Amrit Sandhu

Hi, I too purchased a new camera and set of lenses recently. What I'd advise when you get your camera is a 50mm 1.8 lens. You can move the camera back and forth to get a wider or close shot. The T2i is supposed to have the same sensor as the other 2 (I could be wrong here however there are some good reviews on youtube on the canon cameras and comparisons). A solid tripod with a video fluid head is a must. I found a second hand manfrotto on ebay. Get a cheap skateboard and a large smooth mdf board as your slider. You can get a mini cheap tripod to put the camera on to change it's angles on the skateboard. Sound is very important. Any kind of boom mic will give you flexibility on shots. Just don't use the onboard camera mics for sound. Of course you'll need a decent spec computer to be able to edit this footage. After fiddling with pcs I settled for a Mac. One with plenty of RAM and a great seperate graphics card. There are cheap ways of doing this stuff, but even the cheaper ways will set you back about £2000. If you're just after the experience then you can of course always film on your phone and using windows movie maker. Light wise you can get these cheap 160 LED light panels off ebay. I would also get a community of like minded individuals together. Perhaps you can have shared purchases whereby you share an item. You can also film together. Hope this helps a little.

Hi Alvin, I thought it was entertaining. How much did you spend on this (time and money)? Bare in mind that I am a complete unexperienced novice. I thought the concept was great, going to school to learn to be like Alvin. I can't put my finger on it. It would be good to see what the entrants who did get in made. Personally, I am used to seeing the slow kind of awesome scenic shots. I would have thought some of those would have been included. However I think what you've produced is totally original and unique to what I was expecting, and it was quite entertaining. Was it really you? Perhaps that's what the school were looking for. Who knows. I wish you were in London mate, I'm desperate to get together with a fellow film maker and start learning how to film.

Hi all, I just wanted to say hi (that's twice now). I am new to the world of filming. My camera experience is limited to one wedding film and one birthday party. I've set myself the task of making a series of videos each about 1 minute to 3 minutes long. I've written some narration, narrated it, but now am working on getting a video to match the script. Boy, what a challenge this is. I mean, writing the script is one thing, but to go from the writing to filming on a zero budget, seems like a complex task. Mixing video with narration is not easy. I'm realising, that if we narrate things, then we don't need to film them. So, it's about getting that balance, telling the story with 2 mediums, voice and image, and not having the film constantly match what is being said, else there is a risk of overkill. At the moment this is all in my head. I don't have the skills to film it. I have some dslr equipment, a 5d iii, some ok lenses (50mm 1.8, 85mm 1.8, 16-35 2.8 and a cheapy 28-135 3.5-5.6), a steadicam (which I am to learn how to use), a decent budget tripod and monopod, 2 of those cheap led lights. Tempted to install magic lantern due to it's raw footage, which I hear will bring up it's own data transfer issues. There is just so much to this. I guess my biggest challenge is to learn how to use the equipment, and just going out in the weekends and filming anything and coming out with beautiful cinematography. I only wish there were like minded individuals living near me whom I could film with at weekends. Anyhow, that's my thoughts from a person new to this field. Looking fwd to making a few friends on this forum.