Video Production Equipment Budget Help

[musique]

You’ve had a lot of good advice here. I don’t want to confuse your decision making process too much. However, another idea for lighting is ebay. One of the reasons you can see ancient Mole Richardson lights in lots of movies and TV shows about show biz is because these fixtures from quality companies last and last.

In the past few years as LED and other new technologies have appeared on the market there are studios and production companies that have gotten rid of or are still getting rid of great old gear from ARRI and Mole among others. Lights that new might cost $500, $800, or more can be found on ebay for $100, more or less. Mole is still in business and you might be able to pay them (if you buy some used equipment) to check out some of their older gear and still have it cost less than new. Just a thought and might be worth checking out.

One other thing that was mentioned but might be worth repeating: “Video is 50% of audio.” That is someone else’s idea, but it’s a sound (no put intended) one. If you’re going to be filming outdoors and may have no options to change the schedule, it’s worth spending on good wind noise reduction gear for your microphones – and maybe even rain covers for things, if you think you might be shooting in such conditions.

Also if you don’t buy new LED lights, remember that tungsten will produce a good amount of heat and use power. Think about your power requirements in the studio. You might need an additional power line or two. On location you can rent a generator. When lights are producing heat, it might help your crew to have a few fans to move the air when you’re not capturing audio, too.

Best of luck with your new endeavor. One last thing: There are several (probably hundreds) of video related forums that focus on just what you’re doing. They might provide other ideas.

 

[catonfire]

You nixed the Drone???


Boe11

I feel bad that the drone is gone but I'm sure he'll find his way back on the next list. But that will also free up money for a new Freefly MoVi

Musique has a nice tip on Mole lights which will likely be in use long after the apocalypse. They are a lot heavier than even Arri lights so might be a drag on location but in the studio they're great. Talent might not appreciate sweating under them though.

ME66

I bought an ME66 in 2002. I still use it long after my Canon XL1s went into the recycling bin. Yet the ME66 is the biggest purchase regret I ever made. I got it instead of the 416 which is an industry standard in order to save $400 which seemed like a lot to me at the time.

But if I prorate out the cost of that 416 over the past 13 years, I basically sacrificed a decade's worth of great audio to save $30 a year. When you plug that ME66 into the crystal clean preamps of the SD, it's going to become even more apparent.

The ME66 isn't 'bad' mind you but if you listen to it side by side with the 416, Sanken cs3e, or a Schoeps it starts to sound like a tin can on a string. There is no richness in the highs and lows.

Consider going into your local audio dealer and asking to listen to a 416 side by side with the ME66. But not in a quiet room. Everything sounds OK in a quiet room. Take them into a room with the AC cranked up or outdoors under an overpass. This is where the $500 mic disintegrates and the $1000 mic earns its paycheck.

LENSES

You're probably on the right track regarding building your lens kit as you go. Canon L glass is great but it can be impractical should you move into using a follow focus unit with your lenses. This may or may not be an issue for you at present though.

Of course, lenses have great resale value. Moreover, a used lens is half the price but like a good mic can last for years if the owners took care of them. I haven't had the guts to drop money on used lenses online from private sellers because I like to see them in person.

But there are probably camera fairs in your area and you can browse a lot of nice old lenses for low prices. Maybe even find some unique lenses with distinct looks.

LIGHTING

The key light in your screenshot looks good but consider adding some rim lights to your subject to separate them from the background. You can mount a small minimole or a Lowell Tota? light and get a nice separation.

GRIP GEAR

Interesting that you are shooting around vehicles. I do a lot of work for transit companies and do a bunch of internal & external car mount stuff. I don't know how you shoot or if the vehicles are ever in motion but 3/8ths and 5/8ths rigging is another great value proposition.

Grip gear is versatile and when you buy it, you start to play with it and realize all the ways you can mount cameras, lights, audio, whatever, into new and interesting angles and places. On location or in the studio this stuff will solve a lot of the problems you didn't know you had until you started shooting. And it will solve it immediately when time is critical.

Check out Mathews grip gear from places like Filmtools. $500 to $1000 will get you an amazing carmount kit that can be used far beyond cars. The other great thing is you can build your kit as you go. You can start small and just add pieces to expand your capabilities.

As always, though if you are mounting on moving vehicles be overly cautious and have a good insurance policy. Consider that you need to support not the dead weight of the camera but the inertia of the mount in motion which will effectively grow in weight like a person standing on Jupiter vs the Moon.

CAMERAS

I don't want to cloud the issue but check out Canon Rumors. An aggressively priced C300 successor is said to be on the way in the next 2 months. It will be competing with the AJA CION, the Black Magic URSA, as well as the Sony offerings. Probably in the $10K to $12K range.

Of course a month after that, an even better camera is sure to emerge. You know, the one that will change your life!

 

[winston1236]

I work professionally in broadcast design for national tv commercials and while I think your list is overkill for the type of work you'll be doing the one thing I really have a comment on is that iMac. There's no way I'd ever do video editing or graphics on anything but a MacPro.

 

[handsome pete]

I work professionally in broadcast design for national tv commercials and while I think your list is overkill for the type of work you'll be doing the one thing I really have a comment on is that iMac. There's no way I'd ever do video editing or graphics on anything but a MacPro.

I disagree. The iMac is a perfectly good machine for video editing. Especially now with thunderbolt.

You wouldn't believe how many iMacs I've seen in various facilities. I recently supervised an edit in a pretty well known post house, and in that particular suite they were running MC on an iMac. Not to mention how many Macbook Pros I've seen as well. Personally? I still like a workstation, but that's more or less because I don't like the all-in-one model and I also do a fair bit of 3D work.

I agree that the list is complete overkill, but the iMac is one of the few that actually make sense.

 

[joema2]

...while I think your list is overkill for the type of work you'll be doing the one thing I really have a comment on is that iMac. There's no way I'd ever do video editing or graphics on anything but a MacPro.

I agree you have to evaluate the cost/benefit of any production tool and whether it translates to a perceptible difference in (1) Production efficiency and/or (2) Final image quality after grading. In the Zacuto shootout, Martin Scorsese liked the GH2 image over all the others (inc'l Arri Alexa and Sony F65). In that test each camera team could optimize the lighting and the GH2 team was very good, and their GH2 was hacked to support a higher bit rate. But it shows how spending huge amounts on cameras might not be the best choice.

However a contemporary iMac is perfectly capable of editing most video material. The recent Will Smith movie Focus was edited almost entirely on iMacs and MacBooks using FCP X, not a Mac Pro. Here's an interview with the 1st Assistant Editor Mike Matzdorff: http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/new...ind-editing-a-major-hollywood-feature-on-fcpx

That was shot in HD not 4k but I have edited 4k material on my top-spec 2013 iMac and it works fine. Would an 8 or 12-core nMP with a big RAID array be better? Yes, and that's one thing to consider if trading off other possibly-extravagant equipment on a fixed budget. However a top-spec iMac is very capable of editing 1080p or 4k video in a production environment.

 

[JustinePaula]

Given that this post is on a Mac website, the OP uses a Mac of some kind, along with an Apple related editing product, FCP or the like.

For audio, this is more important than video, you can fudge all day long and get paid well with crappy video, stuff up audio and you may as well look for a new career, YOU CANNOT FIX AUDIO IN POST!!! You are free to try, all you end up doing is paying a higher electric bill, and be frustrated.

When doing a shot be it on location or in the studio environment, spend a little money and buy something decent, for example if you are doing a 2 or 3 talking head interview that is not going out live in a broadcast sense, but will be edited down, then buy small digital dictaphone recorders, that take lav mics, this way, you have the recorder close to the person, and the cameras recording back up sound, FCP X can sync the 2 audio streams.

If need be, buy or have made, for a few $ a couple of Y cables, so you can split the audio from the lav, one into the dictaphone recorder and the other leg into the camera.

Most cameras, that is DSLR, record a sort of stereo audio, not ideal, dedicated video only cameras may have 2 mono inputs for actual 2 channel recording.

The moral of the message is YOU CANNOT FIX AUDIO IN POST... Record the best quality audio at source...

 

[joema2]

...YOU CANNOT FIX AUDIO IN POST!!! You are free to try, all you end up doing is paying a higher electric bill, and be frustrated...

I think your point is it's much more efficient to get audio right in the field vs trying to fix it in post.

You can definitely fix many audio defects in post. We use Izotope RX4 Advanced, which can repair pretty bad problems: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/audio-repair/rx

Productions often use contributed, archival or stock material which we have no control over. Those can require audio repair, so the skill set and tools are frequently needed even with perfect audio on the new content.

However even RX4 can't fix everything, it requires a skilled technician, and can be very time consuming. You can blow hours fixing a 3 minute interview. It's much better to prepare, slow down, always monitor, and get it right in the field.

 

[JustinePaula]

To a lesser degree can you fix in post, all you end up doing is making the noise inherent in the recording louder, there is no software that can repair bad audio and we all know bad audio.

Hum from badly placed audio cables too close to power, zoom lens motor drone, you can try and equalize and normalize, but here is the rub...Voice share the same frequency as bad audio, so as you eliminate bad audio at certain frequencies, you destroy good audio at the same frequency...

That is why movies and adverts over dub on site audio with re-recorded studio audio, wind, traffic and low bass rumble from the environment.

Bass low frequency is a real audio killer, very very little can be done to erase this from a recording, given the harmonics of bass audio...

YOU CANNOT FIX AUDIO IN POST...this is not a simple thing, trust me, YOU CANNOT FIX AUDIO IN POST...

 

[joema2]

YOU CANNOT FIX AUDIO IN POST...To a lesser degree can you fix in post...there is no software that can repair bad audio...

If anyone is interested in what professionals use to fix audio in post, see:

https://www.izotope.com/en/products/audio-repair/rx/

https://www.izotope.com/en/community/blog/tips-tutorials/

A skilled technician can often remove a phone ringing, door slam, or HVAC noise during spoken material so perfectly that it cannot be perceived.

With music audio, individual wrong notes can be edited in a polyphonic file:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec09/articles/melodynedna.htm

This involves advanced spectral editing, not just tweaking EQ settings. The problem is it takes significant expertise and can be time consuming. So it's best to get good audio in the field or studio.

 

[Boe11]

I appreciate all of the thoughtful responses and spirited debate. We're currently at the waiting stage to see what we'll be allotted. Once we know that, I'll work on fine-tuning our list.

Thanks again, folks, and feel free to keep the suggestions coming!

 

[mBox]

I know its overkill but I have to agree that even the most recent iMac isnt up to snuff with what I do.

If your editing the simplest things and finishing from an NLE then yes the iMac is fine.

But I always believe in future proof purchases something I learned dealing with corporate budgets.

If you can spare another 4K, then move up to a D700 -8 Core nMP.

Just my 4 cents (CAD Currency).