Choosing the right camera is something that will depend largely both on your look preferences and your budget. You can choose high end digital cameras like RED or ALEXA, used in professional film productions. Of course they are really expensive and you need someone who knows how to use them. It's no use owning a Ferrari if you cannot drive it. You can also go the other way and get a cheap camcorder, most of them shoot HD with a decent quality for medium quality films. They can also be used in professional films for certain shots.
A third option, and the one we used, is using a DSLR camera. These cameras, originally designed to take still pictures, have evolved incredibly in the last years and they are used now in many film productions. In our case we used a Canon 5D Mark II.
Some of the advantages of using these cameras are the relatively low price, it has semi-professional results, you can use different lenses, etc. It has, however, some disadvantages. One of them is rolling shutter issues, which can cause wobble, skewing, smearing and sometimes partial exposure. This happens because of the way the image is recorded and it only happend in scenes with fast movement, fast panning or fast subjects. Anyway it's something that very seldon occurs, but something to take into account.
For the sound, we used two Sennheiser shotgun microphones with their respective booms, attached to a pole. We recorded the sound with a Zoom H4N recorder, a pretty nice toy that looks like an shock weapon, that allows to record the sound separately. It's very convenient to shoot sound like this to get the best sound. Usually the built in microphone in the camera is not very good. We also used some good over-ear headphones, ideally with noise cancellation.
We got all the equipment for free, from friends or the Brunel University, and we can only be so grateful for that. The only exception was the mic pole, which we hired from Soho Broadcast.
Some advice while you are on set using these little guys:
A third option, and the one we used, is using a DSLR camera. These cameras, originally designed to take still pictures, have evolved incredibly in the last years and they are used now in many film productions. In our case we used a Canon 5D Mark II.
Canon 5D Mark II.
Some of the advantages of using these cameras are the relatively low price, it has semi-professional results, you can use different lenses, etc. It has, however, some disadvantages. One of them is rolling shutter issues, which can cause wobble, skewing, smearing and sometimes partial exposure. This happens because of the way the image is recorded and it only happend in scenes with fast movement, fast panning or fast subjects. Anyway it's something that very seldon occurs, but something to take into account.
For the sound, we used two Sennheiser shotgun microphones with their respective booms, attached to a pole. We recorded the sound with a Zoom H4N recorder, a pretty nice toy that looks like an shock weapon, that allows to record the sound separately. It's very convenient to shoot sound like this to get the best sound. Usually the built in microphone in the camera is not very good. We also used some good over-ear headphones, ideally with noise cancellation.
Sennheiser mic and boom
Zoom H4N recorder
We got all the equipment for free, from friends or the Brunel University, and we can only be so grateful for that. The only exception was the mic pole, which we hired from Soho Broadcast.
Some advice while you are on set using these little guys:
- Remember to do white balance before starting to shoot. You should do this everytime your light conditions change. You don't need to do that for every shot.
- Shoot lens grids for every different lens you use. This will help the visual effects to distort the CG images and match them to the plates. Check out the Organisation and Paperwork and upcoming VFX articles.
- Check the sound levels before shooting. Make sure you don't break the sound with too high levels, but also that you get enough sound.
- Get as close to the action and the actors as possible without being in shot.
- Point microphone at actors' mouths. This seems obvious but it's so easy to get a wrong position. And sound is essential for a professional looking film.
- Call out the slate with the take number before each take. This helps a lot in editing, because sometimes the slate can be blurred or is not correctly seen through the camera. Sometimes it's not even possible to have the slate in front of the camera due to the position in the scene.
- You can never have enough batteries or memory cards!
