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My sturdy Vanguard tripod (seventy bucks at Fry's) is great for my small camcorder (and my Nikon film camera...yes, I still love film), but I have acquired a Panasonic hvx200 and it weighs in at almost seven pounds, and too heavy for my cheap tripod. I have about $850 to spend. At this price...

Thanks, excellent ideas. I couldn't get additional takes since everyone was working at about 8:00 am, after a full night (starting at 2:00 am after the bar closed), and everyone was tired. The director just wanted to get things over with. What you mention is excellent advice and I think it's...

OK, I was pressed into service at the end of a shoot on one short, with a whole new cast coming in to use the bar as a location. This script (which I had never seen) featured a lot of back-and-forth dialog between the actors sitting at a bar. I operated the boom and the Zoom recorder. I had...

Sorry. Right you are. The PMD-660 has been 'replaced' by the 661, but the quality isn't upgraded much by my understanding. One of my directors really wanted to use the Marantz instead of the Zoom, but the sound guy had his preferences. I purchased the Marantz on the advice of several...

I purchased a Marantz PDM660 on e-bay for about $250. It records well and looks great. I like the sound better than the Zoom, although my friend who is a sound guy uses the Zoom exclusively and is happy with it, paired with a high quality mic.

Diffusion versus complete black out. The director and the DP both weren't happy with my suggestion of just closing the curtains or minibilnds. I'll ask them if heavy diffusion is acceptable. OTOH, I don't have cloth or whatever to give heavy diffusion, whereas I do have black plastic.

I helped on a film shoot in a bar (2am to 9am...I'm tired!). The DP used a large Chimera soft box to light the actors. I've read that soft lights are great for interviews as well as dramatic scenes. But I'm clueless about soft lights! I see them all over the page, price-wise. The Chimera...

black plastic super idea. I have used the 3 mill or 4 mil black plastic sheeting in construction. I probably have some laying around. That's even easier than the garbage bags. Thanks!

I use lav mics for most all of my interviews. Wired. They work great, they sound great, and they are easy to hook up. (Ask the interviewee to thread the cord up their shirt, unless you want to get a lawsuit from that female you 'grope'). You just have to monitor the sound so you can see that...

I'm going to be lighting a small room (home office) for a shoot in a couple of weeks. We go location scouting this week, but I've been given to understand the window in the room faces south or west, and it's an all-day shoot, so the light will vary too much to use. So...the director wants to...

No, what I want is a tube so I can carry my new carbon fiber boom pole. I'm going to give it a try. I've used ABS many, many times for waste lines in houses I work on. I think my idea will work very well. Maybe I'll wrap the pole in a blanket or towel to protect it. It'd be too much work to...

china balls I guess I could have looked harder on Google. I just didn't know what I was looking for. I do feel sorry for the exploited labor in these countries. But I will tell you, you have few if any options if you want to buy elsewhere. I looked at toasters recently for my mom. Every...

I've decided to move up from the converted painter's pole to a real boom pole. I've looked into boom poles, and decided it would be nice to have a case for one, like this one: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/496966-REG/Alfa_Case_10046BTLB_37_46_Lockable_BoomTube.html But, I can't see...

Thanks. However, still doesn't answer what a basic lighting kit should consist of. Tungsten? Fluorescent? LED? HMI? I see a lot of fluorescent lights on TV interviews. Softlights I suppose are good too. Maybe I should ask what people like and use the most. Or how they got started.

I like the ideas outlined here. Who offers standard set-ups for a shot list and the note pages as outlined above. Sorry to be so dense. I have a number of scripts, but that's as far as they've gotten. I'd like to actually make something some day.

I know it's kind of a dumb question, since lighting possibilities are almost endless, but I'm looking for a basic kit for 3 point lighting. I have a Lowel Tota light that is in good condition (currently has 750 watt bulb). I'm looking for gently used Lowel Omni lights, two of them. What I...

'Shrinkage' (employee theft) and shoplifting are figured into the price of items sold at retail. I guess since it's figured in, than it's alright to steal it? I don't care how low budget or how fantastic your film is, if you can't do it without committing a crime, make due with something else...

Zensteve: The short isn't about spiders. It's about boyfriend and girlfriend problems. Our hero, in the words of his girlfriend, 'always goes too far', which is a fair assessment of our friend.

Anyone watch the film?

I have several screenplays under my belt and both are about 20 minutes long. It takes that much time to set up the characters and the plot lines. I need to get from point A to point B and that just takes some time. A successful short film like Spider (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmbv8kevQ-E) has...