Just how ultraportable and mobile can an indie filmmaker ket? Say I want to travel to a greek island or other exotic location and make a 10 minute short there, just what is the minimum in equipment needed to make a decent short? Maybe a small full HD hard drive hand held camcorder, carbon fiber boom pole and shotgun mic, XLR cable, tripod, Zoom H4 recorder, 5-in-1 collapsible reflector, portable mixer? And of course someone at the location to hold the boom pole and mixer, maybe someone to hold the reflector? Anything I am leaving out?
How portable can one get?
- Thread starter Joe999
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Lol it may sound too portable, but...
1 HD Camcorder
1 Microphone (the ones you connect directly to camcorder)
1 tripod
They results should look amazing despite the equipments.
1 HD Camcorder
1 Microphone (the ones you connect directly to camcorder)
1 tripod
They results should look amazing despite the equipments.
I was thinking, with wireless lavalier mics, I could even do away with the need for a boom pole and boom operator, just me and the camera and the actors, and just hook up the cables for the lavaliers? And of course a lightweight portable tripod. I hesitate to use an onboard mic I think it would not pick up audio for any dialog more than a few feet away?
Figure on having at least one other person, preferably two.
Even if you go wireless, you can't frame shots, quality control the images and meter the sound, all at the same time.
Your original kit sounds fine... the only thing I question is recording the sound to an external source. It's almost always preferable to get the sound into the camera.
So in terms of kit, I'd dump the field recorder and replace it with an XLR to Mini-jack adapter (Beachtek). [I'm assuming you're using external recording because you don't have XLR in on your camera)
Even if you go wireless, you can't frame shots, quality control the images and meter the sound, all at the same time.
Your original kit sounds fine... the only thing I question is recording the sound to an external source. It's almost always preferable to get the sound into the camera.
So in terms of kit, I'd dump the field recorder and replace it with an XLR to Mini-jack adapter (Beachtek). [I'm assuming you're using external recording because you don't have XLR in on your camera)
That sounds like good advice. My concern was the minijack audio input on a consumer camcorder, thus the notion of XLR audio input from a mic to an external audio recorder. But I like your suggestion of the adapter better. Is there much or any loss of audio quality by going the adapter route?
They're almost loss-less.
The audio on even cheap consumer models is excellent... and you then lose all of the syncing issues in post.
The only weak point in the chain is the actual mini-jack. I've never heard of anyone having problems, but it's not an ideal interface.
The only camcorders where there is a known issue, are the Sony VX2000, Sony VX9000 and early PD150's. That's not to do with the inputs, but because they have a pre-amp that is well known for adding hiss onto audio tracks. When you add in an external audio source on those units you have to do everything differently than you would on most... in fact, they are one of the few cameras where I'd insist on recording to an external recorder.
It might be worth your while, if you can find someone locally with a Beachtek adapter, who'd let you try out some tests. I think you'll be impressed.
The audio on even cheap consumer models is excellent... and you then lose all of the syncing issues in post.
The only weak point in the chain is the actual mini-jack. I've never heard of anyone having problems, but it's not an ideal interface.
The only camcorders where there is a known issue, are the Sony VX2000, Sony VX9000 and early PD150's. That's not to do with the inputs, but because they have a pre-amp that is well known for adding hiss onto audio tracks. When you add in an external audio source on those units you have to do everything differently than you would on most... in fact, they are one of the few cameras where I'd insist on recording to an external recorder.
It might be worth your while, if you can find someone locally with a Beachtek adapter, who'd let you try out some tests. I think you'll be impressed.
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Thank you. I will add a link here for anyone reading this thread, for the Beachtech XLR to mini jack adapaters that I just found googling:
http://dvcreators.net/beachtek-xlr-adapters
http://dvcreators.net/beachtek-xlr-adapters
Hey Joe, I have been overseas several times. Germany, Austria, England, and the middle east. Im sure you already know; but, a plane ticket is going to cost you well over $1,500 round trip. Alot of my buddies want to go overseas but do not realize the cost of getting there. Be in caution as you may spend more money just to get there than the actual short lol.
Yeah, with the US Dollar tanking against the Euro it gets real expensive. I will have to make any filming of a short at an exotic location part of a vacation. My brother has about 7 timeshares around the world so that can help loads, I can get some sweet deals using his timeshares, trade-able too for just about any resort or villa or hotel since he gets the seven star prime timeshares. But yeah my shorts might have to be in US dollar territory-- US mainland, Hawaii (Maui is awesome!), Virgin Islands, etc.
Ultraportable and Mobile Filmmaking
A couple of years ago I packed up my car with my Eclair ACL, my Bolex, my Canon GL1, Marantz flash audio recorder, the wireless mics and a simple light kit for a travel project I was working on. It was great. I felt like I could get anything I wanted. I shot mostly 16mm so I was encumbered by the film, the process of changing mags and keeping the cameras clean on the road. The day-hike through the Badlands was on video.
A few weeks ago I was working on a shoot that was truly mobile. We were in Cannes and most of our kit had gotten held up in "customs" for about a week. We had only we carried on the flight. We packed smart, so we had our HVXs and the wireless mics, a set of sticks, one on-camera light, and about 50 Nokia n95 devices.
While we had our 2 pro shooters on the HVXs doing interviews and A-roll, we armed about 30 young film students with n95s and sent them around the Palais du Festivals to capture the action. We trained them in under an hour on how to used the devices and conduct simple interviews with them. Since the cameras are so small, and there are no cables or other gear to worry about, anyone with a talent for making a nice shot can use one effectively.
We got hours and hours of useable footage that way. We were in Cannes to cover the Young Lions Film Competition, which had 26 teams competing from all over the world. Using the n95s with the 2 HVXs, we were able to get coverage of every team in under 48 hours.
If you curious to see the quality of the image or check out the competition, you can start here:
Made For TV: Capturing the Competition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzsmMl-zI9s
or just check out the YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/YoungLions2008
LT
A couple of years ago I packed up my car with my Eclair ACL, my Bolex, my Canon GL1, Marantz flash audio recorder, the wireless mics and a simple light kit for a travel project I was working on. It was great. I felt like I could get anything I wanted. I shot mostly 16mm so I was encumbered by the film, the process of changing mags and keeping the cameras clean on the road. The day-hike through the Badlands was on video.
A few weeks ago I was working on a shoot that was truly mobile. We were in Cannes and most of our kit had gotten held up in "customs" for about a week. We had only we carried on the flight. We packed smart, so we had our HVXs and the wireless mics, a set of sticks, one on-camera light, and about 50 Nokia n95 devices.
While we had our 2 pro shooters on the HVXs doing interviews and A-roll, we armed about 30 young film students with n95s and sent them around the Palais du Festivals to capture the action. We trained them in under an hour on how to used the devices and conduct simple interviews with them. Since the cameras are so small, and there are no cables or other gear to worry about, anyone with a talent for making a nice shot can use one effectively.
We got hours and hours of useable footage that way. We were in Cannes to cover the Young Lions Film Competition, which had 26 teams competing from all over the world. Using the n95s with the 2 HVXs, we were able to get coverage of every team in under 48 hours.
If you curious to see the quality of the image or check out the competition, you can start here:
Made For TV: Capturing the Competition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzsmMl-zI9s
or just check out the YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/YoungLions2008
LT