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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Let me be clear...I had nothing to do with this film! (I wish I had...) My scriptwriting teacher wanted us to watch a short posted on YouTube called Spider. (Search on Spider short film. Otherwise, lots of Spiderman stuff comes up). The premise is that a pretty woman is very, very angry...

My wife and I attended a program of the Oscar-nominated live action and animated shorts. These films are the top of the heap, obviously, and the indie filmmaker can learn a lot about short films by watching these. Every one of them was good. It's too bad that even these films don't get the...

I do a fair amount of interviewing on camera. 0ne problem I face is that I use the flip-out LCD screen to check everything is going well. That means the interviewee is staring at the camera, since he is looking at me. I don't like that. I like the interview shots where the subject is looking...

Not a joke. For a project I'm doing, I want to shoot some video of nesting crows at night. There are some simply fantastic crow roosts at night in downtown Sacramento. I can probably get some still shots of the crows by (1) long exposure on a tripod, or (2) using some sort of illumination...

My venerable Canon GL-2 is not working well, and Canon wants $1,000 to fix it. I've decided to upgrade rather than fix it, because they will only replace the main board, and I'll still have a used camcorder. My budget is about $3500. I'm thinking of switching to a tapeless format, but I want...

My venerable Canon GL2 died. The factory wants $1100 to fix it. Obviously, I'm not going to do that. So, I'm looking for a full-sized prosumer camcorder. Max budget for camera about $3000. No DSLR, please. I could go miniDV like the Canon, or using another storage medium. I shoot...

I plan on doing interviews as a one-man operation. These are veterans from WWII, Korea and Vietnam. I've found that in doing interviews using my GL2's on camera LCD that they tend to look at me, while I'm looking at the LCD. This makes an unnatural look as they are basically staring at the...

I am going to be shooting (via camcorder) birds in trees, in flight, and hunting for grub on the ground. I have exactly zero equipment (well, a lav mike or two...can't pin those on the birds...). I'm thinking that a parabolic dish with shotgun mike would be helpful. I need to isolate on birds...