JVC HD10. If not, DVX100A is excellent. Get an incident light meter. Get SLR camera with DOF preview. Read books. Get involved in arts, as many types as possible. Take stills and shoot video; you can make some $ doing wedding videos. Realize that cinema is an audio-visual, not just visual art. Adding music to your videos will generally make them a lot better. Don't forget acting and psychology classes. Go see a lot of artistically good movies.

Rob Belics · March 12, 2004

Yep. Get a light meter, a film slr, lights are good. Shoot lots and lots of slide film and study your work with a light table and loupe or slide projector. Read everything you can get your hands on and pretty soon you'll be able to weed out the junk.

Study art with particular regard to composition, color and tonal value. Learn to sketch or draw reasonably well to express your vision.

Now that's for cinematography. Editing can be done with vidjo and Premiere. Take any ol' crap or home movie and make it sing.

The only thing I can think of for sound is microphones are the lenses of audio and you need to have a good recorder so you can practice with sound and learn the different microphones.

Directing will require a collaberation of folks to work on your film that will take orders from you. Easier said than done.

March 12, 2004

you'll need a shotgun microphone to start with. Azden and Audio Technica are OK and inexpensive.

Dorian Quell · March 13, 2004

thanks guys. few questions:

film slr, slide film? when u say get an slr camera u mean 35 mm still photograph? digital? and what is slide film. sorry if im supposed to know all this. heh

after that, where some good cheap places i can pick all this up?

Phil Rhodes · March 13, 2004

Hi,

Well, I still don't own a light meter. I probably should, though.

Phil

Rob Belics · March 13, 2004

Well then that explains a lot doesn't it Phil? :P

SLR, single lens reflex. The type of camera you can look through the viewfinder and be looking through the lens before you snap the shutter. Not totally necessary to learn film. If you don't have an slr then your pictures might be slightly offset since the viewfinder is offset from the lens (see parallax).

You could use a digital camera to play a bit with lighting and composition. The immediate feedback is nice but it won't teach you much about the range of film. You also need a computer to view them.

Slide film? You know when you go to the movies and sit through those boring still ads and movie questionaires before the show. Lighting for slide film is much like motion picture film and what you shoot is what you get from the lab or WalMart. If you shoot regular negative film, the lab may compensate for over or under exposure you may have made. That's nice except you want to learn to make correct exposures in the first place and not have it covered up by corrections at the lab.

Just about everybody sells slide film although WalMart only had one kind (and only one roll) when I had to buy some once. Look up camera shops in the yellow pages. I'll bet they have a used 35mm camera with lens pretty cheap. Or Ebay. Starting out, the body doesn't matter. You don't need a Nikon. A camera is a camera.

Lenses are a different story but get some experience, and money, before you worry about quality lenses.

Michael Nash · March 13, 2004

thanks guys. few questions:

film slr, slide film? when u say get an slr camera u mean 35 mm still photograph? digital? and what is slide film. sorry if im supposed to know all this. heh

after that, where some good cheap places i can pick all this up?

Oh boy, now I feel OLD... :(

Yeesh, I thought slides were common enough that... oh, forget it.

Way back in the day when I was riding my dinosaur off to school, people used to project their vaction photos and classroom lessons onto a screen in a dark room, like a movie but only one frame at a time. Each frame from the roll of film was cut and mounted in a little cardboard frame, and these frames were put into a carousel on top of a projector. With the push of a button the carousel would advance and the frame of film would "slide" into position in front of the bulb and be projected through the lens. "Next."

And if you think this technology is antequated, slide film is still the preferred medium for anything that goes to print (like magazines), although often in a format larger than 35mm.

No offense intended, but every now and then I get surprised by what's considered "normal" or unheard of by the next generation. :D

Michael Nash · March 13, 2004

I forgot to mention that you don't need a projector to view slides, although projectors can be picked up cheap. You can simply hold a slide up to the light and view it by eye, but it's common to set the slides on a light table (essentially a white plastic box with a bulb inside), and view the slide closeup through a "loupe," or small magnifying glass that looks like a shot glass turned upside down.

Dorian Quell · March 14, 2004

thanks that cleared up all yalls techno mumbo jumbo, haha just kidding. but really people on here do have a habit of sounding or trying to sound real advance or its i just dont know the terms yet.

Mitch Gross · March 14, 2004

people on here do have a habit of sounding or trying to sound real advance or its i just dont know the terms yet.

Cinematography is craft, which is a marriage of art and science. You need to learn both in order to function. How are we supposed to speak?

Somewhere I have a videotape of the late Sonny Bono from his first day at a Congressional meeting. After some discussion Bono interrupted the proceedings to chide another Congressman for his use of "legalese" whan speaking. "But Congressman Bono, we're writing laws!" Great stuff.

Dorian Quell · March 15, 2004

i got ya mitch. i was just trying to basically say people have seemed a lil touchy and not very inviting. terms are terms and i need to learn alot more. im not a DP or anything but id like to learn. Yet if you are gonna make it in any business, you should have technical finess along with communication skills. thats all.

Malinko · March 15, 2004

Learn how to use a light meter. Learn how they work and then compare the reading to how your eye precieved it. Works a treat.

Visit the Kodak website. They'll fix you up real good.

Leon Rodriguez · March 20, 2004

Dorian, The best thing about any science or art is that the more you know about it, the more you realize there is to know. Every technical layer uncovered opens up the art exponentially. So in a sense, we all aspire to be at a relatively lower place on the learning curve. You're in the right place, bro. Lots of free knowledge here and knowledge is always a good thing.

Matt Wells · March 25, 2004

thanks guys. few questions:

film slr, slide film? when u say get an slr camera u mean 35 mm still photograph? digital? and what is slide film. sorry if im supposed to know all this. heh

after that, where some good cheap places i can pick all this up?

Oh boy, now I feel OLD... :(

Yeesh, I thought slides were common enough that... oh, forget it.

Just got back my first slides - I shot 1 roll of Kodachrome 200 and 1 roll of kodachrome 64.

Now I understand why people like slides........Just amazing.

Matt