New Fillmmaker: Equipment to get

jackmarsh

jackmarsh

Hey guys. I recently just purchased my BMPCC. It came with a Canon 50mm 1.8 II Lens and a Fotodiox EOS-m4/3 adapter.

My question is, what are some other lenses I should invest in to get me started? I am still learning about what lenses are good to use for certain shots, but is there like 3 lenses that every filmmaker should posses (wide, medium, telephoto, exc.)? Please provide a link and model name to the lense, and take into consideration I am on a tight budget haha.

Also what other equipment will I need to get me filming with the best results? (mic, tripod, cage, viewfinder, I dont know please enlighten me...)

Thanks!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
SkyCopeland said:
That's garbage and the result will be garbage :D

----------

Seriously, you live in ATLANTA?

You know you live in the best place to be into this industry, right? There are TONS of productions going on right now in your city.

Don't buy gear (especially cheap gear), go look to get on some jobs. I'd say grip but looking at the lighting kit you asked about in your other thread... I think you'd get fired... Ummmm get some PA jobs. Do a bunch of PA jobs, there are ton in Atlanta.

When you're not working, practice with your camera, don't worry about making anything presentable.

Eventually the PA jobs will build up your network, perhaps you'll pick up enough to get onto the lowest rungs of G&E or even Camera Department of some jobs. In those two departments you'll make the most important connections.

You'll want to make friends on all these jobs in all of the departments. Specifically you'll want to make friends of Gaffers, Key Grips, Sound Mixers, Boom Ops, ACs, and if you could, damn an AD would be nice to be friends with.

(There are many other jobs you could use as friends, such as a Production Designer, but unless you do PA into Art Department, you won't spend much time with them.)

THEN once you have a network, you can call upon your network to work on your production.

You have a camera, you can bring the camera gear (yes, use the money from these jobs to get more camera gear).

The key grip and gaffer will bring lighting equipment (or they'll charge you a rental fee to get some from a rental house, which is what I'd do).

The Sound Mixer will most definitely have his own gear. (He may still charge a fee to have him use his own gear, it's a respect thing, he's worth the money)

---------

Do this and you're filmmaking. In the long run your final product will most likely be better than you having bought the indie level gear kits and trying to learn it all yourself.
Click to expand...

True... I do need to take advantage of that. I'm a high school junior right now, so I want to try and figure it all out myself at this point. But I do definitely need to get on some sets, and see how things are run and what not. I'm going to film school after next year.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jackmarsh said:
True... I do need to take advantage of that. I'm a high school junior right now, so I want to try and figure it all out myself at this point. But I do definitely need to get on some sets, and see how things are run and what not. I'm going to film school after next year.
Click to expand...

That completely changes my post haha... Yea don't try to get any PA jobs yet. Wait until after you graduate. Although perhaps during the summer you could see about a Production Office receptionist internship or something along those lines.

Also I have to put this out there... since you said film school... Do not attend NYFA or Full Sail University. ^_^
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I mean I wouldn't be on here if I didn't want to learn from the mistakes of others... But you took what I was saying out of context. I am a junior in high school, so I what I was trying to say was I wanted to experiment and figure out "some" on my own. Not everything. Of course I want to learn from others mistakes, and improve myself as a filmmaker.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
sfoster said:
Festivals have much higher audio expectations than youtube.
Click to expand...

SkyCopeland said:
That completely changes my post haha... Yea don't try to get any PA jobs yet. Wait until after you graduate. Although perhaps during the summer you could see about a Production Office receptionist internship or something along those lines.

Also I have to put this out there... since you said film school... Do not attend NYFA or Full Sail University. ^_^
Click to expand...

:lol: alrighty.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
No digital recorder provides good sound with the on-board microphones. You need a separate microphone to plug into it, and that recorder saves the audio to an SD card for you.

You can start out with something like that for practice and then buy a microphone for it later.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sfoster said:
No digital recorder provides good sound with the on-board microphones. You need a separate microphone to plug into it, and that recorder saves the audio to an SD card for you.

You can start out with something like that for practice and then buy a microphone for it later.
Click to expand...

Just curious, What type of mic would I need then for later? I want something that is concealable or doesn't get in the way of the scenes I am shooting.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jackmarsh said:
Just curious, What type of mic would I need then for later? I want something that is concealable or doesn't get in the way of the scenes I am shooting.
Click to expand...

The highest quality audio comes from microphones on the end of a boom pole.

53_blimp_pole%2060cm.jpg


It's possible to get good audio from concealable mics, but you'd need a different mic for each person. They're called lavalieres and then you need a wireless transmitter & receiver to pump that audio signal to your recorder.

They used lavs exclusively for the documentary I was in.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1078603/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top