Short Digital Film Production?

Question

I'm looking for a rundown of what equipment I will need to start filming short music videos and commercials. I'm probably going with the camcorder JVC GY-HD110U. I need lighting and other post production software. Please let me know if there is a site with what I need.

Answer 1

You got excellent answers, but who's gonna operate this gear? Get a book, The Filmmaker's Handbook is a mere $16 and will teach you loads. It won't tell you which products to buy, but you'll know what you need and WHY.

Answer 2

I think you would need:

      - a professional tungsten lighting kit (by mole-richardson, arri, lowel, etc) for about $2,000+

     - a good shotgun mic (pros love the Sennheiser MKH-416 for about $1,000) - There is an awesome kit available that comes with a nice windscreen, boompole and other stuff on www.bhphotovideo.com. You could use a wireless lavalier mic as well that clips to a person's clothes, but shotguns are more useful for other things

     -a good tripod (that supports your camera weight and has a fluid head)

     -pro editing software (the best is Avid Media composer but Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro are also good)

    -you may want additional filters (for color effects) or a separate monitor (for color correction) as well, but probably not right now

In response to a site you would need, I definately recommend http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ it is the source of professionals and has everything you need at an excellent price!

That is all I can think of right now. Hope that helps

Answer 3

Hi, well done on the choice of camera anyway. I use two of these (Gy-HD111e in Pal) and they're hard to beat...a  really professional piece of kit not not prosumer. There's a good learning curve with them though. If you're shooting in SD you'll get virtually the same quality as DigiBeta...stunning.

However...on the editing software front be careful. Avid Express Pro and Avid Media Composer don't support the JVC camera formats as yet. You'll find the big argument going on in the Avid forums. It's the 720p format that is the problem with Avid. However they say the new versions of Media Composer (they're scrapping Express Pro by the look of it) will support the JVC ProHD formats later this year. Avid Liquid already supports the JVC formats..all very strange.

Having said all that..Premiere Pro with the Matrox Rt.X2 is the best editing setup you'll find and Adobe are great at supporting all the formats. Sony Vegas also handles the JVC well too...and the only NLE that will give you previews on a SD monitor without special hardware when working in HD.

As for lighting...a set of Redheads is a good start. You can buy reasonably cheap ones from China for next to nothing too on Ebay and they're fine. From there it's just about a decent shotgun mic, blimp and fluffy etc and you're good to go. Once again on Ebay you can buy cheap Indian Blimps that work great unless you sit on them..lol..not quite as robust as the Sennheiser ones. Don't skimp on the shotgun though...Audiotechnica or Sennheiser..or even Rode..is the way to go.

I hope that helps and wish I had more time to expand but the dinner is burning.

Best of luck...

Cheers

Answer 4

try: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

Answer 5

this is my list of gear i use -

hvr-v1p

matte box

4 x 4 filters

headphones

dual battery charger

3 x 6 hr batteries

rode ntg2 shotgun mic

boom pole

rode mounts x 2

final cut studio 2

macbook pro 17

reflector board

lighting varies greatly. personaly i like to use available light so mine might be a little different to other peoples shots.

hope it helps!