It's funny because THOSE are the jobs that pay the bills. It seems like the more work I do the less I end up getting paid.
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Equipment for a DP
- Thread starter DDirector
- Start date
Deniz Coker
Active member
The problem on the lower end is people wanting everything for nothing. People wanting crane shots and not having enough of a budget to rent a flag. This forces desperate DPs to buy said crane to become more appealing. You take a bite on the investment but hope that it pays off in the longer run. It's a little funny really, you need gear to be able to prove you know how to use it and no one will give you (aka rent) gear unless you've proven you know how to use it.
Reminds me of a recent shoot where the producers told me one of the camera operators quoted them a crane and dolly for a rate which I won't disclose and were selling it to me as if Oprah just handed us cars. I said crane AND dolly? Those are expensive pieces of gear. I asked to look at the "crane and dolly" and what do you know, some crap diy job and castor wheels on sticks. That's no dolly, a dolly is a complex expensive tool I said. It's lead me to take "packages" with a grain of salt or at least use more discretion.
Reminds me of a recent shoot where the producers told me one of the camera operators quoted them a crane and dolly for a rate which I won't disclose and were selling it to me as if Oprah just handed us cars. I said crane AND dolly? Those are expensive pieces of gear. I asked to look at the "crane and dolly" and what do you know, some crap diy job and castor wheels on sticks. That's no dolly, a dolly is a complex expensive tool I said. It's lead me to take "packages" with a grain of salt or at least use more discretion.
Light meter and a subscription to American Cinematographer. Never stop learning. Guy with camera and kit is a freelance cameraman, you're not a dp unless you have a crew to command. Now I've taken the credit on short films just like the rest of you. Taken my gear out on freebies to build a reel. If you want to be a production company buy a camera and kit, editing and everything else and market them to clients to get the jobs you want. If you want to be a DP join the union as a camera trainee and work your way up. Technology is moving so fast that at this point I wouldn't invest in any camera with the soul hope of renting it on jobs. Get something that is good enough for your personal creative expression that wont break the bank. I'm not going to buy a Red or F3 to finance someone else's short film. If the camera that is good enough for your no budget films isn't good enough for their no budget film, tell them to shove it or raise the money to rent the camera that they want. The guy hired with the best camera doesn't automatically rank as DP, Look at all the film students that got burned on Red One's, they didn't instantly fly to the rank of DP, they were hired as DIT's to show the guy with light meter how the camera works and to offload flash cards.
The only kit I would offer at this point is my vintage 16mm stuff, because if they're willing to burn some film they must have some money. I'm confident I could produce a decent image on any camera available. Rant winding down. If I was 20 again with no responsibilities I'd probably shoot the moon on a camera that thought would help me break through, but you have to think of it as an investment in yourself, because unless you get on jobs that can pay quickly the next cool camera will be out before you've even figured out the best settings to use on your demo reel.
Look at the speculation going on now. The Af100's are just now starting to ship, and people are waiting on the latest news on the Sony Nxcam 35, will it be so much better because of the F3 chip, what will be left off to make it cheap, it is Sony after all.
I chose to go the route of Poor filmmaker, Although I have other directors that I've shot projects for over the years. For myself the humble HV20 has proven good enough for my recent stuff, although they look quite silly on my big tripods. I'd like to move up to large chip cameras, but dslr's still have compromises. I'll probably pick up something like AF100 or similar Sony, Canon might be in play buy the time my feature has its funding together. The only reason why I buy rather than rent is because I'm in a small market non industry town. Shooting takes place evenings and weekends stretched over months, so renting is not viable. I stick to the best of the lowend, where 20 days rent is the same as buying. The rest of my stuff, tripods, lights, jib, dolly, mics etc. are not overly high end, but not ebay cheap either, have lasted for years, and will continue to serve for years to come.
The only kit I would offer at this point is my vintage 16mm stuff, because if they're willing to burn some film they must have some money. I'm confident I could produce a decent image on any camera available. Rant winding down. If I was 20 again with no responsibilities I'd probably shoot the moon on a camera that thought would help me break through, but you have to think of it as an investment in yourself, because unless you get on jobs that can pay quickly the next cool camera will be out before you've even figured out the best settings to use on your demo reel.
Look at the speculation going on now. The Af100's are just now starting to ship, and people are waiting on the latest news on the Sony Nxcam 35, will it be so much better because of the F3 chip, what will be left off to make it cheap, it is Sony after all.
I chose to go the route of Poor filmmaker, Although I have other directors that I've shot projects for over the years. For myself the humble HV20 has proven good enough for my recent stuff, although they look quite silly on my big tripods. I'd like to move up to large chip cameras, but dslr's still have compromises. I'll probably pick up something like AF100 or similar Sony, Canon might be in play buy the time my feature has its funding together. The only reason why I buy rather than rent is because I'm in a small market non industry town. Shooting takes place evenings and weekends stretched over months, so renting is not viable. I stick to the best of the lowend, where 20 days rent is the same as buying. The rest of my stuff, tripods, lights, jib, dolly, mics etc. are not overly high end, but not ebay cheap either, have lasted for years, and will continue to serve for years to come.