Gear for new feature film

D

David Evans

Well-known member
Hi!

I just finished writing the script and I'm planning to start production in August/September. I have a lot of outdoor shooting so I'm doing careful pre-production with a lot of scouting. I'm also planning on what I actually need to buy for this new adventure. In my last film, I missed a good indoor mic. All I have is my AT8035 shotgun mic, wich is great for outdoors, but indoors it gets all the unwanted echos and reflexions. So this is my gear:

Canon XH A1
SGBlade
Zeiss 1.4 50mm
Nikon 1.8 28mm
Polarizing filter
Merlin Steadicam
AT 8035
Boom and windshield
External HD monitor
Libec tripod


As for lighting, I usually rent Arri lights for the days I need. I need a good mic for indoor shots, and I was considering:

Oktava MK012
AT 4053b

The AT is double the price of the Oktava, but is it worth the difference? It's a bit of a stretch but if it's really worth it, I will make the effort.

Also, I'm using the camera for audio recording, and I'm still thinking if it's better to go for an external recorder or a mixer in front of the camera. I think the external recorder will be mandatory for the steadicam shots. So maybe it'd be better to have an external recorder with a good mixer. Any ideas?

Anyone else would recommend anything more before starting production?

Thanks for your help!
 
And before I forget, I have a great condition XH-A1 with wide Canon lens, DOF adapter, HD Recorder, and accessories, which would be great for someone out there.
 
Well, let's think of essentials. I didn't set a budget as of yet. I wanted to know, gear wise, what are the essential stuff that I need to have. Like I said, on the last film (63min) I lacked the indoors mic and a good lighting tech. I rented 3x1k arri tungstens projectors and I had some hard shadows. Should've got a few softboxes but the lighting guy only had some really thick difusing paper wich stopped down the light so much that it wasn't enough for the A1 + SgBlade combo to get decent footage.

So, stuff to get:

Indoor mic
Good lighting guy (not really stuff but you know what I mean)

What other gear would you guys think as being essential for a feature film that I might be overlooking? I'm filming indoors, outdoors, day and night.

I know this is pretty vague, but I just trying to get opinions and thoughts so that I might take all into consideration.

Thanks!!
 
What's your budget?

Can you rent gear, or is it more cost effective to buy?

The AT-4053b mic has less handling-noise issues and higher signal output compared to the Oktava MK012. You can get away with plugging the AT-4053b directly into a Tascam DR-40, because the signal is strong enough that you won't have to crank things up to maximum pre-amp gain, which is not the case with the Oktava. Both mics will sound better with a proper mixer. ( i.e. used Sound Devices MixPre, or the newer MixPre-D )

Are you happy shooting with your Canon XH A1 + SGBlade combo? Or do you want to switch to a Nikon DSLR like the new D5200 ? ( assuming your are already using Nikon mount lenses )
 
Hey!
Good topic!

AUDIO
I would have a question on the audio side... I want to keep it really simple, but good... I thought of getting a Tascam DR-05 and a Rode Videomic Pro. Is that a good solution? I wouldn't want to spend more than this so if you have better ideas under this price I would be happy to hear that!

Zoom H1n + Rode Videomic Pro maybe?
 
You are falling into the trap of thinking about equipment with no skills/experience to select what is appropriate. Save your money and get in a decent sound and lighting person, who will rent in or provide the right kit. Good sound comes from a good operator NOT the equipment. Shotguns indoors are always cited as a no no - when the real problem is that in most cases, they're doing a great job of capturing what they were badly aimed at. A decent boom op with a shotgun will get you far better sound than a cardioid or hyper pointed vaguely in the direction of people's mouthes. Shotguns are a precision device that need VERY careful aiming. Every case of indoor shotgun bad audio I've heard on forums clearly shows bad technique but blame firmly on the kit. I liken it to having the camera on wide angle so you don't need to pan and tilt properly compared to a poor cameraman zooming in onto a face and then failing to keep it in frame as the subject moves, showing us lots of pictures of the walls and floor. We don't have a do not zoom in rule, yet we have a rule that says 'zoom' microphones are bad!

Hire in people who know what they're doing. If your hired in Arris had hard shadows, then they were used poorly for the job. If the room was too small, then at some point there will be an edge where the beam runs out. Swapping them for soft sources doesn't look the same when it lands on the subject. A real LX person will be able to think about the look, which is an art rather than illumination, which is a craft. If you don't have the skills, that's fine - just hire somebody who does!
 
Have anybody some experience with Shoot35 rigs? All I hear that their FF and matte box is good, but what about their rigs? And Cinefinder? They're extremely cheap...
 
paulears said:
You are falling into the trap of thinking about equipment with no skills/experience to select what is appropriate. Save your money and get in a decent sound and lighting person, who will rent in or provide the right kit. Good sound comes from a good operator NOT the equipment. Shotguns indoors are always cited as a no no - when the real problem is that in most cases, they're doing a great job of capturing what they were badly aimed at. A decent boom op with a shotgun will get you far better sound than a cardioid or hyper pointed vaguely in the direction of people's mouthes. Shotguns are a precision device that need VERY careful aiming. Every case of indoor shotgun bad audio I've heard on forums clearly shows bad technique but blame firmly on the kit. I liken it to having the camera on wide angle so you don't need to pan and tilt properly compared to a poor cameraman zooming in onto a face and then failing to keep it in frame as the subject moves, showing us lots of pictures of the walls and floor. We don't have a do not zoom in rule, yet we have a rule that says 'zoom' microphones are bad!

Hire in people who know what they're doing. If your hired in Arris had hard shadows, then they were used poorly for the job. If the room was too small, then at some point there will be an edge where the beam runs out. Swapping them for soft sources doesn't look the same when it lands on the subject. A real LX person will be able to think about the look, which is an art rather than illumination, which is a craft. If you don't have the skills, that's fine - just hire somebody who does!
Click to expand...


I actually agree with you. The only problem is that I probably don't have the money to pay good sound and light guys. And by good I mean, techs that can do a much better job than me. Everybody in this film is working pro-bono with the hope that the movie is great and a big distributor might buy it once it's finished. Unfortunately, this is the way it's done in a country with no movie industry...

So, yeah, I do agree with you. I wish I could have experienced and knowledgeable techs, especially when it comes to lighting and sound. I will try to find guys that might do it in the same way the rest of the movie crew agreed to do, but if I can't find anyone, I will have to get all the gear myself.

Thanks
 
How true are your words! My country is the same. What's more, in this economic state its even harder to convince people and I mean professional people like sound guys or lighting, to work on a no-budget movie for nothing.... And the problem with renting gear, then paying for professionals who knows their craft.... you put your feet on this road and there's no going back.. it won't be a "no-budget" movie any more...

So... I agree that getting good sound is an artform itself, but I don't want to win an Oscar for sound, I just want to have a reasonable quality, that's it. For that buying a recorder+ mic should be enough (however mixing it later in post is another question... some pro help would be great there, but by that time the film is shot so you know how your balance sheet looks like :).

Lighting is the same, however I have two really good lamps from my photography background, so no expense on that side :)

And anyway... Do you and everybody out there really think that getting a good sound guy or DP or anybody with a zero budget film you're going to cheat anybody out there to believe it was an expensive movie? Bullshit... The only thing really matters is your talent and the SCRIPT! That's it. Everything else is secondary in the big scheme of things. Following, El Mariachi had a shitty picture quality with questionable cinematographic quality (by professional terms), the sound was less then Ok, and at the end who cares? We have a Robert Rodriguez and a Chris Nolan. That's what matters.
 
Actually, it's common knowledge that sound is more important than cinematography for the audience. If you need any further validation of that, see the recent Reddit AMA with a distributor who makes that point repeatedly. Good sound is a MUST - no negotiation. Good cinematography is highly advisable, but not as much of a must as sound is.

That said, I completely understand the no-budget crowd. I too have no money. I would like nothing more than to hire a pro sound person or three on my feature. I would dearly love to. I would put as much of my budget toward that as possible. Unfortunately, that would not be enough - not by a long shot. I simply don't have the money. So my choices are not to make the film at all, or go with other options. I am going with other options.

Regarding other options, here is what I am doing. My entire crew is going to be 3 people: myself, my wife and a dear friend. Everyone is going to have to have multiple roles. But I made a decision, wherein my wife is going to do the sound. She knows ZERO about sound. My solution is for her to educate herself on it. For now, I've got a few books, which she is reading. Next, we will experiment a bit with purchased equipment. Finally, I am going to spend a few hundred dollars to hire a professional sound person to train my wife as best they can. I will only be able to afford a few days, but I figure that will be invaluable. And she'll keep training and experimenting. So while doing pre-pro for a few months, this time will be used by my wife to get as good as she can with sound. I will also go over my script as carefully as possible and over the locations to minimize sound difficulties.

So that's my solution. In a crew of 3 people (including myself), I will have one person dedicated to sound. I cannot afford a pro, but this is the next best thing I have figured out. During shooting, that's all she'll do - sound - but before and after shooting she'll be doing catering/food and whatever else. She'll be worked to the bone, but so will all of us.
 
Your words ring true!

The problem, as I mentioned in my earlier post, with hiring is that if you start it there's no going back... From 400USD I can buy a Tascam Dr-05+Rode Videomic Pro and I can handle the audio side. But this 400USD won't be enough to hire a sound guy to do that for the entire shoot. Paying that much money to a single person is nonsense in a no budget film I think. With a zero budget everything above 0 USD costs a fortune. I can't pay for people so on one side I will do most of the things with the help of 2-3 friends in the audio, catering, helping field.
 
Yes, that's the real issue for me. I think the concept of independent filmmaking in the USA (or any other country with good movie industry) is diferent from other countries. In the USA it just means that the movie was produced outside the major studios, while in my country it just means it's a movie done without someone with money producing it. It means I'm producing my own movie and I can't afford to pay anyone. I've done quite a few movies this way, and I've managed to win monetary awards in the past and that's how I pay the people that worked with me.

If I can get a sound guy, a light guy, a DP that works this way for me, that'd be perfect. But I'm not sure I can get those guys, because they're usually busy working for tv companies. So the tradicional way that I found that works for me and my group is buying the essential stuff, reading as much I can about it and practice, practice, practice. :)
 
I found the Cineroid EVFs....

The EVF-4C is reasonable priced, 1-200 usd cheaper than the Marshall LCD50 monitor here in Europe. What about this solution for the D7000 camera?
 
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