I have a cop who is willing to let me shoot a documentary with him on duty..

S

sonofsam

He has already gotten permission from his supervisors...

my budget is 5000 to do this, just want to make a documentary on policing in vancouver,bc. Just need to know who i'll need to hire....

When you watch cops on TV, it seems they only have 1 cameraman and no other crew.... Who will i need to hire to be on set while shooting? I want it to be the exact same quality as the COPS show.... BAD BOYS BAD BOYSSSSS haha..

Do i need a sound guy on set too?

most stuff will be shot at night, and a few things would be shot indoors in a police briefing room etc...

any tips would be greatly appreciated
 
I'd get a good DOP/Camerman and an Audio/Boom guy. Plus yourself with a handicam or something while you direct. One guy/girl takes care of the video, the other takes care of the audio, so you can just focus on how you'll draw out your story from the cop's footage, maybe taking some second angles during eventful moments so that you don't miss covering something good.
 
I want to film it exactly how COPS is filmed.... and the same quality.. does that show also have a sound guy following the camera guy?
 
Maybe, or maybe they have lavalier mics on the cops and really good camera mounted mics.
If you want it to look like COPS, you need to remember 3 things:
a) get the shittiest shots ever like you're a drunken journalistic cameraman
b) make sure some random drunk hooker ho-bag falls down and you have to blur out he panty-less mess as the cops try and shove her in the back of the car
c) Film the cops talking about "the job" while they drive.... to the local donut emporium...

That's how I'd do it, lol.
 
This is vancouver,bc... i'm sure there will be no shortage of drunken ho-bag junkies falling everywhere haha

Now i have to work on the screenwriting... i have no idea how to start writing the basic outline for something like following a cop around while he deals with day to day policing
 
I'm beginning to wonder if this is even possible with a 5000 budget...

Luckily my cameraguy/dop has a lot of experience, and also knows how to edit and a jack of all trades... he will be able to shoot the entire documentary , edit it, put it onto a dvd and program the menus and make trailers etc... so i can pay him probably around 3000 for the whole 4-5 day shooting project and the work afterwards to put it onto dvd... since i can shoot it around his free time and on his schedule...

how much does a sound mixer cost roughly, for a days worth of shooting? and is he required to have the same quality as the show "cops" ? or is a mic on the cops shirt and a good quality camera mounted mic enough?
 
sonofsam said:
I'm beginning to wonder if this is even possible with a 5000 budget...

Luckily my cameraguy/dop has a lot of experience, and also knows how to edit and a jack of all trades... he will be able to shoot the entire documentary , edit it, put it onto a dvd and program the menus and make trailers etc... so i can pay him probably around 3000 for the whole 4-5 day shooting project and the work afterwards to put it onto dvd... since i can shoot it around his free time and on his schedule...

how much does a sound mixer cost roughly, for a days worth of shooting? and is he required to have the same quality as the show "cops" ? or is a mic on the cops shirt and a good quality camera mounted mic enough?
Click to expand...
A wireless lav and a decent camera mounted shotgun mic would probably be just fine for what you're planing on doing
 
If you can, I would honestly think about including footage of him off-duty as well. A really well-rounded look at this guy could really give it something to make it stand out.

I'm probably just stating the dumbass obvious here, but I figured it couldn't hurt to say it anyway.
 
No ideas are bad ideas... I thank you all for your input :).. I'm sure you guys are going to be a great help during this process...

I'm on schedule to shoot this within 2 months..

Doing something like this has been a dream of mine for a long time...

I have the 5k set aside for the documentary budget... all i need now is to make sure i have enough to be for the unexpected expenses (i budget 2k for that) and enough to live off of for 2 months(rent,hydro,car payments) etc... so i should be ready to start filming within 2 months..

I'm going balls to the wall with this one... i either fail miserably or make something really awesome... i don't mind going all out though, since i'm only 22 i dont have to worry about taking risks because of having children or a family to support... now or never! :)
 
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