Filming my first documentary

M

mikewest13

Well-known member
Hey guys,


I'm about to embark on my first documentary, and I'd like to know what gear you guys use.... I was thinking of using an HVX, lavs and just practical available lighting as its more of an urban themed documentary.


Am I missing anything?
 
If I could shoot my documentaries over again I would have two cameras. Even if the second was a cheaper cam. It REALLY helps when you go to edit.

Lavs have always been impractical for my doc work, unless you are always following the same person. A good shotgun on a boom would be best, or mounted to the camara if you have to.
 
really... You would pick a boom over a decent pair of lavs?

why did you find you needed/wanted a 2nd camera?
 
mikewest13 said:
really... You would pick a boom over a decent pair of lavs?

why did you find you needed/wanted a 2nd camera?
Click to expand...



A good boom mic will sound much better than lavs, plus the troubles of batteries, reception, and handling noise make lavs much more difficult to use in a run-n-gun situation, especially if you don't have the support crew and experience. Keep it simple and use a good 'ol fashion mic. What if someone forgets and walks off with the tx pack? You gotta go chase them down. I did a documentary and followed a group of people to a competition at MI state university. I brought my lav, thinking I would put it on one of the main characters, but I never took it out of my bag because it was never practical. In a sit-down interview, a lav is easy to pin-on, but again, a shotgun will sound better.

A second camera will allow you MANY more options when you go to edit a scene. I found that there was never any situation where I could use one shot for very long, let alone a whole scene, so if you need to cut it down, but "play it" like it was continous, without any jump cuts or jarring editing, it helps to have the second camera picking up cutaways, other angles, another person, reaction shots... etc. I tried to get those shots during the scene, or after, but it didn't really cut the mustard. I sorta made it work by cheating a lot, but it could've been a lot better if I had a second cam.

Another thing is that since you don't know what is going to happen exactly, a second camera might get something that you would've missed otherwise.

A Harddrive? I've never used one, and I know that people use them successfully, but to me it adds another layer of complexity, and another thing to charge and break. Just use tapes. They work, and if you drop one, your whole movie won't be lost. Save yourself the expense and get a better mic. That's my advice. The sony is a fine camera. The HDV codec isn't so great on anything with a lot of motion. It does beautifull landscapes though. I've used both and prefer the DVX.
 
Agree with most of what's been posted so far. When it comes to doco work think durability and ease of use.
What can you chuck in the back of your car race to a second location, wake out of the boot and be ready to shoot again in 5 min. I have used superVHS, DX30s, PD150, PD170, PD250, DVXs, A1U, HVRs and HVXs for doco shoots. More recently mostly combined them with a Meranz PDM 670 or 671 recorder and a 416 as well as using the inbuilt cam mics. Cans connected to the recorder that would hang of my side in a pouch or on my back in a back pack. I'd place the 416 in the on board cam cradle so it would point at what ever subject I was filming then shoot and record me slapping my thy for a sync reference. Highly recommend against neck mics use a shot gun as it will capture the surrounding sound scape and give you a more organic atmos with your sound. A good shot gun will have good of axis rejection and a clear recording of human voice frequencies. A good recorder will make as much a difference of course.

On shoots where I had 2 cameras about 80% of the action was covered and where I had only one that may have dropped to about 50%. So definitely try and get 2 cameras and 2 operators. If not avoid the temptation of swinging swiftly between different subjects in an attempt to capture unpredictable action happening in 2 different places in the same location. Advantage of using HDV gear is that you can get a HVR or Z1P and still afford an A1U. Images from both will match up easily in post.

I love DVCPROHD gear and HVX, HPX etc... would always be my first choice but for doco shoots and cheaper set ups HDV cameras were just fine. No one is expecting spectacular footage in a doco.

HDD recorder is a very good choice, providing you have a constant and reliable form of back up. Try getting a cheap laptop (Lenovo) with a large local HDD for down loading. Either way be sure to have a traceable labeling system for ether the tapes or files and directories they get stored in. I personally have a MacBookPro core 2 duo which is very good for down loading and post for most acquisition systems, but that's a bit pricey.
 
i'd love to use an HVX, but unless i get a used one, there goes the budget of $5000..... also, if id did manage to get an HVX, is there any loss in quality when going to tapes rather than hard drive?
 
To be honest I run 4 dsr 370's but for a documentary i will only bring one. No doubt another angle is always choice but it takes away from that documentary feel in my opinion. I run the arri lights and they're extremly portabe so I bring those along with a multi disc "reflector" wich would probly work well for an urban documentary. Man that and a shot list and you are good to go!
 
Define quality loss... When shooting to tape on the HVX you are recording SD either DV or DVCPRO. Where as on the Sony HDD camera your recording HDV can't say one is better than the other depends on the look you want.

Then again why shoot to tape on the HVX? If you have 2 32GB cards you will have 64 minutes 1080 about 80 minutes 720 about 90 minutes 720PN of sorts and 128 minutes DVCPRO50 recording time. Much more than your average recording time to tape and far better quality an image.
 
don't want to go to tape... but with a budget of $5000, if i went for the HVX, there wouldn't be much left for P2 cards.
 
I always shoot single-camera on my sit-down interviews. Be sure to take lots of down-time b-roll. The person sitting, looking down, smiling and so on can give you a surprising amount of cut-away material.

Hopefully, you're a better editor than I am, but I always find some other source material for coverage. Depends on your project, but this could include 2d moves over photos, documents, disparate b-roll of what the subject is talking about, extablishing shots, animations and on and on.

For the mic, I'd have a shotgun (at least an AT897 or something like it) and a wireless lav. The best WalMart accessory ever is a fishing pole holder like the ones made by Driftmaster. They, with a c-stand and your boom, give you a lot more flexibility to place your mike right on the sweet-spot over the talent.

This frees you to man the single camera and ask questions from the interviewer spot at the same time.

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the fishing pole holder is a good tip, thanks....

I plan to jump back and forth between different interviewees so I'm not too concerned about cut aways, but I will get that footage just in case.
 
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