What are you shooting your movie on?

What are you shooting your movie on?

  • DVX100 (any model)

    Votes: 62 33.9%

  • XL1 and 2

    Votes: 3 1.6%

  • XH-A1

    Votes: 21 11.5%

  • HVX200

    Votes: 46 25.1%

  • Camera Phone (haha Charlie)

    Votes: 2 1.1%

  • You're moms digital camera

    Votes: 6 3.3%

  • A camera with a 35mm Adapter

    Votes: 28 15.3%

  • RED

    Votes: 10 5.5%

  • Camera Phone with a couple step rings to a 35mm Adapter

    Votes: 5 2.7%
  • Total voters
    183
that word always makes me think of feces. which is appropriate, i guess... in terms of qualifying it as an exercise in bullsh*tting? kinda?
 
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Zak Forsman said:
like most rental houses, indie's weekend rate is a single day rate. their "ultimate" Red One rental package includes a set of primes and is advertised at $1750 for the weekend. i've personally negotiated a rate better than $1500. probably shouldn't say how much lower. but keep in mind i've rented a lot of gear from them.
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I've heard two people quote a $1,200 weekend rate for Indie's package so that at least has been a price being kicked around on the street for awhile and has been represented to me as the "place to start" your negotiations with them.

Zak, I'm not sure why you shouldn't say what rate you got (there may be a good reason and, if so, enlighten me so I don't f*ck up myself by sharing rates we get). However, my attitude has always been that overall it would probably help us all if we did share widely what good rates we are able to get. Its a competitive industry and the more street awareness there is of "good deals" the more likely rental shops will cut those deals. Unless I'm missing something, it works to everyone's advantage is X company goes to Indie and says, "Hey, our friends at Fat Monster picked up a 2-day rate for your RED package at $900. We'll rent if we can get that rate too."

Sure, Indie and everyone else would love to have people pay their rate card but nobody who's savvy in the biz ever does. There are also more and more small operators who are now set up to rent their REDs and if you catch them with an open schedule you can negotiate favorable deals. Matty G, for instance, works as DIT for a very sweet RED package that has zeiss primes and other goodies. Any DVXUSER in the L.A. basin who wants to shoot on the RED would be foolish not to hit up Matty to see if their calendar is open and what kind of deal they might make. The worst that can happen is he says "no."
 
my business partner and I negotiate until we get that old line, "don't tell anyone I gave it to you at this price" -- only reason i hesitate to quote the rate here. i don't want to blow the relationship with indie and other rentals houses (and the obscenely low rates we've gotten) which has afforded SABI the ability to make three features on ultra low budgets since 2004. for example, in late 2006 we shot a feature with two HVX packages that only cost us $1000 total for four weeks -- not Indie Rentals this time. Sure, sharing who the vendor was would benefit anyone here willing to engage them in negotiations, but if my company was mentioned, i fear that the rates we obtain from these places would vanish considering their request to keep the numbers private.

i can give you some tips, though... how we manage to get ridiculously low rates. first, is to write a "donation letter" that explains the project and the artists involved that will appeal to their sense of charity... this is the donation letter we handed to every single vendor we worked with on White Knuckles... not everyone responds to it favorably, but those that do... look out! still, it was just the first step...

Donation / Contribution to White Knuckles – (Independent Project)
A Parable About Forgiveness.

This letter is to humbly request your participation in our micro-budget video experiment.*

Some facts about this project:

1/3 of all profits from this project will be donated to charity & charitable organizations.

This is a micro-budget film that fosters a deep collaborative spirit between all artists involved – from cast to filmmakers to crew.

We are currently casting mostly out-of-work senior actors (60 and up) – These are the experienced actors that possess the talent and charisma of youthful performers, but are often overlooked in Hollywood.* Though our experiment involves an older cast - it is still a timeless story that is accessible to all adults.*

The Story:* White Knuckles is a family drama about an elderly couple that have experienced the love, pain, joys and struggles of an often difficult life - but now must chart a course to forgiveness.* Ultimately, it’s a spiritual story of faith & karma – with the hope that one can find love and new meaning in their life -- regardless of their age or state of mind.

Among those involved that are working for free or minimal deferred pay:* Members of the cast, the producers, the director, writers, directors of photography, production designer, line producers, editors, costume, make-up, post-production personnel, and many of the crew & production coordinators all are working on this project for free, minimal deferred pay, expenses or guild minimums only.*

There is very little money, much of it is from the pockets of the filmmakers themselves - but we are all passionate about this project – and so we come to you for your help.*

Your contribution will be greatly appreciated and will go directly to a worthy artistic endeavor.* We hope that your contribution will come from a place of sharing & creative spirit – as this will be a learning and growing experience for us all.* We hope the results of this experiment will make its way into a marketplace starved for meaningful films.

Thank you for your time and your consideration. If your donation happens to be a check, you can make it payable to Sabi, LLC.* All contributions in the form of food (meal for 10-12 per day), water, equipment, any gifts for the cast, and all blessings are welcome and appreciated!

For more information please feel free to contact the filmmakers directly at (xxx) xxx–xxxx.

Sincerely,

Kevin K. Shah, Zak Forsman, Neha Shah, Jamie Cobb & Sabi Pictures
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DVX is cheeper and has a much nicer picture (imo). only thing XL2 has on DVX is 169 sensors and interchangeable lenses.
 
I'm sure with a better lens and some tweeks in post it could look legit, but I have always been like "hah I bet he shot that on an XL2" whenever i see stuff from it.
 
You can get it to look a lot better if you modify the presets, but I agree the DVX looks better. If I was buying a camera now, I would just get an HVX but they were closer to $6000 at the time.
 
Oh, I forgot to say that I am definitely in and mine will be shot on two Reds, mine with PL mount lenses and Chazmo's with Nikon lenses. It won't be random either, we will use both for different effects at the proper moments.
 
shawneous said:
Oh, I forgot to say that I am definitely in and mine will be shot on two Reds, mine with PL mount lenses and Chazmo's with Nikon lenses. It won't be random either, we will use both for different effects at the proper moments.
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In other words, while we're off doing the real filming with Shawn's Red, my Red is off in the corner grabbing timelapse shots. ;)
 
I really am using a camera phone. I don't know how many of you are joking out there, but I plan on finishing up my shoot in the next two weeks. I'm using my red samsung camera phone.
 
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