camera-gear Best Cheapest Found Footage production Camera?
- Thread starter xaniac
- Start date
Depends on what you want. You can buy a hi8 camera for between 10,- and 120,-. I boucht a Panasonic G6 for 120,- The G7 and GH4 goes for around 300,- So my answer would be....depends on what you want to make...... Do you know what you want to make?
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A....good quality...cheap...camera...to shoot...a found footage...film
Thank you for your suggestion, yes as I have mentioned, it's a found footage film (such as The Blair Witch Project), so I'm basically looking for the cheapest handheld camera (or a phone camera) that provides the minimum specifications Netflix approves (4K UHD sensor) with night vision.
Yes, yes you mention the found footage film idea.....But what is the footage we find? In the first found footage movie Cannibal Holocaust a camera crew films with 16mm in the Jungle. The blair witch was shot on 16mm and Hi8. SEARCHING was shot inside of the computer browser. Al of them use the found footage inside of logic the story. So...what story or narrative will you tel that the camera makes sense? You want 4K with night vision. The PANASONIC HC-VX1EG 4K can do that....
Ah, I haven't settled on an idea or a script yet, just asking about gears
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I was a little tipsy and that made no sense.
Fetus is correct about the cameras. Anything will work. Most people trying to do this buy a decent camera, and then degrade the footage in post, allowing for better low light performance etc. Most of your work in something like this is sound design, and you can get some impact if you have a good script and a good sound designer. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work even then.
Here is the part no one seems to understand about the Blair Witch project and it's success.
1. They spent over 25 million dollars on the film. $35,000 on the actual film, and $25,000,000 on viral marketing, a one time thing where a clever trick was used to get results similar to a $75,000,000 marketing campaign for a normal film. Adjusted for inflation, that would be 42 million dollars in today's money.
2. They were the first found footage film with real marketing, and actually tricked the audience into believing that it was real footage, something you can't accomplish now
3. They did this at a time when the web was much different (199
, and it was far easier to trick people with a small scale hoax
4. Basically everyone in the indie film world tried to repeat this formula, except no one bothered to do any research, and there have been about 3000 failed found footage films per year for 20 years now. It's the most misunderstood story in the history of film. To this day I get indie filmmakers coming up to me and saying "you can make a movie for 20 grand and make 250 million dollars" It has literally never happened even once in history.
Cannibal Holocaust was perhaps the grandfather of all these films, and made small splash in it's day, it's actually a much better horror film than Blair Witch, but did not have the financial support, and earned much of it's success as an underground cult film after being banned in many countries on suspicion of being a snuff film.
Paranormal activity, and it's much better cousin REC, were some of the only successful clones released after Blair Witch, both with heavy marketing funded by large companies. They broadcast the shooting cost, which is very low, and downplay the marketing cost, since this makes for an interesting and popular story, even though it is completely false. To my knowledge no person without the backing of a large corporation has successfully marketed a found footage movie since February 1980. If you go to film marketing expose events, you will find, to this very day, literally thousands of unsold Blair witch clones per year, a market driven directly by the misunderstanding of what actually happened.
Here is an article detailing the actual story. When the studios approached the filmmakers, it was sort of a one of a kind film. Today there are literally tens of thousands of found footage films out there, and few have been purchased by a major studio since paranormal activity. On the rare occasion a found footage film is released these days, studios generally produce then in house, to reduce unwanted legal complications, such as paying out even 1% of profits to an actual creative artist. Even in the case of the Blair Witch project, the single most successful indie film in history, the director of the film was paid a reported 1.1 million dollars out of a net 250 million, coming in at around 0.4 % to the creator, and 99.6% going to wealthy people who never created anything.
www.denofgeek.com
If you want to make a found footage movie, go ahead and have fun doing it. Just don't expect great financial results. I just publish this as a warning, to help correct the record, and so people don't get their hopes up trying to replicate a story (about no budget films that made it big) that never actually happened.
As successful as Blair Witch was financially, it was even more successful at creating an urban legend, one about cheap indie movies raking in huge profits. It basically doesn't happen.
Anyone is free to correct me if you can evidence that any such thing happens on any type of repeatable (non fluke) basis.
Here is the part no one seems to understand about the Blair Witch project and it's success.
1. They spent over 25 million dollars on the film. $35,000 on the actual film, and $25,000,000 on viral marketing, a one time thing where a clever trick was used to get results similar to a $75,000,000 marketing campaign for a normal film. Adjusted for inflation, that would be 42 million dollars in today's money.
2. They were the first found footage film with real marketing, and actually tricked the audience into believing that it was real footage, something you can't accomplish now
3. They did this at a time when the web was much different (199
, and it was far easier to trick people with a small scale hoax4. Basically everyone in the indie film world tried to repeat this formula, except no one bothered to do any research, and there have been about 3000 failed found footage films per year for 20 years now. It's the most misunderstood story in the history of film. To this day I get indie filmmakers coming up to me and saying "you can make a movie for 20 grand and make 250 million dollars" It has literally never happened even once in history.
Cannibal Holocaust was perhaps the grandfather of all these films, and made small splash in it's day, it's actually a much better horror film than Blair Witch, but did not have the financial support, and earned much of it's success as an underground cult film after being banned in many countries on suspicion of being a snuff film.
Paranormal activity, and it's much better cousin REC, were some of the only successful clones released after Blair Witch, both with heavy marketing funded by large companies. They broadcast the shooting cost, which is very low, and downplay the marketing cost, since this makes for an interesting and popular story, even though it is completely false. To my knowledge no person without the backing of a large corporation has successfully marketed a found footage movie since February 1980. If you go to film marketing expose events, you will find, to this very day, literally thousands of unsold Blair witch clones per year, a market driven directly by the misunderstanding of what actually happened.
Here is an article detailing the actual story. When the studios approached the filmmakers, it was sort of a one of a kind film. Today there are literally tens of thousands of found footage films out there, and few have been purchased by a major studio since paranormal activity. On the rare occasion a found footage film is released these days, studios generally produce then in house, to reduce unwanted legal complications, such as paying out even 1% of profits to an actual creative artist. Even in the case of the Blair Witch project, the single most successful indie film in history, the director of the film was paid a reported 1.1 million dollars out of a net 250 million, coming in at around 0.4 % to the creator, and 99.6% going to wealthy people who never created anything.
Blair Witch and the Rise of Viral Movie Marketing
We take a look back at the way the web was used to make The Blair Witch Project a hit, and the era of viral film marketing it began...
www.denofgeek.com
If you want to make a found footage movie, go ahead and have fun doing it. Just don't expect great financial results. I just publish this as a warning, to help correct the record, and so people don't get their hopes up trying to replicate a story (about no budget films that made it big) that never actually happened.
As successful as Blair Witch was financially, it was even more successful at creating an urban legend, one about cheap indie movies raking in huge profits. It basically doesn't happen.
Anyone is free to correct me if you can evidence that any such thing happens on any type of repeatable (non fluke) basis.
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Rec as you mention above had some good effects and kept me in suspense during the entire movie SEARCHING makes a good story.
You need a good story..... then worry about gears.....
You need a good story..... then worry about gears.....
True true, I only referenced it to give an idea about what I wanted to make (as a genre), I thought Feutus didn't get me, which comes down at the end of the day to (a dude holding a camera experiencing some shit), not really trying to replicate any Blair witch success, was just the first that came in mind, and indeed that was my plan to downgrade in post-production, just wanted to get an idea about the cameras out there available on a low budget, then build the idea around it when I'm inspired.Fetus is correct about the cameras. Anything will work. Most people trying to do this buy a decent camera, and then degrade the footage in post, allowing for better low light performance etc. Most of your work in something like this is sound design, and you can get some impact if you have a good script and a good sound designer. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work even then.
Here is the part no one seems to understand about the Blair Witch project and it's success.
1. They spent over 25 million dollars on the film. $35,000 on the actual film, and $25,000,000 on viral marketing, a one time thing where a clever trick was used to get results similar to a $75,000,000 marketing campaign for a normal film. Adjusted for inflation, that would be 42 million dollars in today's money.
2. They were the first found footage film with real marketing, and actually tricked the audience into believing that it was real footage, something you can't accomplish now
3. They did this at a time when the web was much different (199
4. Basically everyone in the indie film world tried to repeat this formula, except no one bothered to do any research, and there have been about 3000 failed found footage films per year for 20 years now. It's the most misunderstood story in the history of film. To this day I get indie filmmakers coming up to me and saying "you can make a movie for 20 grand and make 250 million dollars" It has literally never happened even once in history.
Cannibal Holocaust was perhaps the grandfather of all these films, and made small splash in it's day, it's actually a much better horror film than Blair Witch, but did not have the financial support, and earned much of it's success as an underground cult film after being banned in many countries on suspicion of being a snuff film.
Paranormal activity, and it's much better cousin REC, were some of the only successful clones released after Blair Witch, both with heavy marketing funded by large companies. They broadcast the shooting cost, which is very low, and downplay the marketing cost, since this makes for an interesting and popular story, even though it is completely false. To my knowledge no person without the backing of a large corporation has successfully marketed a found footage movie since February 1980. If you go to film marketing expose events, you will find, to this very day, literally thousands of unsold Blair witch clones per year, a market driven directly by the misunderstanding of what actually happened.
Here is an article detailing the actual story. When the studios approached the filmmakers, it was sort of a one of a kind film. Today there are literally tens of thousands of found footage films out there, and few have been purchased by a major studio since paranormal activity. On the rare occasion a found footage film is released these days, studios generally produce then in house, to reduce unwanted legal complications, such as paying out even 1% of profits to an actual creative artist. Even in the case of the Blair Witch project, the single most successful indie film in history, the director of the film was paid a reported 1.1 million dollars out of a net 250 million, coming in at around 0.4 % to the creator, and 99.6% going to wealthy people who never created anything.
Blair Witch and the Rise of Viral Movie Marketing
We take a look back at the way the web was used to make The Blair Witch Project a hit, and the era of viral film marketing it began...
If you want to make a found footage movie, go ahead and have fun doing it. Just don't expect great financial results. I just publish this as a warning, to help correct the record, and so people don't get their hopes up trying to replicate a story (about no budget films that made it big) that never actually happened.
As successful as Blair Witch was financially, it was even more successful at creating an urban legend, one about cheap indie movies raking in huge profits. It basically doesn't happen.
Anyone is free to correct me if you can evidence that any such thing happens on any type of repeatable (non fluke) basis.
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I choose to worry about gears first, that's my conscious choice, I'm on a very tight/no budget and I don't have that luxury of worrying about gear later, it wouldn't make sense to have your arms tied up after you let your imagination loose building a concept that doesn't eventually fit your budget only to leave it or start editing it at the end compromising the story, hope this makes sense, appreciate your suggestions, The PANASONIC HC-VX1EG seems perfect.
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Well............its good to master your gear and begin to learn the technical aspects. There is great fun in learning and playing. I think the G7 and G80 are one of the cheapest 4K camera's that are decent in low light.
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