Further to our discussion in the pub, thought I'd get the ball rolling by creating a thread for general discussion of amateur filmmaking.
Equipment
I have a Canon HG21. This is a high-end consumer level HD camcorder. It's not good enough for really professional work, but for our needs it should be fine. It has a 120GB hard disk, which gives something like 45 hours of shooting in long play mode. The problem will be the battery life. If we're planning to film on location we'll need to buy some additional battery packs, as each one fully charged will only be good for about an hour of shooting, I believe.
I have a VCT-R640 lightweight tripod. It's not especially fancy, but it's solid, holds the camcorder well and has a good range of movement. If we want to perform more dynamic or complex shots we'll need to think about buying or constructing some kind of dolly.
I have the following books:
Locations and Premises
We're going to need locations to shoot. Most obviously we have our houses and their gardens. Beyond that things may get a little tricky. I'm not a legal expert, but I'm fairly sure we technically need permission from the owners to film pretty much anywhere, be they individuals, companies, or the council. Maybe Daz or Currie could give some advice here? I guess it's an area we'll need to do a bit of research.
Projects
I think Matty's suggestion in the pub was a good one. We each get to have one project at a time that we have executive and creative control over. So if Daz wants to do an improvised thriller, he can do that, and if I want to do a fully scripted horror, I can do that too. I suggest we could initially discuss potential project ideas in, and when one is chosen, it could be spun out into a separate thread, where we can coordinate, scripting, props, casting, shooting, etc.
Hopefully that's enough to get things kicked off. What do you guys think?
Equipment
I have a Canon HG21. This is a high-end consumer level HD camcorder. It's not good enough for really professional work, but for our needs it should be fine. It has a 120GB hard disk, which gives something like 45 hours of shooting in long play mode. The problem will be the battery life. If we're planning to film on location we'll need to buy some additional battery packs, as each one fully charged will only be good for about an hour of shooting, I believe.
I have a VCT-R640 lightweight tripod. It's not especially fancy, but it's solid, holds the camcorder well and has a good range of movement. If we want to perform more dynamic or complex shots we'll need to think about buying or constructing some kind of dolly.
I have the following books:
- Basics of Video Lighting - As you might expect, gives a basic overview of lighting for video shoots. It leans toward the technical side of
things rather than the aesthetic, and it's geared more towards professional lighting engineers than amateurs, but it's still pretty useful. The main
lesson I drew from it is that shooting well on video requires a lot of light, and that providing that light artificially is expensive and potentially
dangerous. Using sunlight is going to be our best approach, at least at first, I think.
- Film Directing Shot by Shot - More on the arty side of things, this is a reference guide to lots of different shots and stylistic techniques commonly employed in film, with a heavy emphasis on storyboarding as an approach to prototyping the film's visual structure.
Locations and Premises
We're going to need locations to shoot. Most obviously we have our houses and their gardens. Beyond that things may get a little tricky. I'm not a legal expert, but I'm fairly sure we technically need permission from the owners to film pretty much anywhere, be they individuals, companies, or the council. Maybe Daz or Currie could give some advice here? I guess it's an area we'll need to do a bit of research.
Projects
I think Matty's suggestion in the pub was a good one. We each get to have one project at a time that we have executive and creative control over. So if Daz wants to do an improvised thriller, he can do that, and if I want to do a fully scripted horror, I can do that too. I suggest we could initially discuss potential project ideas in, and when one is chosen, it could be spun out into a separate thread, where we can coordinate, scripting, props, casting, shooting, etc.
Hopefully that's enough to get things kicked off. What do you guys think?
