We get a lot of questions asking for guidance of which camera people should buy. Our usual response is, "Don't buy one, get a field production membership and use ours for free."
Whatever you buy, it will be outdated in a few years. In general, any non HD camera probably won't be suitable for broadcast production for more than another couple years. Beyond that, my honest answer is, it doesn't matter and is the wrong place to focus your efforts. Understanding good framing, good audio, and above all--good stories, will have a much greater impact on the quality of your work than which camera you choose.
Here's an example:
> I am wondering if you or anyone on your team has used this camera and
> if so if they have recommendations, suggestions, or tips?
I've played with it a tiny bit as I've been weighing our HDV options. Its a nice camera. The only recommendations and suggestions would be regardless of what camera you use. Basically all the stuff we teach in our class.
As I'm sure you know, 99% of the quality of your work has nothing to do with your camera. Understanding the settings on that particular camera will come with time and (in my opinion) is an inconsequential piece of the puzzle that people tend to get overly-focused on.
I guess my tips would be,
Make sure you understand the audio settings and get great audio. Take time to get good lighting and set up shots well. I'd say the same if you were using a $200 Hi-8 Camera. ;)
> I am also curious if you have input about the best place to purchase mini-HDV tapes
> and other accesories. Also any tripods that you would recommend for use in
> high-altitude rocky environments (or that are just great tripods for a reasonable price).
HDV tapes, in my opinion are a complete waste of $. $12 per tape vs $2 for a DV tape, and maybe you risk one or two more dropped frames for every 2 or 3 hours. You can shoot HDV on any DV tape. People pay extra because of the long GOP compression of HDV, which means if you have a dropout htat would only affect 1 frame on DV, it affects 15 on HDV. Still, I go through about 10 tapes a week, and HDV tapes would mean about $5,000/year more for me, so its an easy call.
The cheapest tapes on the planet are the JVCs at Ecost.com. The same JVC tape you buy at the applestore for $7 costs $2 at Ecost.
When I'm hiking and walking long distances, I generally bring only a Monopod. They're much easier to travel with. I went to Honduras for a few weeks last year and brought no tripod, only a monopod.
As for Tripods... If you had enough $ to buy that camera, you can probably afford a Fluid-head tripod. But personally, I don't think Tripods make much difference except during live event production, since 99% of shots in documentaries and narratives are steady shots (or dolly, crane, or jib-arm shots) and a $5 tripod can hold your camera just as still as a $4,000 fluid-head.
So I guess I'd suggest a light-weight, $40 tripod like you'd find at target or BestBuy. If you have money to burn, I'd suggest burning it on wireless audio or LED lights before a nice tripod.
Just my opinion. ;)
Many producers are intimidated by Final Cut and want to hire or find volunteers to edit their work. The message below is in response to a producer who, after weeks of shooting using our equipment, was reluctant to start editing.
> Tony,
> Can I pay you or another editor to edit my video? Editing is a skill I don't have the
> time or energy to master, and its not where I want to head in my production "career".
Member (name removed),
Start learning Final Cut, at least assembling your footage. You might be lucky enough to find someone to help you do it for free, but no matter what, you’ll be best off if you take the time to start assembling it and make it easier on any editor you find to help or hire.
The general rule of thumb is that for every hour you spend filming, you spend TEN editing. An average 90-minute independent documentary (like the ones you’d see at Sundance) takes between 200 and 500 hours of editing. A paid editor is going to charge $25 to $50/hr, meaning $5,000 to $25,000. Even if yours is a short doc, the best thing you can do is start assembling it on your own, helping to learn Final Cut again. Then bring an experienced editor in for the last 20-30 hours to help finish it up.
Don’t wait for someone else to do it. It won’t position you well, and (in my experience) it won’t happen. Even as a beginning editor, you can get 90% of the work done, and use that to attract an editor, possibly even a volunteer.
I hope this feels helpful, not discouraging.
- reply
