Best Gear for Teaching Filmmaking

[Imaginate]

I'm looking for ideas on what kind of gear you would recommend for teaching young pre-college filmmakers. The entire course spans about 200 hours for the school term and covers camera work, lighting, sound, editing. The class size is about 10-12 students. I was thinking two sets of kit similar to this. I've pretty much maxed out the budget with this list so if you have new additions you'll have to say what you would cut or replace for your new item.

Dont feel stuck to a format I've outline here... maybe you would trade out the GH2 rig with primes for 5 camcorders thats fine too. What tools would you use ? Any ideas are welcome.

	Gear Description	Quanitity	Price	Total
CAMERA PACKAGE
	Panasonic GH2 w kit lens 14-42mm	1	$899.00	$899.00
	20mm Lecia f1.7 prime lens	1	$359.00	$359.00
	50mm Canon FD f 1.8 prime lens	1	$120.00	$120.00
	Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 Aspherical Lens for Canon	1	$299.00	$299.00
	Indiesystem Airsupport Camera shoulder rig & railes follow focus	1	$499.00	$499.00
	GH2 Extra Batteries	2	$10.00	$20.00
	Camax H056 - 5.6'' (1280*800 Black Matrix Screen) HD LCD Field Monitor with HDMI, Analog CVBS Interface	1	$229.00	$229.00
	Manfrotto 501HDV546BK 546B Tripod With HD501HDV Head and MBAG90PN Tripod Case	1	$499.00	$499.00
	Camera Bags	1	$150.00	$150.00
	72MM variable ND filter	1	$79.00	$79.00
	flexible monitor arm for rails attachment	1	$25.00	$25.00
	36" slider	1	$150.00	$150.00
	diy dolly tracks	1	$150.00	$150.00
	nd adapter rings	3	$7.00	$21.00
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-dEgg9yutbo6VF80wowQuCif7u-A	Fotodiox Lens Mount Adapter, Canon EOS EF Lens to MFT Micro 4/3 Four Thirds System Camera Mount Adapter	1	$30.00	$30.00
	camera gear subtotal				$3529
LIGHTING
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy28JmNw9RePNALkkqhp67LqsM7GD5g	As ARRI 650W + 300W / 500W + 150W Fresnel Tungsten Lights bulbs stands case kit	1	$599.00	$599.00
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy29GX7KAq0dEKmgdWWeTXalgygxaqA	600 LED Video Light Camera Studio LEDS Continuous Daylight Lightsincludes bags and stands	1	$558.00	$558.00
	43" x 66" 5 in 1 Collapsible Reflector Kit	1	$119.00	$119.00
	5x7 Blue/Green Chromakey Flex Screen	1	$133.00	$133.00
	Grip Starter Package three C-Stands, one Baby Offset Arm,one Baby Plate, one Bead Board Holder,one Drop Ceiling Clip, one 6" C-Clamp w/ 5/8" Pins,one 12" Furniture Clamp with Baby Pin,one Super Clamp, one Cardellini Center Jaw Clamp,one Safety Hanger, three 20lb Sandbags,one Full Apple Box, one Half Apple Box,two #2 Grip Clips, one 24"x36" Single Net Scrim,one 24"x36" Double Net Scrim, one 24"x36" Silk,and two 24"x36" Solid Flags.	1	$1,070.00	$1,070.00
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-iWGyouJ4LfX7hC_dD2eRsoNgE1Q	Gossen Digisix, Ultra Compact Digital & Analogue, Incident and Reflected Ambient Light Meter	1	$136.00	$136.00
	lighting subtotal				$2615
SOUND
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy28VH0tXGrS8HFvE2rx_A_nHiD_uQw	Sound Devices MixPre-D Compact Field Mixer	1	$749.00	$749.00
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy29eLHpDwxtlTyFXUcdJ1xMZXGsvgg	CS-3 Production Case for 302 Mixer and 7-Series Portable Recorders	1	$160.00	$160.00
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2_hg10yCai46h0g4gFO7T66yjW8oA	Sony MDR-7506 Circumaural Closed-Back Professional Monitor Headphone	1	$99.00	$99.00
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy28Jd47VR87e6oY-yeb_ira_QKlpng	PROAIM boom pole blimp tripod xlr cable for mics audio	1	$355.00	$355.00
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-9FzpbkAmG9iXkaYJgk0mzNiyAGQ	Rode NTG-2 Battery or Phantom Powered Condenser Shotgun Microphone	1	$269.00	$269.00
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-kFjlHJZYmDwP90Nh_gKmjHfgPXQ	Oktava MK-012-01 BLACK	1	$234.50	$234.50
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-9Nu4sGGRWIiQKb284TSj3aCR25g	Tascam DR-40 Portable Recording Bundle w Sennheiser Wireless Mic	1	$699.00	$699.00
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy29GqdtY6Y1bv927j7NDvnrQhQgDeA	Sennheiser G3 100 Series Wireless Microphone Kit EW100	0	$799.00	$0.00
	sound subtotal				$2565.5
POST PRODUCTION
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-eA-nyWJQyxaL_OSZUxos5Q6AQlg	MAC OPTION 2010 Apple iMac 21.5" 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo/4GB/1TB/SD/AP	0	$949.00	$0.00
	Creative Suite 6 Production Premium for students and teachers	1	$449.00	$449.00
	PC OPTION Vesta Home & Office AMD A6-3650 APU Radeon HD 6530D Graphics 8GB DDR3 RAM 1TB Hard Drive Windows 7 Home Premium 6 USB Ports (2 front) 2 USB 3.0 Ports 24x DVD/CD Writer PCIe 16x Expansion Slot 7.1 high definition audio Onboard Gigabit Ethernet	2	$819.00	$1,638.00
	Post Production subtotal				$2087
	TOTAL			$9,158.50

 

[paulears]

I'm intrigued as to the choice of a DSLR - I'm not getting into the proper camera v DSLR debate, I'm concerned as an ex-college lecturer of 16-20 yr olds as to the suitability of specialist kit for kids with no already proven skills. In my years with media, there were a tiny number of mature skilled and progressive students, and far more for whom any manual adjustment was a real problem. Visual and aural acuity was missing. Auto focus, auto white balance, auto audio levels still produced rubbish work from the weaker, despite the camera's attempts to sort it. While I can see the benefit of DSLRs for perhaps a film making course at university level, I'd suggest point and shoot kit MUST be in there somewhere, with high quality, but disposable kit such as Gopros an essential. The idea of unscrewing a prime lens and seeing it bounce across the floor, finger prints on the camera sensor, breakages and the usual student problems makes using complex kit first very difficult. I'd suggest a couple of HD cameras like SD900 small things would be better to teach composition and technique, reserving the DSLRs - which having video as their secondary purpose, mean are complicated to use for when they have demonstrated maturity and skills. DSLRs are marketed as stills cameras, that have video functions - and people use them because they're able to produce excellent images - not because they are easy to use. If colleges run stills photo courses, they never give the kids the nice kit until they have got good images out of digital compacts - to do so is dangerous, because when (not if) they get broken you are stuffed if no budget is available to replace faulty kit.

I'd also suggest the need for long recording times - schools inevitably have plays and music events and these may be made available as source material - if you cannot record the 40 minute bit of Shakespeare, then I'd suggest the cameras are not that useful. Of course you can do the various software tweaks and hacks, but you've then taught them that hacking is a good thing (even though the manufacturers seem to object).

Batteries - make 2 ten! You will never have time to re-charge properly, so a few on the shelf will solve problems, when you need a battery, and all the ones you have are flat.

Start simple is good advice for beginners, and frankly I think DSLRs are too complicated to give to beginners. I honestly believe you would benefit from perhaps 1 high quality camera, and lots of beginners kit. You also end up encouraging them to plan properly and 'edit in the camera' - so it reduces their edit workload. They have a tendency to shoot too much, and then logging and selecting become a huge task.

Sound with field mixers is a similar problem - too complicated. I found handy cam type cameras were ok for the introduction to sound - but I like the idea of separate recording kit - boom work always causes problems with beginners, producing worse sound than the camera mics!

While I love (and have plenty of) Arri Fresnels - there is a serious Health and Safety issue with them. Can all the students understand how to use and operate equipment that can burn? If they are attached to a lighting grid - fine, but on stands, with trailing cables, I'd be seriously concerned. In fact - many schools and colleges in the UK are having problems with their risk assessments on this kind of thing. Many schools have banned lighting on stands for this reason. I'm not sure how it is in BC - but over here, we'd insist that they are on heavy duty stands - not the flimsy ones they come with, which are seriously top-heavy and unstable.

The LED units look nice - but the light output figures are pretty low.

On the computer front, have you thought about data storage? If it's a two year course you are going to have loads of material to store. Backup is essential. Losing student work is an everyday hazard, and you need a proper system to restore from backups - so I'd suggest a number of removable drives that can be handed out and used, while having some kind of backup system to archive material. It's not clear how many edit stations you have but with the number of students, and rendering time, even two edit systems may be insufficient. We had three edit suites for 15 students and finding time to edit was always difficult. We ended top staggering projects so that group A would be shooting, group B would be editing and group C doing the evaluative and analysis followed by prep for the next project - just to move on. editing is such a time intensive task - and causes the teacher problems too, because when the class is over, they go - leaving you to complete their renders, and save the work, before anyone else can use the system.

My brightest media student went on to be the Prime Ministers media advisor, but very few others were anywhere near his level - most had little technical or artistic aptitude at all. Pressing record was honestly a problem sometimes - they'd come back with nothing recorded at all!

Looking at university level media projects, they're not much better than college level until they get to their third year. You could perhaps have amazingly gifted and keen students - and then I could go with the DSLR choice, This is just what I did in 1994 - and was shocked by the lack of control, but absolute belief in what they were doing. The KISS way of working is essential with unknown ability students.

 

[Imaginate]

Hey Paul,

Thanks for that response, you brought up some great points. Camera wise I see wisdom in having a number of camcorder type cameras for teaching composition and camera movement. Someone else had suggested each student have a pocket camera like Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, super simple great for composition, camera movement and simple story telling. That kind of camera is practically indestructable and could be taken out of class or home for assignments.

I still think there is a place for DSLR training even with beginnners. I think the very way that those camera work force the user to think about shutter speed , aperature, and iso. exposure and focus. I agree not every student might be drawn so much into the camera work of filmmaking and its good that a simpler tool be available for them.

I think the biggest bit of wisdom that you shared in your post is that at some point you need to assess the ability of the individual students in each of the areas to determine what skills you can impart to them. I dont have the experience in teaching that you have so I might be overestimating the capability of these students.

Lightingwise thats an important thought about safety, what other options are out there that accomplish the same job as a fresnel?

Also great Idea with each student having a portable HD for some kind of backup system in place.. if it were a mac setup timemachine would be easy to implement but it looks like these will be PC workstations. I'll have to do some research on a backup system.

Thanks again for the comments