My very first one, and all set to go!!! I mean...almost...

D

diogoueno

Member
I'm gonna go this September for my first project ever!! It's a feature documentary that's gonna be shot in South America...

I still have so many technical questions and quite a few equipments to buy...Money, of course, is running short...I have bought a DVX100A and a MacBook Pro with FCP Studio already...

My begginner question is...Is there THAT MUCH of a difference in using a good shotgun mic for a formal one-on-one interview, instead of using an average (under $800) wireless mic????? I mean, is it clearly heard the difference of quality between one another? If yes, how poorly will the shotgun mic sound??

Another thing...I haven't bought any lenses or filters...I'm expected to be doing a lot of shooting and a lot of that in extremely poor conditions (very hot/dry=lots of dust)...is there any protection filter I need?
I'm definitely expecting theatrical release (I mean, that's what i've been dreaming about lol...) how much will I miss a telephoto or wide-angle lens?
How good will my camera by itself produce reasonably good images if screened on a widescreen theater?

Is there any fairly good and inexpensive tripod I could find?

Any other technical tip, whatsoever? (Lol, I know I sound ridiculous, but I just can't help the anxiety that's making me lose nites of sleep...)

And thank you very much for your comments...
 
About a year ago I was in the same boat - about to start filming.

Here's what I learned (much of which is reflected on this board somewhere if you look):

(keep in mind these are my own opinions...I'm sure others may have better advice)

- If you are doing interviews, get a lav mic. I tried doing them with a shotgun mic at first, but all the extra background noise will drive you crazy. You can use both, but the lav (wired or wireless) will give you the cleanest audio for an interview.

- 16x9 vs 4x3 was a decision we made based on budget (whether to get the anamorphic adapter or not). I personally in hindsight would have purchased one, although at the time it was too expensive for me. I say this because widescreen is much more desireable for a theatrical release. We may ultimately crop in for 16x9. I think it was a little out of fear of the learning curve of the anamorphic that also made us choose not to get it. If you are confident in your ability to learn things, don't be afraid.

- The clarity of your picture will have so much to do with your lighting. This is among the most difficult to learn if you are new to it -- the difference between footage that is properly lit and poorly lit is night and day. Proper lighting yields must crisper, more defined video. If you can afford it, get a DV Litepanel, it will be very versatile when shooting on the run -- it will allow you to shoot in many difficult lighting situations.

- Use your Zebra function - you can have too much light, especially outdoors. Too much light will mean video blowouts, which are not very acceptable for film.

You might find an inexpensive tripod that has a nice fluid head at www.amvona.com...

Good luck!
 
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wow...

wow...

I felt inspired by your trailer!

So did u shoot 4:3 and resized it through editing?

If yes, do u expect major differences regarding quality of the image?


Thanks and good luck with the film...
 
Thanks - yep, we shot everything 4:3 at 24p.

I cropped it to widescreen, which doesn't hurt quality at all when just cropping in and downsizing from 720x480, but if you intend to go to 16x9 for a film out, you WILL lose some quality since you have to crop from the top and bottom and then upsize the image to meet film resolution...to maximize your quality for a widescreen final output you should get an Anamorphic adapter for your DVX.
 
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