Nick Griffin
Forum Replies Created
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Thank you, Richard and as to the speed of providing an answer…WOW! You may have just set a new speed record for the COW.
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I would say that a camera and good tripod go hand in hand as the starting point. You really can’t have just the camera at the beginning. Perhaps later on you’ll develop good handheld technique, but that’s not likely where you want to start.
A lav mic is an inexpensive good starting point for doing talking heads, but talking heads dictates at least one good broad light source and a reflector which can be as simple as a large piece of foam core board or white cardboard stock as sold in artist supply stores. Hopefully your camera will come with a mounted mic which can get you by for catching ambient sound for B-roll, etc. — NOT for interviews.
Personally I like the idea of a second lens next, if it’s a wide angle. This can be a wide angle zoom, which might become your primary lens or a “zoom-through” add-on lens which attaches in front of your normal lens. However wide angle is my personal preference for the kind of stuff I shoot where I’m often using the close-up foreground / wide angle look for dramatic purposes. Probably not so necessary if you’re shooting mostly people, but to each his own.
More and better lights comes next. Of course, and not really said before, lights need stands. You can start with cheap, general purpose stands and eventually work up to C-stands with arms and bigger things like extended boom arms for positioning hair lights as well as overhead and angled lighting for certain product shots. With lights, stands and booms comes a few basics like sand bags / ballast weights, flags (light blockers) for better controlling where your lights fall, and scrims (like a flag only in various degrees of transparency for fine tuning the light you’re getting. Flags and scrims need stands, too.
This is about the time having an external monitor on set becomes a HUGE advantage. I especially favor the ones with built-in scopes and VU meters. My personal preference are the Flanders monitors. We take the 17″ when we can and a 6″ one when space and time are constrained. In addition to offering a far more accurate view of what you’re getting than the viewfinder and/or swing-out LCD on the camera, the scopes let you identify problem areas quicker and easier. Zebra bars show only one level (normally set to 70 to 80 for flesh tones). A luminance scope shows you what everything is. I also find it extremely useful when the camera is mounted high up on a tripod or jib arm to use the monitor’s display of timecode as a sure fire way of confirming that the record button was properly engaged and not accidentally hit twice.
And speaking of fine tuning, at some point you may want a matte box with various filters, a polarizer, perhaps multiple grades of diffusers and even a graduated density filter for things like darkening a sky without affecting the rest of the shot. Personally I work in many industrial environments where I use a plain skylight filter as a means of protecting the lens. It’s far easier and cheaper to clean or replace a filter than it is the front element of a lens. And what discussion of fine tuning would be complete without the addition of follow focus, not cheap but addictive once you become used to using it rather than the barrel of the lens. Follow focus is routinely used by a camera assistant for keeping previously blocked-out action in focus, but for the solo shooter its also quite convenient for smooth and repeatable “rack focus” shots where you mark the focus for both focal points on the collar of the focus knob with a china marker and simply slide between the marks.
The key here is you get stuff as it can pay for itself and as you can learn how to use it. This is where working with/for/under others with more experience becomes an invaluable way to learn.
Rent versus own is a question with different answers for different people in different locations. Years ago I used to rent cameras as needed. I quickly reached the point where I realized I could buy the camera for the price of 10-12 rentals. The other HUGE advantage was having plenty of time to become completely familiar with the owned camera. Lighting, particularly big stuff like HMIs, are better to rent. They are VERY expensive and, at least for us, not needed for every shoot. As to the matter of different places, if you’re in or near a major city rental can be an easy option. If not you’re going to have to pay for shipping both ways which makes renting all the more expensive. The other thing that needs to be said about rental is the time the process consumes versus already having the gear on hand. As I said, this is an area where different people have different needs and therefore different answers.
Hope this little diatribe is of some help.
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GREAT find, Mark!! Thank you.
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I don’t think I’m over-stating it, but I believe this may be the greatest improvement, in the shortest period of time I’ve seen. In terms of style, technique, framing and so on you’ve come a LONG way, Brock. Really nice piece. Congratulations!
AND I agree. You don’t need a Stedicam or similar. Handled when used sparingly and with wide lenses has a much more real effect.
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No. Sorry. But I do have the first Dave Mason LP — the one with the psychedelic swirled vinyl.
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Joseph, I BELIEVE I have the Mom’s Apple Pie 45 and its cover which is the same as the album. Without checking, if I don’t have the 45 I do have the album.
And thanks for the advice on checking eBay history.
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I think your least expensive option would to see if you can’t rent, or better still borrow, a similar charger. The second least expensive option would be to buy one new battery and see how that works.
Sorry if these ideas seem obvious, but the simplest ideas are the best place to start.
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I wish it wasn’t so, but I’ve lived through essentially ALL of this. What was missing however was my favorite when someone on the call from his home phone started to send a fax during the conference call. Unfortunately he forgot that he only had the ONE phone line.
Thanx, Mark!
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[Todd Terry] “Yes, mother-in-law. Of the part-time gal who answers the phones.”
Okay, Todd. That’s a new one. Over the years I’ve often sat there dumbstruck as a big, powerful executive with hundreds of employees reporting to him says, “Well, I like it, but I have to show it to my wife. She took a semester of advertising in college.” (Or something equally stupid.)
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[Tom Sefton] “Smaller client, larger budget = more likelihood of your time being wasted in pre-prod before they get cold feet about spending
Larger client, larger budget = potential for micro management and death by 1000 opinions”
Been there. Got the T-shirt on both ends of the equation.
All the more reason that you have to do what it takes to keep the good ones happy.