Looking to make my first short film/documentary -- Need some advice

[lsusobeast]

I need a little photography advice. I have around a year of photography experience (with a Canon EOS 50D) under my belt, but hardly any film experience. This will be my first "go" at a short film/documentary (not sure how to classify it).

I started a Kickstarter project for the film, which can be found here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/955068860/experiencing-amatongas That will give a little background information on the film/trip.

My uncle is a professional photographer so he has pointed me in a couple solid directions.

Basically I need advice in 3 areas:

1. Equipment to buy
2. Planning out the film/shots
3. Executing the shots

As far as the film goes, I want to merge my group's efforts with a short story about the town.

I was thinking about mixing in some short interviews, time lapses of our projects and landscape shots of the village. I was also thinking of getting a couple GoPros and attaching it to some of our volunteers to get a different style shot. There are a lot of cool scenes I could work with there.

I have an entire notebook filled of ideas about what I want to do, but am having a hard time moving in the right direction. If anybody has any experience and advice they are willing to lend please help!

Oh and if this is illegal to be posted I'll take it down -- I don't know the rules yet. Just to be clear: I am not asking for donations but instead quality advice.​

 

[Rainer]

am having a hard time moving in the right direction
​

No-one? Most of us who saw this would just have shaken our heads and moved on. But I'll bite. But it's doable. It's been done before. And it looks like it could be worthy. First, like anyone who's been before will tell you, it's not the camera that makes the film. My recommendation: First, do some basic research in making a documentary: DVX film school is good but to focus more on docs use Google, YouTube, your library, Amazon. Then borrow a video camera and tripod, any camera and make a five minute "easily" doable documentary: Something like " A day in the life of my pet". Edit it on iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Post it on Vimeo. Then get back to us.

 

[woodcarver]

Checked out your Kickstarter description. Sounds like there will be a lot of interesting things to film--but other than that, I didn't see much about why the movie should be made or what it will be about. I understand the subject of the film--but what do you think the film will be saying? What you think you want to "say" or explore with the film should dictate the style of the film (style is how you "speak" in movies) and style dictates what equipment is necessary.

 

[custerc]

Read these things!
OK, so, my first recommendation is to do some serious reading. If you've got the time, pick up Directing the Documentary, which is about as thorough an introduction to the form as you could possibly get, and The Shut up and Shoot Guide to Documentary (or something like that, I forget the exact title, I lent my copy to a friend and am too lazy to google it).

Barring that, you can check out this website, which is a guide I've created on how to make a low budget documentary. It's based on what I've learned from those two books as well as other books and my own experiences working on my first feature length doc and some shorter doc projects before that. As you can see, it's still a work in progress; I haven't finished my film so parts of it aren't done yet, but I think what's there should be useful to you.

Story
But, to simplify it down even further, the most basic thing -- before you even think about anything else -- is to figure out what your story is. What is the conflict that will drive your film, and who are the characters? What are they trying to accomplish? These questions are not just for narrative film, and your kickstarter doesn't really answer them. But the pieces are there. For example, to me it sounds like you could go in several directions:

• Make a film about your personal experience. You and your group are the main characters, and the primary conflict might be your struggle to understand and to help people from another culture.
• Make a film about fixing the infirmary. In this, your group and locals might share the spotlight as together you work to solve a problem -- remodeling the infirmary.
• Make a film about the locals and the town. In this, you would be focused on a few local characters and documenting their lives and the struggles they face, without much focus on your group or intentions.

Any of these could work, as could other approaches. But it's something you need to think about.

Look
How do you want the film to look/sound? This will influence what gear you purchase, so you need to think about it beforehand. Watch some different documentaries and see what styles you like. Visually, do you prefer "Gasland" or "The Thin Blue Line"? Do you want to shoot with lighting or use more natural light? Etc. etc.

Raising Money
It looks like you're going to meet your kickstarter goal anyway, but for future reference, I'd say you want to have more of this planned out before you try to raise money, so people have some idea what their money is going to. You also could stand to improve your pitch video a little...I like the drawings but -- no offense -- you sound like a robot in your narration. Just pretend you're talking to a friend and explain the project naturally. Generally speaking, people are more likely to donate if they see that you're passionate about the subject. For example, you can check out my old Kickstarter video, or the fundraising trailer here we used for a more recent round of fundraising. There's a lot I'd do differently if I had to do them over again now, but both campaigns were successful and we raised more than we were asking for, in part because I think people like the human connection -- they want to SEE who their money is going to and feel that those people are passionate about their project. (In that sense, I think our first pitch video was actually better than the second one).

Gear
Like I said, this is going to be informed by your choices about visual style. But you can check out this documentary gear guide I made for some help with what's out there. It's a bit outdated now -- many of these cameras now have successors that are even better -- but it still should be of some help. Assuming you're on a pretty low budget, though, it's hard to beat the bang-for-buck ratio of the Panasonic GH2, and with some hacks you can get amazing images out of that. I've got a Canon 60D and as far as Canon's APS-C cameras go, I think it's the best one for video right now.

Keep in mind that you'e got lots of other stuff to budget for in addition to a camera body: lenses (probably), a mic of some kind, cables, memory cards, batteries, bags, etc. That stuff adds up, so plan accordingly.

Hope this helps. When in doubt, read!

 

[steve4505]

Read these things!
Barring that, you can check out this website, which is a guide I've created on how to make a low budget documentary. It's based on what I've learned from those two books as well as other books and my own experiences working on my first feature length doc and some shorter doc projects before that. As you can see, it's still a work in progress; I haven't finished my film so parts of it aren't done yet, but I think what's there should be useful to you.

Gear
Like I said, this is going to be informed by your choices about visual style. But you can check out this documentary gear guide I made for some help with what's out there. It's a bit outdated now -- many of these cameras now have successors that are even better -- but it still should be of some help. Assuming you're on a pretty low budget, though, it's hard to beat the bang-for-buck ratio of the Panasonic GH2, and with some hacks you can get amazing images out of that. I've got a Canon 60D and as far as Canon's APS-C cameras go, I think it's the best one for video right now.

Keep in mind that you'e got lots of other stuff to budget for in addition to a camera body: lenses (probably), a mic of some kind, cables, memory cards, batteries, bags, etc. That stuff adds up, so plan accordingly.

Hope this helps. When in doubt, read!

Both of your resources are also helpful to me too as a response to my recent post. Its interesting how the line between video and DSLR's has been blurred little more by the Black Magic Cinematic Camera and the relatively new lens attachment that looks like the normal zoom grip. Your comment about the ND filters is a good one, did I see where there is one that is variable where you just spin it around?

You might want to add to the lens cleaning gear a can of air. I saw that on another thread and it makes a lot of sense.

 

[stevedocmaker]

Sounds like a wonderful project. I'm sure you'll get a lot out of the experience regardless of how the film turns out.

All of the above is good advice. My $.02 - absolutely know what you are trying to say and whom you are hoping to say it to before you start shooting. Then think about how you want to say it. $100,000 dollars worth of gear won't help a lick if you don't have these issues ironed out. This can take weeks or months to work through, even for a short film. And try to find other films that have been made on your subject and watch them all.

As for gear, buy the easiest camera to use you can find. If you're comfortable with the DSLR, that's fine, but in the field an amateur with an inexpensive digital video camera can get the shot faster and more reliably than a pro with a dslr almost every time. Whatever you use, practice shooting in similar situations as much as you can before you go. Spend as much as you can on microphones, crappy sound will ruin the film, crappy picture won't. When you're there try to enlist someone to be your sound man, train him (or her) on how to get a shotgun mic on your subject without introducing noise and without getting into the shot. If you can bring a lightweight boom, all the better, but it's not a necessity.

Lastly, I came from a still background, and the first thing I had to learn was to hold the shot for twice as long as I thought I needed it. For some reason when your looking through the evf, time slows down.

Good Luck!

 

[steve4505]

Lastly, I came from a still background, and the first thing I had to learn was to hold the shot for twice as long as I thought I needed it. For some reason when your looking through the evf, time slows down.

Good Luck!

Funny, but it makes complete sense.

 

[custerc]

Lastly, I came from a still background, and the first thing I had to learn was to hold the shot for twice as long as I thought I needed it. For some reason when your looking through the evf, time slows down.

So so so so sooooo true. My advice: don't trust your own judgement. Look at the counter on the evf/screen (assuming you've got one) and give it at least 15 seconds for basically any shot. Some much longer than that. Having 1:00 of a static shot and cutting 45 seconds of it is way better than having 7 seconds of it and learning in the edit you really needed 13.

This can be a real difficulty especially when making a doc from a director's point of view while also operating the camera. Your mind starts thinking about what's next, and then your body does whatever's next...don't trust your brain. Look at the timecode or buy a watch.