Accessories & Priorities

[jaredalv]

Allrighty then you pros.  I'm looking to accessorize my DVX and I seek your advice.  I will be doing weddings/events and filiming promotions/documentaries/dramatic shorts for my church.  With this in mind here's what I'm thinking I need to buy for the camera in the order of importance.  Sound & lighting are already covered.

- field monitor (pref something on-camera?  any recommendations for moving around alot?  is this not practical? Mainly for focus purposes.)
- follow-focus system
- anamorphic adapter
- creative filters

Thanks for your help,
Chico

 

[Elvis]

Re: Accessories & Priorities

There are quite a few threads on this but here you go a basic wedding package would be a good tripod a503 Bogen head or better. A shotgun mic Me66, AT4073a, or the new AT897! A good Wireless, Sennheisser evolution 100/500 series. remember when you shoot a wedding you try to get the shotgun as close to the action as possible and off your camera! That way when you do pans you will still catch the dialoge. The rest of the stuff I would pick up as they are needed. It all depends on your budget! And take it from me the list never ends. My wish list would give old Santa a heart attack! 8)

 

[Barry_Green]

Re: Accessories & Priorities

[quote author=jaredalv link=board=Links;num=1077917096;start=0#0 date=02/27/04 at 13:24:56]
- field monitor (pref something on-camera?  any recommendations for moving around alot?  is this not practical? Mainly for focus purposes.)
[/quote]
No on-camera monitor is going to work for focus, any better than the existing LCD panel. To get improved resolution for better focusing, you'll need a high-res CRT, and there aren't any that are on-camera (that I can think of). Obviously a pro camera's B&W viewfinder is an on-camera CRT, but I don't know of any for the DVX. A field monitor is an important piece of gear, especially for corporates or documentaries or promos, maybe or maybe not so necessary for events (depends on the kind of events) and definitely not necessary for weddings.

- follow-focus system

Nice to have, certainly not necessary. Only applicable to the church dramatic shorts, you wouldn't use something like that in weddings, events, or such. Well, maybe you would, but it seems like overkill.

- anamorphic adapter

Nice to have, certainly not necessary. If your display system is 16:9, this would be a nice addition. If your display system (assuming church projector?) is 4:3, then the anamorphic won't bring much to your productions.

- creative filters

There are a few nice filters out there, like enhancing didymium(sp?) and ND grads and warm/soft fx. Nice to have, not truly necessary.

Other toys that would be good would be a skateboard dolly (or better) or a small jib like an EZ/FX or the like. Perhaps a handheld stabilizer like a GlideCam 4000.

The mandatories for dramatic production are a decent selection of lights, with professional stands and barn doors, a few C-stands, some flags & cookies, an adequate selection of microphones and quality cables, some black wrap and gaffer's tape, a dimmer or two, an on-camera light for weddings/etc., a good selection of gels & diffusion for lights (along with some C-47's), maybe a couple of sandbags for light stands... and some assistants to wrangle all that stuff.

For weddings/events you're going to want a wide-angle adapter, an on-camera light, some sort of stabilizer (preferably not handheld, I'm sure that would kill you within a half-hour, you'd probably rather want something like the Tiffen Steadi-Stick or the DVRig Pro), and a decent teleconversion lens would be great too but it doesn't really exist yet. Maybe a minidisc recorder or two with lavalieres to catch more audio. And a membership to WEVA and something like the Digital Juice Wedding Toolkit would probably help too.

 

[spotlightmm]

Re: Accessories & Priorities

I would have to agree that none of these accessories really fit the bill for weddings/events. Maybe useful for your promotions/documentaries/shorts, if you can justify the cost.

I would add a wide angle adapter, ME66 type shotgun, and good UHF wireless as essential for weddings.

I use a steadytracker ultralite for floaty/dreamy shots and although the camera nearly overwhelms it, the bigger steadytracker is just too big. I am considering adding a little extra weight to the bottom to help with this.

I bought an inexpensive used multitrack recorder that I run sound into during the ceremony and consider it essential for getting good sound. A mic for the piano, vocalist, organ, PA speaker, audience, etc. plus the wireless

Beyond stands and lighting I have purchased 2 dozen paper chinese lanterns with sockets (60W) and cords which I let my brides use at no charge PROVIDED: 1) They are suspended over the dance floor, and 2) The DJ is not allowed to touch them. Beautiful, elegant lighting. I don't know about other parts of the country, but around here, the DJ announces the couple's first dance, then turns out the lights so nobody can see them. Go figure.

Just my 2 cents on where I feel I have spent my best money on accessories, I hope someone finds it useful.

 

[Zoomforce]

Re: Accessories & Priorities

and dont forget lots of power.. Wedding are long so extra snap in batteries or a battery belt that can also power your lights is a good idea.

Crane/Jib I think adds the most production value in wedding videos

Most creative filters can be resembled in post, so you should stay away from those crazy things, as you might shoot something with a start filter or something, and wish you wouldnt of to be able cut that footage into something normal later.

Forget the anamorphic adapter. You wont be able to accuratly frame not using a monitor, because everything looks a little funny on your LCD. Fat people will look thin, and thin people will look anorexic.. well its not that dramatic but you get the jist. An external monitor is a little silly, except if you use that Jib your gonna need one.

Follow Focus is like Barry said, total overkill. Chances are you wont have the time to shoot any blocked shots that require the follow focus... but I also guess it would be nice to have if you got used to it.


As for the DJ thing.. get the guy to play a song from a less known, local, or 80's band for the first dance if you can convince them. Then when you need to buy the rights to that song it will be alot cheaper.