Hold it...

With camera prices dropping quickly and the quality of cameras going up, one of the questions most indie filmmakers ask is:
Which camera should I buy?

But that question may not be as important as you think...
Because everything is in flux, it may not be wise to shell out a lot for a camera - my latest camera is the Cannon HV-30.

One of the big questions for me is:
How do I move the camera?
First off, if you're going to hand hold these fly-weight cameras, you've got to give them a bit of weight...



I got the plans for this "Ghetto Cam" from Stu Maschwitz' book "The DV Rebel's Guide." I can't say enough about this book - beginning to end it gives you the in's and out's of low budget filmmaking in the digital age. Well worth the price paid, and he has a great blog (Prolost.blogspot.com) and a cool forum for DV Rebels.

So, when I was making the Ghetto Cam, I decided I wanted a shoulder mount for my hand held shots and came up with this:



Kind of a Ghetto Cam 2...



A couple of braces to hold the 2x4s together, couple of short pieces of dowel, some screws, black spray paint, and presto, a shoulder mount for my little camera that adds more weight and control - all for about $3.75.

Another thing I knew I wanted was a decent tripod. I wanted it to be medium weight, stable, and have a fluid head.
The Davis and Sanford 7518B is what I ended up with (along with some wheels to set it on).



The whole set up was around $225 or so, and well worth it. Gives great "Movie" like pans, and with the wheels you've got a low budget doorway dolly.

So, the answer to which camera to buy might not be as relevant as the camera companies what you to believe... as developments continue, we will all be trading up with much more regularity.

For me, the question of how I move the camera is much more important - which ever camera I'm using.

Dom

PreViz2

In my quest to find the easiest and cheapest way to pre-visualize a film, I checked out MovieStorm, which Tari Akpodiete suggested.

Unfortunately the program is not very steady -at least on a Mac. It starts bugging out when I ask it to do anything other than the simplest functions, such as building a room on the virtual set.
When I added things to my room such as furniture and an actor, the program began to flash and get very unstable.
Also, when I quit, the program crashes—every time.

There also doesn't seem to be any way to build a set to scale or to set up different types of cameras (35mm, HDV, etc.), two things I really like about FrameForge.

But the program does have some very nice aspects:

1. It's free! This counts for several points in the plus column.

2. The camera is easily moved—either simple "cut" style moves, or complex moves as if the camera's on a track and jib-arm. Very cool.



3. A simple GUI. It's not that great, but after watching the tutorials on the web site, I could get some stuff happening.



4. You can buy different bundles to add to the program. I haven't done this yet, but they're not too expensive and I may try one or two out.

The not-so-good:
1. Bugginess.
2. Program skims across the surface and doesn't hit all the levels that FrameForge does.
3. Although there are video tutorials online, I can't find any written documentation on the program.

Overall, I like the program and am going to jump in a little deeper with it.
Dom

PreViz

One thing I've been giving some thought to is:
How do I do real pre-production for the things I shoot?

By "real" I don't mean making a list of stuff to pick up at Trader Joe's so I can feed everybody (although that's important) - I mean what are the shots going to look like? 

The most obvious way to do this is story boarding...



As you can see, my drawing skills aren't great. But my lack of drawing skill is only part of the problem.
The real questions I want answered are:

Where do I put the camera? Low to the ground, just off the ceiling, eye level?
What kind of camera movement do I want? Hand held, on a track, or on a tripod?
And the list will continue to grow as the needs of the project come to light.

Several years ago I noticed the big budget films were doing something called animatics. They would "pre-visualize" the whole scene in a 3D world and get a clear idea of any issues they'd be facing before getting anyone on set. Seemed like a pretty good idea.

Well, I recently found a low-budget substitute for working in Maya or one of the other high-end 3D programs. It's called Frame Forge Studio 2.

The program is good. There's a room builder, where you can build a virtual replica of your set. There are actors and props - all of which you can manipulate till your heart's content.



Another good thing about the program is you can adjust the camera specs - not only the camera height and placement, but focus and depth of field too!



At $400 bucks, it's not super cheap, but you can find it cheaper on the web. I paid around $250 for my copy.

Check it out. It's a pretty good tool for the Indie director / producer.