Blog # 3 Video :The Broke Filmmaker #01

This is a rough plan for a set of 2 videos I’m filming

I’m here to tell you about inexpensive film gear and tips that can you raise the production quality of your indie projects without raising your debt.

So your parents, loved ones or minions have just bought you an inexpensive Canon DSLR T3I (or T2I if they’re really cheap) with a Kit Lens.  They even got you a memory card, a cheap case and a cheap tripod!

What next?  What would I buy, if this was all I had?

• The first thing I would buy is a UV filter for my lenses. The UV filters are key, they cost around $30 and they protect your lens from scratching.  About every year you pop off your old one and get a new one.  This is an excellent habit to get in to with even your cheap lenses.
• The next thing I would pick up is a $100 50mm lens with it’s own UV filter.  The canon 1.8 50mm lens is a fast prime lens, proving you sometimes can have it fast, cheap and good. If you check online sites like craigslist or ebay you can get lucky and find someone upgrading to a better lens.  Many times used lens come with UV filters.  The second 50mm I bought was only $80 and it came in the original box and had a UV filter.  I also bought it from someone who looked to be about 12.  A prime lens means you have to actually pick up your camera and move it close or further away from your subject if you want to change the zoom.  It’s a prime, prime lenses don’t zoom.  They do however look sharper, and are faster then zoom lens.  Sharper and Faster? What does that mean?  The image just looks better then an equivalent from other similar lenses and fast means it can be set to a really low f stop like 1.8 which is really handy in low light situations.  The nifty 50 as many people call it , is a lens that beats out far more expensive lenses.  This lens is fantastic for closeups, with a narrow depth of field it blurs the background behind the talent helping the viewer focus on the subject instead of being distracted by the Banthas and Stormtroopers walking around in the background.
• The next items on my list for this starter set is a 58mm ND fader and the 58-52mm adapter ring to put the fader on your 50mm lens as well.  A ND filter allows you to shoot with a narrow depth of field in bright situations which is key to most day shoots.  A ND fader gets darker and lighter as you twist it so you don’t need to get several thickness of ND.  Before I got my ND fader I had several ND filters of varying darkness, each costing around $40- $80 each.  I can get rid of all of those for just 1 ND fader at around $50 and the stepdown ring is about $15.
• Another important and cheap accessory is a monopod.  These are cheap $30 and provide a lot of versatility to your shooting.  These videos inspired me http://vimeo.com/28517046 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NMBK30hHM8

With your lenses, filters, faders, monopod, tripod go out and shoot a music or video or a video with only sound and music. Once you’ve shot a few things your’ ready to move on.  Now you will want to record sound, and dialogue!  This is what I recommend.

• The Rode Video Mic is the best mic for a beginning filmmaker to own, http://www.long-mcquade.com/?page=products&ProductsID=5861 and it’s less then $200  http://www.leoscamera.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=62&products_id=514
• Getting someone to put the mic on a boom so it can be as close to the actors as possible is key  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83d3qLHaAN4 We had to replace our Rode Boom pole mid season of filming Standard Action season 1.  We ordered a sweet looking pole off the net for $200.  When it showed up we realized it was way shorter then we thought and I made one out of a painters pole.   It works really well and I would only upgrade for something in the $400-$500 range and it will be a while before we have the budget for that.
• Since many cheap DSLR cameras have issues with audio it’s best to plug your mic in to a seperate audio recorder.  We use the Zoom H4N but for a long time we didn’t have a Mic good enough to use all the fancy jacks on it.  The Rode video mic has a tiny stereo out mini jack to you can get away with a much cheaper recorder.  Check out some of them here http://www.long-mcquade.com/?page=search&SearchTxt=audio+recorder&x=0&y=0 .  To make matching the separate files possible you really need to use a slate to you have scene and take numbers on the audio file and the movie file.  Make one out of something since it’s damn hard to find anywhere that sells em for a reasonable price.
• A mini white board from the dollar store works well and you can use it to white balance the cameras.  Don’t forget your dry erase markers!
• Earphones, get something good and always monitor your sound while shooting, wind can kill a good scene.  And planes are hard to notice without sound.
• Get some better editing software,  Check out Adobe Premiere Elements and tell me how it goes (I’ve seen it bundled with Photoshop elements for as littles as $100) http://success.adobe.com/en/na/sem/products/premiereelements.html?kw=p&sdid=EQDGP&skwcid=TC|22180|premiere%20elements%20adobe||S|b|8526329114

Good luck!

This an example of a super easy-to-shoot video done by Joanna to thank our top donors.