Just bought a HVX200, Now what do I buy!?!

definitely be looking for a p2 card before a 35 mm adapter.

check out some of the bogen tripods. there's a lot of different brands to choose from though.
 
I stopped by Adorama in New York on Sunday and they had a Manfrotto, (distributed by Bogen), 3046 legs and 501 head used for $200.00 in perfect condition. I borrowed a camera sat it on top and it felt fine. I said to myself I can use this sometime and now its part of my equipment. And yes, exactly, it will do the job a tripod is supposed to do.
 
as far as tripods, go for a quickset look on ebay, you can often score them for less than 100, they are big strong, heavy, and a great fluid head.
 
On a tight budget I would go with the pro vista 75XB. It can support up to 18lbs, comes with a dolly attachment and case, if ordered from BH. All for $200.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...nford_PROVISTA7518_Pro_Vista_Tripod_with.html


A good producer knows how to balance quality and price within any given budget, and you really cant go wrong with this tripod on a light budget.

This will support the extra attatchments he might get for the HVX. Its a good start and It works just as good as those 500-700$ tripods you will find. I own one btw, and am very impressed with the price and quality/ability of the pod.
 
hmmm

hmmm

Jaimebailon said:
whats wrong with bogen? i have one and it does the job a tripod is supposed to do
Click to expand...

I agree, I have almost $90,000 in production equipment and still use a Bogen. DPs don't complain, not for what I need a tripod for. I'm sorry but these $6,000 to $14,000 tripods they want to sell you for the RED are great if you are making obscene amounts of money and need that perfect one shot where you're going to use the tripod, but most of the movement I want to do is with a dolly or a jib or handheld. I couldn't give a crap if the tripod does much more than hold the camera on it without falling down to be honest. I guess there's the occasional shot where it's nice, but then again it depends on what you're shooting really. I'm mainly talking about music video productions, where maybe it doesn't matter as much as serious narrative work with long shots and all of this good stuff.

The #1 aspect of film production that surprised me the most was how quickly your investment builds up beyond what you initially thought it would be. I remember back in the day thinking how if you had a camera, a tripod, and a decent lighting package, plus a boom mic, you were pretty much good to go. Haha, what a joke. Then I realized that most of the expenses for the camera, like our HVX200s (we have two), are not the cameras themselves but all of the stuff that goes with them. The high-end MacBook Pro for on-set capturing, the four 16 gig P2 cards, the matte box and follow focus kit, the RedRock lens adapter and 35mm lenses, the pro monitor, etc. etc. Even with lights, those are probably the main expense but you still have to consider all of the obnoxious grip equipment you have to have (hey, at least the grip equipment can be used for a lot of years, though, they're not exactly updating c-stands regularly or apple boxes or flags, LOL).

I personally don't see what the point is to spend $5,000 on an HVX200 and shoot in SD. We're rapidly approaching the time where SD footage has a very limited use, basically web-only. Not saying you can't make it look good, a very talented DP can make MiniDV look fantastic, absolutely true, but just that it's safest and smartest now if possible to capture in HD. In this case all I mean is that if you spend $5,000 on an HD camera and shoot SD, that's kind of unfortunate, seems like you could have gotten a DVX100 or XL-2 and thrown a lens adapter on it with the spare money and gotten better pictures. Of course you can't upgrade those cameras, but the point is I'd definitely have the P2 cards to be able to shoot in HD.

Someone said P2 cards are usually inexpensive to rent... I'd love to know if you live in L.A. if you know of where that's actually true. I have found the most overpriced rental to be P2 cards, I'm not joking, even individuals want to rip you off. I really don't understand it. Although we have two HVX200s and four 16 gig P2 cards, I needed a BTS shooter for a music video we're doing Sunday and this one guy wanted an extra $50 to bring his two 8 gig cards. It actually was a primary reason I didn't choose him for the shoot; I liked his reel but there were plenty of other great reels. If he had just said, "Look my rate is $350 per day," I would have thought, "Ok great, this guy is a good option, let's see what else we have." But the way he put it, "$300 a day or $350 with two 8 gig P2 cards," I am thinking are you serious? That makes me feel like he's trying to rip me off right away. I don't know what 8 gig cards go for now, but someone here said in the $300 range? So let's say even it was $800 total for both, the value of the cards, and he wants to charge me 1/16 of the value in a single day? Even big rental houses have list prices that are about 1/20th of the value, and that's before you get a discount, which you always do if you're smart (we have a good UPM on this shoot so he's able to negotiate some sweet deals). The point is, I've looked at a lot of Craigslist posts, rental houses, etc. and everyone seems to want to rip you off on the P2 cards. I've even seen killer deals on the camera itself, like $125/day for an HVX200, which is in my mind a killer deal (sometimes that included a tripod), but then they were like, "$40 a day for a 16 gig P2 card." I'm kind of like, hmm, so a $900 card rents for $40 and the camera that costs 5 times as much rents for only 3 times as much? I'm confused. I guess you could argue the cards go out of date faster than the camera, but I'm not so sure, because a 16 gig card is plenty good for most people. Even with the 32s out, I'm not buying any of those, 16s are fine for our purposes. Even 8s wouldn't be hideous. The 4s are 100% worthless, though, sorry not to offend anyone. Waaaay too small. Just too much of a hassle. But if I was really budget-strapped I'd probably get like 4-5 of those because they have to be really down in price on eBay now.
 
2 8gbs for 50 isnt bad, the cheapest your going to find a 16gb from a rental house is studeo B in berkely and its 75 a day. most other plases are close to 100 a day, and the 8 gbs are going for around 500, the 4 gbs are going for 250 300,
 
I think shooting in SD with an HVX is fine because it will give me a chance to really learn the camera and be able to put off the P2 workflow costs for now until I can save enough for all the gear needed for it.

I don't have clients, I don't have a production studio. I'm just a college student with aspirations to make good movies. I would love to be able to make money off this gear but it's just not in the cards for right now, I don't think I have the necessary funds, time (last year of college), experiance or support to make a move like that. For now, just putting together a demo reel seems like it would be difficult enough.
 
thats no excuse (well, i guess TIME might be).
there are 14 year old kids here on the forum making money with their hvx/s.
you dont need to make a "movie" right out of the gate. you can make bundles of cash doing industrials and parties and other lowbrow stuff.

and take my advice. when possible (especially early on) rent when you can. early in my career i made the mistake of buying everything id need EVER, then had a big bunch of bills before id established the work to pay for it.

we all live - we all learn ; )
 
Definately, thanks for the advice.

I am going to borrow lighting and audio from my school, I think thats all that the media department has to offer me at this point.

As far as selling my services... I have no idea on how I could sell a one man, one camera, one editing set-up operation. I would like to do it (how could I turn down any money/experiance?) but I think for that I would need a demo reel and a website first right?
 
Jackmfs, not really, with the hvx a good set of sticks, a couple p2 cards and a power book you can sell yourself doe a good 300 a day, 400 is you have the adapter, its a little less than renting the same gear from a rental house plus they get an extra crew member on set, you dont always have to be the camera op, but I would not recomend letting the camera out of your site, I.E day rentals where you dont tag along. you're a student, so tap into that, have one day fee for non students, then drop your price 50 bucks for students. 3 to 4 hundred a day is nothing for a student to scoff at, plus you're working a set, and maybe getting a shooters reel if they have you shoot.

Jason
 
I have no idea where you jackmfs live at the moment but you can make good money with family events on weekends, weddings, anniversaries, birthday parties, sweet sixteens, etc. I now that to many people they are not very exciting but you can make good money with them and work on your shooting skills. Some videographers make beautiful story-like weddings pieces that are very popular with clients.
In NYC there are literally thousands of events of this kind and you can make up to $1200.00 or even more on a Saturday. You can also make less but mostly all profit depending on the clients. Also this kinds of events are done all over the USA.
 
Jason Miller said:
Jackmfs, not really, with the hvx a good set of sticks, a couple p2 cards and a power book you can sell yourself doe a good 300 a day, 400 is you have the adapter, its a little less than renting the same gear from a rental house plus they get an extra crew member on set, you dont always have to be the camera op, but I would not recomend letting the camera out of your site, I.E day rentals where you dont tag along. you're a student, so tap into that, have one day fee for non students, then drop your price 50 bucks for students. 3 to 4 hundred a day is nothing for a student to scoff at, plus you're working a set, and maybe getting a shooters reel if they have you shoot.

Jason
Click to expand...

I'd have to disagree. I don't think it's fair to set him up with all of these expectations to make a bunch of money right off the bat. He's right. He needs a reel first and some experience, and there's nothing wrong with just getting out there and taking some nice shots, learning, etc. until you can build that reel.

Have you ever been to craigslist and posted something looking for a DP? I'm paying a very, very professional DP in the same price range you just listed for a music video that has involved two location scouts, a third meeting today, and another location scout tomorrow before our shoot Sunday. This guy would normally be paid a lot more but he likes the project, wants to establish a working relationship, and he's a great guy. The DP, however, is not bringing any equipment. He's using mine. BUT...

Our behind-the-scenes videographer is also a professional DP who has done some stunning work and he's doing the whole 14-hour day BTS footage for $300 and he's bringing his HVX200, two P2 cards, tripod, etc. He is a very experienced DP looking to make a few extra bucks. And you could call me a cheapskate and say, "Why are you only offering $300 for that? How dare you? Blah blah etc." Don't try it. I asked for rates, didn't offer them, I posted the job and the specifics of it and said name your price. I got everywhere from $80/day (no joke, and another at $100) to $700 per day. Almost all of them, though, I'd say 85%, were in the $300 to $400 range and these were guys with 5-10 years of camera experience and mostly pretty sweet reels, at least half of them had solid reels, the others were alright. But the point is you are up against so much competition that you can get labor like that for dirt cheap. I mean think about it, 14 hours of labor and $6,000 in equipment (or more, I guess) for $300? haha, that's brilliant.

I'd say be realistic, at the start if you can find some events and get $100 for a day even, do it, because those are useful connections and help you build that reel. When your skills command more money it will show.

I think renting a 16 gig P2 card for $75 is a joke. If I was renting everything, I would rent them too and hope for a deal, for a one-day shoot, but if we were shooting even 3-4 days a month I'd rather buy all of the P2 cards and just rent the cameras, because you can get a better deal on them anyway. Then sell the P2 cards later. If you shot 5 days a month, for instance, with 2 P2 cards and after three months sold them for a $150 loss each, you'd still have only paid $300 to get 15 days of use out of them. The economics of renting many things absolutely makes no sense at all in this industry.

The stuff that seems to make the most sense to rent, in my opinion, is grip equipment because you seem to be able to get amazing rates on it, guys with full grip trucks, for very inexpensive and reasonable prices. Even like $400 to $500 a day for a fully loaded grip truck and a lot of basic lights with a guy who drives to and from the set. Wow! That's quite a killer deal when you consider a lot of those guys are seriously bringing $50,000 to your set. But that's because lights and C-stands and flags and sandbags don't become obsolete. They may wear out or break, eventually, but not easily. They are sturdy and rugged. Camera equipment rents at too high of rates because it goes obsolete too fast.

Even if my HVX200s are only worth $3,000 used each at the end of this summer, I'll still be happy I bought them. We're doing about 20 days of filming for a corporate project and I've already filmed several times with them, now another few music videos upcoming, etc. so if I get a total of 30 days of filming out of them by the end of the summer that's a ton of money saved on rentals. Losing $4,000 in depreciation (and I don't believe it's anything near that severe, I'm sure I could sell them for $4,000 each) is well worth it. Not to mention instead of paying to rent them I'm being paid to rent them myself to the shoots.

I agree it's a dangerous game to buy everything at the start, because it's very expensive. I was just fortunate I was in a good position to spend that money and take that risk, and to me it wasn't going to hurt much one way or another. I mean the worst that could probably happen is my $90,000 in equipment drops to $50,000 in value, but since regardless of whether I was to stay in the film industry I would have wanted to own the means of production to at least shoot on weekends and pursue film as a hobby, I always saw it as worthwhile. Now making money on the equipment slowly but surely is justifying that decision.

That being said renting some stuff makes a lot of sense and it's just silly to buy it all. I always figure with lighting, own all of the really basic lights, like 1K lights and below, because those are not very expensive and you're going to use that stuff constantly on almost every shoot. Or at least 75-80% of your shoots probably you'll use those types of kits. But for the big guns, rent, because you just never know what the needs of the shoot will be and it's probably a mistake to tie yourself in to owning a certain number or type of big lights that might make you reluctant to go with a different style.

I think as far as making money on your equipment and time, it's very difficult. If you are creative and hard working and can contact enough people you can do it, but in my experience in the film industry people are willing to work for dirt cheap (or that is to say there are enough very talented people who will) and rent their equipment for unreasonably low rates that it makes that an uphill struggle. I was shocked when I saw people renting an HVX200 package with the camera, tripod, two P2 cards, two batteries, charger, and a basic monitor for like $200 per day. I just thought, wow, that's quite a deal. It made me think twice about going into the rental business. The only way I'll rent out my equipment now is in a package deal, like as a production company I'll bring on my insurance and my time and my equipment to make someone's production happen, but piece by piece I don't care about $200 to risk my equipment. Just not worth it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top