Hey guys I really
really appreciate you taking the time for the feedback! I've been running around like a loon balancing college, social life, and the film I've been hoping to do for a couple of years and now been seriously planning for the past two and half months or so (very slowly until the past two weeks however
). Took a few film classes in high school but never realized just
how much has to be taken into account and managed for even basic short stuff! Not looking to create yet another YouTube "action film" (Though it will probably end up on YouTube regardless haha).
If you could just bare with me and my wall of text/questions haha I would really appreciate it since I'm new to the game and for whatever reason can not find someone who's done the sort of thing around here and I like to have allot of support with these types of things.
I cringed when I didn't see lighting equipment on your list. I know you said you don't have experience with it, but lighting is really something that can make or break your picture.
At least try to get some large white foam core or poster board to use as reflectors to fill in shadows in closeups. Also consider some cheap work lights (
like this kind of thing) to bounce off walls or ceilings to get the general light up.
Also, for audio, can you get lavaliers? Like the little clip-on mics that go on people? The way the "pros" tend to record audio in this situation is to hide a (wireless) lavalier on each person and get additional audio from a shotgun/boom.
Most certainly. In fact, rerecording dialog that didn't come across well is a great habit to get in to.
There's no difference. The problem you're thinking of is if you, for example, shot video at 30 fps but Final Cut was interpreting it as 29.97 so playing it back just a bit slower. Eventually the audio would fall out of sync because the video was playing back slowly. But as long as the FPS settings are correct you will not have a problem.
-For lighting: Now that I think about it I actually have access to plenty of those work type lighting systems. I think given the film is in an abandoned factory (well thats the PLAN for now, need to get permission first though I work in the community allot so I'm hoping that will persuade them). If you've ever watched the TV show
24 I've been inspired by certain parts of it; more so the parts where Jack (the main character) ends up in some **** hole fighting off bad guys. I will definitely be not just considering the use of those but using them as I want absolute best quality possible and the image is important (duh!
).
-For mics/lavaliers: Yes I have two lavalieres but they are of poor quality so I might have to be replacing them. Regardless..how do you hook them up? Do they go into a digital recorder? Since I've been into MILSIM as my friend has to we have some headsets used by military operators (my friend likes to go over the top at times!
). I'm not sure of the connectors but could these be used as mics and props at the same time?
-For actual audio recording: If I re-record a session of dialog (I love this idea but I don't want to over use it) should I try and make the voice recording area as isolated as possible as well as similar to the environment of the area I'm patching up?
-For memory I have a class 10 PNY 8GB card, a Sandisk class 6 4GB card with a minimum write speed of 20MB/s, and a no name brand class 4 SDHC 4GB card which seams to keep up well. Ironically enough the Sandisk class 6 is more reliable than the PNY which likes to buffer out when I get past 7gigs....I know class 10 is the best but Sandisk has never failed me in any use before. Thoughts on this? Will I have enough memory. The 8gig card shoots about 23 minutes while the 4gig cards shoot about 11...I can always dump data but figured I'd still ask...
I don't think that anyone has suggested it yet but I have a similar set up to you but I also have the canon 50mm f1.8 which I would highly recommend.
Being able to shoot at f1.8 is over a stop more of light than f2.8 and more than 2 stops more than f4. In real worlds terms this means that if on the 70-255mm you are shooting at 1/50 you would be able to shoot at 1/200 with the 50mm.
Where this really comes into it's own is being able to use ISO 400 instead of 1600 (relative to the 70-255mm) which should give you a lot less noise.
The lens is cheap. Here in the UK it's only £80 and is pretty much stuck on my 600d most of the time.
You would probably appreciate the extra shallow dof which will give your production that extra cinematic quality that is so sought after now a days.
Thanks a bunch. I was looking at the Canon 50mm F/1.8 for the longest time. I don't know what it was but I never took the plunge despite having all my photographer friends telling me that they don't leave home without this thing somewhere near their T2i/60D/7D! I will be biting the bullet on the f1.8 lens for sure now that I think about it, that or I will find someone to rent from. Friends father is a professional photographer with from what he told me "allot of Canon lens" so I will see about borrowing from him. He knows I own a 550D, but what is the best way to ask to borrow a lens? I mean some of these lens are very expensive and I wouldn't blame anyone for being hesitant with handing these to an 18 year old :O
Make sure you have excellent audio capture or your film will suck. And it's already been mentioned, but make sure your lighting is tight, or your film will suck.
Finally, I don't think you should direct AND run the camera. Not when you have so many other people to help. You should get someone you trust to be DP (director of photography), and another person to take care of sound. And yet another person to take care of lighting and grip work. If everyone has one main job to take care of, and all you have to worry about is the actors, you should be okay. Run through each scene until you are happy. Then switch camera angles and run through the scene again. Work from the outside in. By the time you get to closeups the actors will be used to saying their lines and there will be fewer mistakes. It will also give you plenty of footage to work with on the edit. Don't forget to shoot cutaways!
Yeah I'm a true believer of audio being 50% of the film...well maybe 40/60
. I've shot some stuff mostly by myself and I'll go look at the image and its beautiful make no mistake but the audio combined with camera shake really kills that "film feel". The only reason I am directing AND running the camera is because there is certain parts of the film that I absolutely must have "my way"...I can't explain it I'm just a visual person and when I imagine a scene in my head its always short bits that come off as "wow" to me. I'm the guy who will rewind an awesome movie scene just to see the awesomeness of it again! Haha.
But to refresh and explain the roles again I will be directing everything for the most part with my camera guys putting in input since they have some experience with making lots of short YouTube videos (not big stuff however). I'm planning on doing allot if not the majority of the close ups because as I've said I just have this idea for how I want them to look.
I've got my second camera guy who's got a 550D with a 18-55 and a 70-255 doing the long shots, I'm thinking I should be giving him my stabilizer if he's doing allot of the grunt work. Additionally he's very good with Final Cut Pro 7 color correction which is a major plus so he will be editing with me, assisting when everything is shot and done with as well as helping me organize the mass amount of unorganized clips sorted on our various sizes of SDHC cards from 2GB to 8GB.
