Trans with a Movie Camera

[bcholmes]

I'm looking for the combined, collective wisdom of LiveJournal.

I've been toying, for the last six months, about the idea of doing a documentary (actually, lately I've wanted to do two: one on trans issues and one on Haiti). But I think I need actual camera experience. What things should I keep in mind?

How important are:

• An external mic jack?
• An internal hard drive versus record-to-DVD?
• Size?
• Anything else I'm not thinking about?

Comments

[perette.livejournal.com]

A tripod. I'd strongly recommend using one when possible, especially if you plan on doing any zoom shots, because zooming also magnifies camera movement.

Good lighting also helps, although probably less-so these days as CCD tech has improved.

[king-tirian.livejournal.com]

My experience with movie-making was multimedia work fifteen years ago and a semi-professional 25-minute movie for a friend's wedding ten years ago, so I apologize in advance for not knowing anything about modern hardware.

But back then, an external mic jack was huge -- so huge that you might even want to think about capturing sound with a dedicated audio device and synching them in post-production. My personal stuff tends to sound like the people are talking through a tin can telephone even with a mid-grade microphone hooked up to the camera.

As far as hard drive stuff, you'll want to be capturing raw video in at least whatever resolution and framerate you'll want your finished product to be, so you can calculate your KB/sec rate and decide whether a drive would hold as much footage as you'd want to capture between downloads. Being able to swap out your media via a DVD recorder or compact flash or whatever seems like a better option to me because you wouldn't want to have an unexpected opportunity for great footage but not have anywhere to put it.

Another thing is making sure that your camera can capture the quality of video that you want in the range of light conditions that you will be shooting in. IME, in every situation where a camera's automatic flash would go off, you need that much continual light to shoot video. I've got one of those auto mechanic work lights that is great for pouring a lot of light into a scene.

I imagine that some of these things have been naturally solved since the last time I did my own amateur movie work, but from what I ocassionally see on YouTube it is still possible to put out dark inaudible movies if you aren't careful. And have fun! Having people experience your finished product is as fulfilling an experience as you hope.

[dragon3.livejournal.com]

I'm not an expert, but I did some work with a pro to document some teaching stuff this term. He still prefers a tape camera, then takes his tapes back to his editing suite for a digital working over.

A tripod would be a good thing. Also, you may find that a more massive camera is easier to hold steady and move smoothly when you are hand holding. Smaller/lighter is not necessarily better.

[secretsoflife.livejournal.com]

there's a book out there called the dv rebel's guide, which has such tips as "shoot on the back of a pickup truck to avoid paying shooting fees" :)

the camera you go with really depends on your budget, though; you can get a lot of camera for under $500, but it really depends on what kinds of things you'll be shooting. remember too that you can rent a high-end camera for $100/day or so.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

you want a mic jack. you might not use it a lot, but you'll *really* want it sometimes. Lots of the under-$1k cameras have standard 1/8" jacks, and USB ones are also starting to show up.

the community television station I shoot things for shoots to tape, and converts it for a reason; the quality of a higher end tape is going to be much higher than something that records to a hard drive; think the difference between digital cameras and print cameras about 5 years ago. It's coming, but recording to tape and then converting to digital will give you cleaner options and more ability to crop and zoom in post-production editing without pixellation issues.

Also carrying 5 tapes is easier than worrying about the hard drive, and most drug stores have DV tapes if you're in a jam. Harder to develop more hard drive space that quickly.

A LARGE hard drive. When I was looking into externals for video editing, I was told to start at the 500gb level.

a way to rip the stuff (watch Factory Direct, they frequently sell good, slighty old decoders; I got one with about 17 input types (s-video, rca jacks, 1/8" plugs, and more that I never use) to USB, for about $20).

Final Cut Pro if you're a mac user (actually, the only thing that's tempted me to buy a Mac of late is how great Final Cut Pro would be, but right now I can walk 3 blocks to use the pro studio at Cambridge Community Television when they're open). I use Blender on the PC.