Documentary Kit for China

[Orlando McNulty]

I am going to shoot a Doc on factories in China and am in the stages of assembling the kit. I am leaning towards the AF-100. I am wondering if anyone has any discretionary words about shooting with that camera on a run and gun doc?

 

[custerc]

I am going to shoot a Doc on factories in China and am in the stages of assembling the kit. I am leaning towards the AF-100. I am wondering if anyone has any discretionary words about shooting with that camera on a run and gun doc?

Oh my god! Someone else working on docs in China! Cool! And if "McNulty" is a reference to The Wire, I think I love you. Anyway. I'm in the middle of shooting a feature length doc on kidnapped kids in China, and I've also shot a half-hour doc short about rural-urban migration, so I have some experience in this area, although I'm not a professional.

I haven't used the AF100, but I would advise against it for a run-and-gun doc, for a couple reasons. First is that it's big (ish) and it's thus going to attract a lot of attention. If you've gotten the OK from factory owners to shoot, then that won't be a problem. But if you're guerilla-style AND you're a foreigner, you're already sticking out like a sore thumb. A camera like that is going to bring you more attention than you want, depending on what you're filming. Second is that for run-and-gun stuff, you may want something that's a little more pick-up-and-shoot friendly, although I haven't used the AF100 so I can't really speak to that too much. But switching lenses isn't always easy to do on the run.

That said, there are three cameras I've shot with in China: DVX100, HMC150, and Canon 60D. We used a DVX 100 for the short doc, and even with a shotgun mic on it, I was amazed how little attention it attracted. But we were shooting in very rural areas where there aren't really any police or anyone to care what you're doing or what kind of camera you have.

The doc we're currently shooting, we're using the HMC150 and Canon 60d, but if I had it to do over again, I would give serious consideration to buying two Canon DSLRs and spending the extra money on glass and a decent audio recorder instead. The HMC is great, but there are situations in the work we're doing where we simply can't use it because it draws too much attention and could put our subjects at risk. DSLRs, on the other hand, are so ubiquitous here that no one really looks at you twice, unless you're loaded down with auxiliary gear that makes it look more like a video camera. Many people, including police, don't even know they can record video, which can be really useful.

If you have a connection with the factories you're planning to shoot in, and they've OKed everything, then I'd say go with the AF100. There's no reason to deal with DSLR hassles like the 12-minute time limit and lack of proper audio inputs if you don't have to. BUT if your topic is something sensitive, or you don't have permission to shoot everywhere, you may want to consider a DSLR, at least adding one as a B-cam or something, for situations when you can't use the AF100.

For example, two weekends ago we were in Taiyuan, Shanxi interviewing parents. We shot those with the HMC150, because we didn't want to deal with sync audio. On the second day, we were just out walking around the city when we came upon the same parents doing a street event, to publicize their cases. Obviously, we wanted to shoot it, but they didn't want us to use a big camera because they knew it would draw attention and the police would shut them down. Thankfully, we were carrying the 60d at the time, so we just whipped that out and shot with that. If we hadn't had a smaller, less noticeable camera, we simply couldn't have shot that and would have missed an important scene (yes, we could have shot with the HMC against their wishes, since it was a public place, but I didn't want to ruin our relationship with them, and anyway I was afraid the police would ask us to delete the footage). (The police showed up about an hour after we started shooting and made everyone clear off, but they didn't even ask any questions as there were lots of people there with DSLRs taking photos.

SO, unless you know for sure that your subject is (1) not politically sensitive (and keep in mind, a non-sensitive topic can become sensitive overnight here) AND (2) all your peaople and locations are totally fine with you shooting there, I would recommend that either you reconsider the AF100 totally, or alternately consider also buying or renting a smaller B-cam:

-A DSLR (maybe the GH2, actually, I bet GH2 footage would be really easy to match with the AF100) is one option, the advantage there is that people don't even know you're recording video, usually. But you've got the time limit, audio issues, plus moire etc.
-a consumer HD camcorder. Lots of Chinese and foreign tourists carry these, so with a higher end one, you can still blend in as long as it's small. The downside is you lose amnual control, and they generally have similar sound issues to DSLRs, but they're built for video and they don't require any setup at all, so they could be the difference between getting the shot and missing it if something happens fast.

I'd love to hear more about your project, though, and could probably offer better advice if I knew more about what you wanted to do....also, if you need help with anything China doc related, like I said, I'm not a pro but I am happy to offer any help and advice I can....my email is my DVXuser username at gmail.