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hello guys i have a simple and a little bit stupid question but i will ask it anyway

what does it take to make a movie about equipment

can you make a movie with a dslr camera and sell it like any other movie or you need to have some pro camera

i i know about depth of field and my dslr camera canon 650d dosent have it but i can shoot my movie enyway now can i sell my moovie

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You can shoot and sell a movie shot on pretty much anything if you make a good movie-- which generally is a compelling story, well acted, with good audio, in a style which suits the task at hand. So i'd say, think about what kind of stories only really work on a DSLR and try to make that.

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You can shoot and sell a movie shot on pretty much anything if you make a good movie-- which generally is a compelling story, well acted, with good audio, in a style which suits the task at hand. So i'd say, think about what kind of stories only really work on a DSLR and try to makehmmm

hmmm so that what you saying is i can make the movie and go to movie festivals with it and sell it ??? and knowone can saying to me you make the movie with a camera that is not pro so go home right??

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These are very general questions which are difficult to completely address on a forum.

 

Modern digital cinema cameras have essentially the same depth of field behaviour as 35mm film, but you should probably find a book on basic cinematography techniques which will answer all these questions.

 

P

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n

 

These are very general questions which are difficult to completely address on a forum.

 

Modern digital cinema cameras have essentially the same depth of field behaviour as 35mm film, but you should probably find a book on basic cinematography techniques which will answer all these questions

no man i know some stuff i get what are you saying me but the queston is can i sel the movie to film festivals or tv or anywhere else <if the movie is good enough but this is another story> and knoweone can tell me that you dont have the appropriate equipment and we can play this movie nowhere exept from the internet

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To me, the DSLR look is kind of "artificial" whereas the look of a proper cinema camera is more "organic" and beautiful. You want your story to get noticed? You want it to look great? Use a proper cinema camera, with real cinema lenses if you can. It's hard enough to make a movie even using real production gear...

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To me, the DSLR look is kind of "artificial" whereas the look of a proper cinema camera is more "organic" and beautiful. You want your story to get noticed? You want it to look great? Use a proper cinema camera, with real cinema lenses if you can. It's hard enough to make a movie even using real production gear...

 

This is just not really the case. That is one of the reasons why so many small budget movies suck - or never get made at all. Filmmakers think they need top of the line grip equipment and $100,000 cinema cameras to pull off a nice looking movie. This either results in most of the budget being spent on overpriced equipment, or possibly good films never getting made because one cannot afford the daily rental for a Red.

 

No. In terms of cameras, all sorts of camera's have been used in the past. Star Wars 2 and 3 were shot on a 2/3" camcorder at 4:2:2 (as were quite a few other films during that camera's era), and camera's like that are far inferior to today's DSLR's for the most part, at least in terms of image quality. DSLR's have roughly the same size sensor as the bigger cinema camera's, and the lenses from the cinema camera's will adapt to a DSLR if you really want to go that route. DSLR's do suffer in dynamic range areas, but in reality most people make this out to be more than it is. As long as you're careful to exposure correctly, you'll not have any glaring issues.

 

To top this off, when people go to the cinema to a movie - they are seeing a project that has been heavily modified and graded, and even if these DR issues exist, 99.9% of the audience will not know it, because most people have no idea what dynamic range is, let alone how to see it. The only people who might notice are other pixel-peeping filmmakers, but then if you're making a movie only for their happiness please wait til you can afford to buy a few Red's before you make that film.

 

I can tell you, a GH4 for $1,000 - combined with the Vlog update and a Ninja Assassin will produce very nice images that are perfectly capable of most movies. On top of that, people need to stop putting so much stock in the camera alone - another reason why indie films suck most of the time. Rather than investing money in production value, professional sound, etc. - they invest in 'cinema cameras', which really don't produce much different image quality than a DSLR, and the movie suffers.

 

In my opinion, professional equipment from big name manufacturers; and camera's like Epic's and Alexa's fit perfectly into a professional production pipeline - where their resilience will last a long time on many different productions, and the camera's and equipment will match up to other professional items present on a 'real' film set.

 

If you're making a movie on your own, you can buy the ProAM 8' jib for $300 and save yourself thousands over one of the 'name brand' jibs, and it'll produce the same final image.

Edited by Landon D. Parks
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As for the original poster's question, it's a little unclear. It sounds like he want's to make a movie ABOUT equipment, but that might just be a language issue. Poster, if you're asking about equipment - I can tell you I have a pretty nice setup that costs me less than $1,000 all totaled (not including the camera).

 

Have a look on Amazon for things like 'DSL Rigs', 'Matte Boxes', 'Follow Focus', etc. You'll find many good products that won't break your bank account.

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To me, the DSLR look is kind of "artificial" whereas the look of a proper cinema camera is more "organic" and beautiful. You want your story to get noticed? You want it to look great? Use a proper cinema camera, with real cinema lenses if you can. It's hard enough to make a movie even using real production gear...

Yep, that's absolutely right. One of the big problems is that the people who buy finished products, give you brownie points for what it was shot on and how good it looks. If you market your film as being shot on Alexa or Red, people take you seriously. If you tell them you shot it on film, they take you really seriously. It's a way for them to automatically differentiate how much you really care about your product. In today's world, the DSLR feature is so common, most sales agents won't even bother watching your movie. So unless you're self distributing, it's important to get away from that negative stigma and shoot on something that will prop you up.

 

To Landon's point above about Star Wars being shot on a crappy camera. It's true, but George Lucas can do anything he want's, he just sold the franchise for 4 billion dollars. He could have shot Star Wars on a iPhone and it would have made money because anything he makes, people will gobble up. When you're a young filmmaker, you need to make stuff that is more impressive then every other young filmmaker out there, that's how you get recognized.

 

The sad part is, a lot of people put tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands into making products without this knowledge. They waste countless years making something that no matter how good the script is, no matter how amazing the effects are, no matter how great their friends are at acting, it will never get sold. Sure, 'tangerine' was shot with an iPhone and it looked horrible. But, it was funded by the Duplass brothers and the filmmakers had been making features for over a decade prior, with a few known titles in the indy scene. Plus, the story hit home for a lot of people, it was very out there and characters/actors were very strong. It wasn't that cheap to make, a few hundred grand if I recall, but the Duplass brothers knew they'd get their money back and with limited theatrical release and international distribution, they absolutely made money off it. It's a success story that only worked because they had BIG players backing it.

 

As I always say, if you're on this forum asking a basic question, you probably don't have successful hollywood people backing our project. ;)

 

So is the camera a big problem? Well yes and no. If you don't care about distribution... then no. Shoot with anything you want. If you DO care about distribution and you DO care about about selling it and getting the opportunity to make more movies, then what camera you use is vital. Honestly, having been in this industry for quite a while, I'd rather make something that looks and sounds like a hollywood feature, even if the script isn't the hottest thing ever, just because that's what sells!

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you can shoot a multi format production if the budget allows only limited days with expensive gear. that way you can get more production value for marketing (remember making of material!) and better visuals for select scenes but can still make it happen on a limited budget.

 

selling a film for profit is probably the most difficult part of the whole project and usually needs professional help and lots of contacts to get done. if one is intending to make a indie film purely for profit then one would maybe have better chances with lottery, if one would do the film anyway whether it'll be sold or not, then why not trying it out ;)

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Sales agents are different, they don't have the time to warch every film sent to them. They know that broadcasters and other outlets for sales usually have cerrtain technical requirements for HD, so by stripping out DSLR shot films, they're filtering the material. Although, if your film becomes a multi award winning film at festivals, they can start to show interest, but there must be a market for it.

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n

 

no man i know some stuff i get what are you saying me but the queston is can i sel the movie to film festivals or tv or anywhere else <if the movie is good enough but this is another story> and knoweone can tell me that you dont have the appropriate equipment and we can play this movie nowhere exept from the internet

 

 

The film festivals don't buy movies. It's a place where you can get your movie shown and seen.

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The film festivals don't buy movies. It's a place where you can get your movie shown and seen.

 

That's right. And they can easily reject your film, no matter how much work you put into it and no matter how good you think it is. Recently, I had a film that was rejected by one festival but accepted by another festival.

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That's right. And they can easily reject your film, no matter how much work you put into it and no matter how good you think it is. Recently, I had a film that was rejected by one festival but accepted by another festival.

 

It's completely normal for one festival to really like something and another not to be interested.

For starters different people like different things.

People talk a bit about movies as if there is some standard we can agree as to what is good and what is bad but different people have different tastes and this comes into play even more with festivals where there are limited slots.

Sometimes it can even come down to the length of the short because it might slot in easily somewhere where something else doesn't.

 

Freya

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You shouldn't comfuse film festivals with film markets, they're different animals. Each festival has its own criteria for selecting films, so you need to target your film at those that favour that type production.

 

Shorter shorts have a better chance of being selected at festivals than longer running ones.

Edited by Brian Drysdale
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