Tips & Pointers

[Darkone8921]

I own a small production company and will shoot my first short in September. The script is done and solid and I have almost all the roles cast. Also, I have almost all of my locations taken care of as well. I'm asking for all of your opinions on how to make a solid quality very low budget film. I only have a panasonic GS-120 but i feel I can make it all work from the strength of the script and the talent of the actors and crew involved. Are there any ideas on lighting or audio or cinematography that any or all of you can give me. I'm sure your tips and advice will do nothing but help.

 

[Digigenic]

Even though the GS120 is a 3 chip camera, lighting will be a challenge because it doesn’t fair well in low light conditions. So you’ll always need plenty of available light. Most consumer cameras aren’t built to pick up high quality audio either, so you’ll want to consider running audio through an isolated source and syncing it up to mix down in post. Example would be to use a few microphones, patched into a mixer that then runs into the Mini Disc Recorder. It will definitely require at least a couple individuals dedicated to sound, but it’ll have the biggest pay off in the end. With regard to the cinematography approach, that would all depend on the degree of stylization the story requires, is it drama, comedy, action, etc…?