I've been given $18,000

From Reel to Deal is a great book. I'd also recommend the Hollywood Camerawork DVDs. Like the others, I'd suggest getting a cheaper camera to start with. I've got a Canon HV20 and love it. You can find them super cheap now (under $650), and shooting in a controlled environment, I can certainly get better looking footage than from the DVX. It is lacking in manual controls, although there are tricks for getting around some of it. I bought (all new) the HV20, a decent tripod, wide-angle lens, shotgun mic, and many other pieces, all for the price of a second-hand DVX. This would definitely be a good starter camera, but you may still want to get a DVX100b instead, to learn how to use the manual controls.
 
kgimedia said:
Short and sweet, I love it! This is the same thing many very experienced people have said. I also agree in hiring the right people, but most important is learn the craft.

SHOOT!SHOOT!SHOOT!SHOOT!


I went to a school ( I won't call it film school ) and aside from $60,000 in debt the one thing I got was 150 other people my age that all wanted to do the same thing. We read all the books, watched all the classics, and took all the tests. Most important was shooting for 2 years. Shooting every silly idea we could think of. I have been doing this craft for 12 years know and I still learn something new all the time.

I would even take all this one step farther, buy the cheapest miniDV with manual options and carry it with you always. $300 bucks can teach volumes and the limitations will force creativity. When your ready, and it might not take long, you already have a capture device or location playback deck.
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I agree with the concept of buying a good, but cheap, used mini DV camera and shoot stuff that interests you. Remember, film making is a collaborative effort. Find others who share your spirit and go film stuff, edit it, add some music and show it to people. You might find folks to help you on Craigs List.

I remember when I was a youth, my first photography professor told us to leave our big, expensive Nikon and Canon, e.g., 35mm still cameras at home and gave us each a Kodak Instamatic camera. He said learn composition, framing, lighting and choosing good, interesting subject matter first, then go use your complicated cameras after mastering the basics. Don't get hung up on gear until people are hiring you for thousands a day. Otherwise, you'll regret the purchase and you wasted your opportunity. Try to get others to give you money to do what you love. If you buy, figure that you'll have 12-18 months to pay off the camera in earnings before advances in technology make it obsolete and worth 30 cents on the dollar.
 
FWW, a year ago I got a $10,000 gift and spent it thusly:

HVX200 :)
UV filter, small P2 card, varizoom rocket controller,
a decent Manfrotto tripod
MacBook Pro
3 External Harddisks (backup backup backup)
Portable greenscreen
Pelican case for camera
Renter's insurance

I've been quite happy with this. I've been able to use cheap lights
or rent them. Same for sound. I get some fun footage
and can edit it and output it. Now I'm focusing on learning
and shooting and learning.

My Advice to You:

1 Put 2/3 of this money in an online savings account
(for example, www.emmigrantdirect.com) so you'll at least
earn interest while you're waiting to decide what to get.
Try to wait for a long time before spending it.

2 Donate a good-sized chunk of your money (say, $500) to
something like Doctors without Borders or the International
Red Cross or Amnesty International.

3 Learn. Shoot. Take classes. Read. Learning is cheap.
Get a Netflix account and start studying all kinds of amazing
work that has already been done. Try to find your own
vision. Take a class or two. Volunteer.

Remember that there are jillions of people out there making movies,
that you can spend $18K in a weekend and still not have enough,
and that the main thing that is going to make you a great filmaker
is free: knowledge.

Les
 
Wise !!!

Wise !!!

hunter richards said:
I would wait to spend any of it. Spend your time learning first. Work on your short film Idea, when you ready to shoot, go to a rental house and have them work out a package for you. That way you will have not only learned the ropes but you will also know where you want to spend your money (if you do).

Camera equipment decreciates really fast, you dont want to be the guy who blew $18Grand on gear and second guessed it a year later.
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Listen to these very wise words! This filmmaker and television producer agrees . . totally!!!
 
Hdv ?

Hdv ?

Matthew R. Rodwell said:
The rest is for an XHA1 package.
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I'm sorry to hear that you feel comfortable with the low end HDV MPEG format over pure AVI and MXF. I do hope you aren't frustrated in the end like all my friends who went the HDV route and then cried when they found how narrow the MPEG color correction band was because all the color artifacts were gone or how the motion blur ruined their projects :o( One can't even get half what he paid for his camera used. I'd hate to see another added to the "hype" list of the moneymakers.
 
$18,000 to spend enough?

$18,000 to spend enough?

vash said:
phil -wow thats alot of money into a camera and you still don't have what u want what do you use and what have shot? if you dont mind me asking...
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Phil Maker said:
Yeah, wait to spend. $18,000 doesn't go very far in camera gear. I have $30,000 wrapped up in mine and still don't have what I need (or want). You have a long road ahead of you, be patient and enjoy the process.
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On both these notes I will resound these. One good mic can cost you a grand and then you better have plans for mixing on the spot and again going cheap means cheap results. We have over $60,000 in our gear and we only have one HVX200 and two DVX100B's that were are selling to get another HVX200.

In filmmaking the camera is just a small part of the equation in gear let alone people.
 
TimurCivan said:
DO NOT BUY EQUPIMENT. Spend the money Funding your short. Rent a HPX500 w/ Pro35, Zeiss glass, a DP an AD and Production insurance. Get a small Grip truck, and hire a few PA's.
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How about this recommendation? And from none other than a guy that rents the gear.

DO BUY - DO SHOOT - DO MAKE Make all the mistakes. If you're not going to film school then learn for the least amout of cost.
  1. BUY the gear and learn how to use it by playing with it, experimenting, and making wrong moves and experiences on your own time.
  2. SHOOT your movie by following the books and materials that you learned from, getting people to work for FREE and just pleased to eat pizzas.
  3. MAKE your movie from your materials and ENTER it in some film festivals and get some reviews, critiques, and comments, from people "in the business."

Don't rent and then in the end have nothing to show for your efforts and learning experience other than a DVD, some footage, and a pile of receipts. BUYing gear means at the very end you have stuff that will sell if you decide to give it up. If on the other hand you decide to go on, you have the gear to work with. If you rented, you cannot shoot a movie with receipts.

I have nothing to gain by telling you this information other than satisfaction to help a "fellow" in the filmmaking business and I approve this message :o)

BTW, we shot our movie for less than $3,000 TOTAL and we had a lot of fun doing it and although we have yet to win an award or even get shown in any of the festivals we entered, we learned a lot and are prepared for the next "big" production. Our short was 30 minutes total including intro/outtro and my experience going in is I am both producer and director of two nationally televised tv shows but what I learned from this outtage was that the only similarities between the two media types is the camera and the procedure. Otherwise, it's a different game.
 
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I would suggest buying some equipment and not shooting your movie right away...just start with small things to learn the ways of light, camera shots, and the many other things. You can read all the books in the world...but until you setup a lighting scene with your hands and lights then point a camera at it...you really don't know a whole lot. Do you want to be experimenting with your movie or with small unimportant productions?
 
As someone who has spent both his first $20,000 and has just completed the second said amount, I feel authorized to drop in.

First, the money doesn't make you any better an artist or cameraman. The equipment is there to accomplish a task and to fullfill project demands. It sounds like this is being done for fun and not as the start of a business. If that is so, follow the previous advice and start small and spend your time learing and teaching yourself all that you can before you commit the big dollars. $18K will whet your appetite and that's about all.

I've been at this for three years and after spending an almost obscene amount of time working and learning, I still feel like I have just begun my career. I get better each day, practicing constantly with camera, editing, effects, and writing. The hardest part of all of it is developing the idea into something doable. And that's where all that practice comes in. Knowing what is possible and ways to obtain it on camera or in post and the magic that is created as you work is what makes it all worthwhile. I know I've done my job when I like to just watch something I've done over and over.

That excitement seems to infect everyone on this board, and is what keeps us coming back daily to read and answer questions and comment on situations like yours. If you really want it and are willing to give up your life to it, you might succeed. Like I said, I've been at it three years, and I'm bound and determined not to be one of those guys putting all his stuff on eBay.

With that said, get your camera and start shooting!
 
Save Your Cash

Save Your Cash

I would have to agree with almost all of these posts. You must learn the ways of filmmaking. IMO, it is very difficult to think in all the dimensions of a filmmaker without knowing the possibilities, opportunities, and abilities that exist in the world of filmmaking.

A wealthy friend of mine just spent half of his trust fund on a bunch of production equipment. While I drooled over his gear, his clients were busy dropping him.

I feel that, in many ways, there is merit to be built by being forced to scour eBay and various forums in search of the perfect deal, or ripping your hair out somewhere deep in Home Depot, wondering why the hose you bought for your pesticide sprayer doesn't fit, or why your camera keeps falling off the PVC fig rig you made.

Look around the internet. Find out how you can make a $14 glide cam work for you. Find out why people love the painter's lights. I guess the simplest way to put it:

Glide cam: $14 at your local hardware store
DIY Boom: $32
PVC Track and Dolly: $89
Finding out what you can really do: Priceless

That was corny, but I feel it makes a point.

The only piece of equipment I've bought new is my XH-A1. It's not an HVX, but it doesn't need to be. Most of the performance of the unit will lie with you.

After being at this for the two years or so I've been in, I can see how people who have spent $30K+ still feel they want more. I always do :)
 
buy an hvx with a macpro and fcs and insurance. that will run you right at 18,000. win an oscar and thank me later
 
I agree that you need to gain experience before spending all of your cash. However, if you want to make a film by all means buy some gear. Your first movie will most likely not be too great, but no one's first movie is a masterpiece. If I was in your position, I would probably do this:

Get a nice manual camera that's not too expensive like the xh-a1. This camera is very good and many people are making great shorts and documentarys with it.

Go and spend maybe 1-1.5 grand on a good mic(s), boom pole, windscreen, xlr cables.. ect.

Spend around 500 on a tripod.

You already have the editing software, so this would cost around $5000. The items I listed are "professional" gear, and with enough experience can yield fantastic, professional results. Make lots of movies with your friends/family until you are confident that you can produce a movie of the quality you are hoping for. Only then should you begin to add equipment. Again, many "pros" with lots of experience are using the xh-a1 and creating fantastic results, many experienced indi filmmakers would dream of having an xh-a1, not to mention as a first camera.

As an artist, think of it this way: How many years/paintings/drawings did it take you to get to where you are? Filmmaking is an art and it takes the same amount of practice in order to get good.

I know that its exciting that you have come across this sudden amount of cash, but why spend all of it when you can get amazing results and a sturdy yet mobile base to learn on for much less money? The above gear will easily keep up with your growth from novice to experienced and should serve you well far into the future.

Good luck and welcome to the world of filmmaking.
 
Isaac_Brody said:
Sit down, open up Microsoft Word, or Final Draft if you have it and start writing. There's no sense spending money on equipment when you don't have a script to shoot. That's like buying wood for a house without floor-plans.
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I can't agree more
 
It can be tough to market a 45 min film.
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Read next to impossible. It is an awkward time. You are better off with short 6-15 minute deals or feature length. Anything between 20 and 70 are very very hard to market well.
 
Vash, you have gotten plenty of great advice so far and I'll put my two cents in as well.

Siniarch your halarious. I just like your humor!

Vash invest you money at least for the moment and take advantage of hooking up with someone on this list that will let you go touch and get the feel of some equipment to see what its like to have it and the problems that come with owning gear. There are many benefits in owning your own gear and some pitfalls. So you should figure out what you want to do and while your figuring it out earn some interest with your money. Invest it.

You should decide if you want to go into business or just do this for fun. If its for fun and you have your schooling paid for then fine, have some fun and buy a little equipment, if not the money will be important for school at some point.

If you want to start a small business and go to school at the same time as many people have done then thats different. You should spend a little money on having someone thats qualified write a business plan and get a small business loan form the government and a bank. With this money tied up in a mutual fund that you can get your hands on you should qualify for a $60,000 loan from the SBA. This would give you a great start and like so many have stated rent at first until you know what you want to buy. The SBA has free mentors that can give you advice in just about all fields of business that you should take advantage of.

If you read as many posts as you can here on this site for a couple of months, you will become educated to real world problems and fixes to those issues. You'll also gain a wealth of knowledge that will guide you and point you in a good direction for making smart choises for buying gear.

HCWorks and the other tutorials will help you gain some working knowledge in this industry. Helping someone out in there studio where you can learn and use some equipment will be the best experience.

This list is very helpful and we have all learned a lot from each other and we all have different ideas on how to do things in business. We approach things from many different angles and circumstances of life. Some of us have spent this much on a card that goes into a computer to enhance our work flow and others will never spend this much on their hobby. You have to make a decision on where you want to go in this field but you don't have to spend this money today. You should invest it and make wise choices on how to invest it or how to use it to leverage a loan. What ever you decide I wish you good luck and hope you work hard at it and have lots of fun and enjoyment.

Good Luck!
 
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