starting equipment

[Avatar]

Hi,
I've been planning to make short films for the last couple of years, and finally early in September I expect to do my first film, alas for now I don't have any equipment needed for that.
I have a budget of about 10,000$ and I will shoot mostly outside of cities, so what would you suggest to be the essential equipment needed?

I will buy a:
1. Canon XH A1 camcorder
2. Zoom H4 sound recorder
3. A shotgun mic
4. A powerful computer for editing HDV
5. Two dedolights, but probably something cheaper.
6. A tripod

Plan to make a DIY fishpole, green screen, camera stabilizer and a dolly with tracks.

But beyond that I'm quite in the dark.
Is a field monitor really essential? They're so expensive... What would be the cheapest field monitor solution, if they're really required.

I'll appreciate any advices,
thanks!

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Are you shooting (operating the camera) yourself? If so, who is looking at the field monitor? If you're not operating the camera, what will you be looking at?

 

[Avatar]

I will be the one shooting.
Any way I've read that it's impossible to set colours on those small camera LCDs,
so now I'm looking for the cheapest HDV compatible portable LCD monitors.

What do people use as power sources for film equipment out in the wild?
Generators are very heavy and loud.

 

[Bob Kessler]

The Zoom is a piece of junk as far as production audio is concerned. It is really meant for musicians. Spend a few extra dollars and get something like the Fostex FR-2LE or the Marantz PMD-670.

The XH A1 has XLR inputs with phantom power so you may want to consider recording the production sound directly into the camera.

You may want to check out my blogs on production sound:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=111888913

Good luck!

 

[StephenDurden]

I will be the one shooting.
Any way I've read that it's impossible to set colours on those small camera LCDs,
so now I'm looking for the cheapest HDV compatible portable LCD monitors.

What do people use as power sources for film equipment out in the wild?
Generators are very heavy and loud.

There are silenced generators, but they're pretty expensive (think about renting one... here in Italy a 4K silenced generator is, like, 1500 €...).

Yes, it's quite impossible to set colors on a LCD, CRT are much better that way (I had a 20" CRT on my last set, while I was shooting with a blue screen and that worked fine).

I would personally spend a little bit more on the lighting...

 

[Avatar]

Thanks for the advice, unclebob6958 and StephenDurden!

The lighting constrains are mostly because of the limited power that I would be able to bring with me. But I'll try to figure something out. Light is very important.

 

[StephenDurden]

Mostly because you need to have a minimum amount of light to light the scene (it's pretty dumb, I know, but that's the basics...).

 

[Bob Kessler]

I can't remember the film or the director (I believe he was of Asian descent), but I recently saw a "Making Of" extra on TV where the entire HDV film was lit with natural light using reflectors. This included a night scene in a forest when it was raining.

I'm not gaffer, I'm a sound guy, but it would seem to me that a few dozen reflectors would be far less expensive than a couple of lights.

 

[StephenDurden]

Uh... a night scene with reflectors only? On HDV? Uhm... Sounds weird. HDV has a higher fill factor than SDV (more pixels), then it needs more light not to go underexposed... I don't think moonlight would be a gorgeous light, plus the rain and the reflectors... Sounds strange.

 

[Bob Kessler]

Hey, I am only reporting what I saw, I'm not saying it was good.

 

[BenB]

I know this is late, but for monitoring, get a laptop. For Windows look at DV Rack. For the Mac, look at VeeScope Live or HD Monitor Pro. I use both of the Mac products and love them.