I bought a lot of stuff

[Guest Urine Sane]

Dual 2Ghz G5 Powermac

Two 17" CRT monitors

 

Panasonic AG-DVX100A camcorder

 

A sound kit featuring:

Audio Technica AT-897 Shotgun Mic w/Windscreen, Hard Case, and Mic Clip

Audio Technica AT-Pro 88W Wireless Microhone Kit

Audio Technica AT-8415 Boom Shock Mount

Behringer HPS-3000 Closed Back Headphones

Gitzo G-557 4 Section Boom Pole

Audio Technica CP8306 Transformer Balanced XLR Adapter Cable

Hoso Female XLR to Female XLR Adapter

Hosa 30" XLR Microphone Cable

Van Guard CG-13 Aluminum Case2: Duracell 9V Batteries

1: Duracell AA Battery

 

And a Lighting Kit with:

2: 1000 Watt Broad Lights

2: 32 x 32 Colapsible Soft Boxes with Cases

1: 600 Watt Dual Bulb Broad Light w/ 4-Way Barndoors

3: 7' Light Stands

2 Carry Cases

Complete set of bulbs are included

Also a .8x Panasonic Wideangle Lens

 

The total was about $7400 plus the cost of tapes and a $16 homemade Steadycam

Im making a horror movie this summer, should be fun.

[Downhome 0]

Have you ever shot a film before?

[Ravenbomb 0]

wow, seems kinda technical. All I use is a digital video camera (3CCD, that's about all I know), and a microphone attatched to the end of a broom stick for sound. Of course, I've only ever shot a day's worth of stuff that ended up being useless because the guy using the cheap make-shift boom mic kept grabbing the cord

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Good luck -- what's it about?...

[Mole 0]

That money was saved since you were 2, sticking dollars in the piggy bank.

 

Good luck though.

[godthedog 0]

incidentally, this is a better camera. the lens is better, the colors are bolder and the focal length is narrower (which makes it look more cinematic). it's also a monstrously huge camera that has to be assembled like a gun, so you feel like a complete bad ass whenever you strap it on. the journalism school here always uses the panasonic that you bought, and i never much liked the picture they got from it. that might just be from incompetent journalism students who didn't know how to use light or compose a shot, but i've also seen totally incompetent people get great shots with the canon (especially myself--i literally just had to have good weather and something interesting to point the camera at, and it looked gorgeous).

 

i hope the powermac came with "final cut pro." if you're stuck editing your movie on iMovie or whatever generic default program the computer might come with, you may be hurting for options & for quality.

 

if you don't already have a tripod, i HIGHLY recommend you get one. a good one.

 

good choice on the mic. i don't know if this was included in the kit, but you may want to make sure you have a transformer to eliminate the camera hum. if you plug the mic right into the camera without a transformer, you will get a cleaner sound, but you'll have this strong whirring sound in the background of all your shots. if there's a lot of stuff sound-wise going on in the shot anyway it won't matter a whole lot, but it gets extremely annoying when you want to shoot a quiet scene and have that camera hum going.

 

if you're shooting daytime footage outside, think about filters for the lens. when it's sunny or when you're shooting with a window in the background, it's really easy for the image to get blown out. i've never used them, cause i like the way it looks when it's blown out, but most people trying to do a professional-quality video don't like it.

 

i don't know if you've already thought all this out or if you're going for some particular aesthetic or whatever, so that's just some garden-variety advice to take for whatever it's worth.

[Guest Urine Sane]

I've done my homework, and was originally going to get the XL1, but I tried it out and was unimpressed. First of all, if I'm paying that much I want a feakin' LCD SCREEN! Also the DVX100A has the 24fps mode and cinegamma. I know the XL2 is coming out soon, but the Panasonic is much more cost effective. The wide angle lens for the XL1 $1100! I bought the one for the Panasonic for $380. And I love the lens on the Panasonic, I think Canon has great lenses but the prices are way too inflated, and Leica makes incredible stuff without much praise. I have a tripod and everything I need, except I need to find a wheelchair for some dolly like shots. Other than that I'm set.

 

The story in short is a clown masked killer stalks 4 friends at their cabin. It's much better than that sounds but I don't really want to go into a ton of detail. Has some pretty creative violence in to boot, none of tha pussy ass shit you see in the movies. I don't wanna give anything away, but I'll keep you all posted once I get some footage.

[Ravenbomb 0]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...ronics&n=507846

 

that's the one I've got.

[Karnage 0]

What's the film about and are you planning on submitting it to any festivals?

[2GOLD 0]

Old wheelchair, that is easy to obtain. Heck some medical supply stores allow day rentals that aren't that expensive.

 

Make sure you don't use cheap store bought blood. Learn to make it instead of the stuff you buy at Halloween. And real blood doesn't look that good plus it'll attract some things you really don't want to attract.

 

Best of luck, my partner in crime and I are still in script stage and we aren't rushing.

[Guest Urine Sane]

I'm using Bruce Campbell's Recipe for blood, its really realistic.

[Downhome 0]

But have you ever shot any sort of film before?

[godthedog 0]

I've done my homework, and was originally going to get the XL1, but I tried it out and was unimpressed.

you mean when you clicked that huge, 'rear window'-like lens into place on the camera, you didn't get this adrenaline rush of raw power and the urge to say "lock and load, motherfuckers"? that thing was like holding an extension of my cock, i felt like a man shooting with it.

 

or maybe i just have issues. but i could've sworn that the canon has a '24 fps' option on it.

 

The wide angle lens for the XL1 $1100! I bought the one for the Panasonic for $380. And I love the lens on the Panasonic, I think Canon has great lenses but the prices are way too inflated, and Leica makes incredible stuff without much praise.

if you're going for long focal lengths, short lenses and wide-angle shots i can see why you passed on the canon. i prefer shooting stuff that looks more flat and photographic, but that might suck the atmosphere out of a horror movie. polanski abused those wide-angle lenses like cheap whores in 'repulsion' and it terrified me.

[Guest Urine Sane]

I haven't shot any films.

 

Also, the XL1 does not have 24fps, until the XL2 comes out the panasonic is the only camcorder with this feature.

 

I have Final Cut Pro 4.0

[2GOLD 0]

I'm using Bruce Campbell's Recipe for blood, its really realistic.

 

The fly goo?

 

Make sure you get that stuff off and cleaned up REALLY quickly cause if you don't, you'll be in fly city. And I don't mean the annoying ones, I mean the bite you on the neck bastards.

 

It's very real, no doubt about it. Problem is, it is a MONSTER attraction for bugs.