Videos & Equipment

[Rats]

Ok I've been out of the advertising game for some time... ANd I'm wondering as to which consumer level video equipment can give the best resolution, reproduction and flexibility for making videos and such...

Chole..... You out there??? I know you have some background here???

I'm looking to create some promo trailers and vinnettes... And also be able to put some on the web.

I know the sound recording is usually garbage for may of these.... But since I've been out of the game for the last couple of years, things progress and become obsolete fast!!

Any advice

[CrazyCholeBlack]

***Deep breath****

Without boring the pants off of everyone, I'll e-mail you Rats Not that pant less pirates in a movie wouldn't be fun but I think that's already been covered.

Quick & dirty though. The sound isn't crap if you use a dedicated mic. For $1000 or so you can get a used "indie film" quality miniDV camera that was top of the line 4 years ago. Anything on miniDV with a firewire can be downloaded to your average home computer for editing & uploaded to a server or youtube.

Honestly the way technology is these days, a trained monkey could make a movie & with Hollywood the way it is, he'd stand a good chance of getting some pretty big funds to do it with

[William Brand]

Aye, a dedicated mic. Your sound quality will go up considerably.

[Rats]

Wow, thanks for the quick replies you two...

I'm sure you know where I'm going with this. With the folks we can muster, and the access we have to some very nice places, it wouldn't be hard to put together a series of good promos and shorts.

Chole.. Do you have any gear or did you rent for the work you did?? Calumet in Chi-town??

rats

[CrazyCholeBlack]

the only thing I don't have is the mic & the lights.

Lights were borrowed & rigged from utility lights from Menards. Mic was a rental. Not from Calumet....The people in Milwaukee (it was a Wisconsin production after all) Can't remember their name though. Hey, it has been 4 years!

ugh ohh, I can hear the gears in my head turning again. Make them stop!

[Rats]

Never and I mean NEVER stop the gears!!

I can't drive by a location without painting a scene or telling a story!

That's how I originally got into reenacting to begin with.... I was looking for locations and casting for shoots and before I knew it I was being shot dead in the street by the likes of Ed Masterson and Dallas Stoudmire...

Do I hear you saying you might have a few ideas to throw out there??

I'm all ears!

[LongTom]

3-CCD (light sensor) models give better color than single sensor. Semi-rare on consumer-grade, but not unheard-of.

The bigger the CCD chip, the better the image and the less video noise in the image.

Better lenses, better image. Interchangeable lenses best of all. (rare on pro-sumer level).

Most important is a good storyboard and a competent camera operator. The best camera in the world will take highly accurate, high resolution, highly boring footage, if not used creatively.

[Rats]

Well said and well taken!!

Thanks Tom!

[LongTom]

Thank'ee kindly. I'm looking forward to seeing what you put together.

Having said all that about technology, I forgot to mention that there are so-called consumer level HDTV camcorders. You trade away the high-quality lenses (some of these things are pocket sized, amazingly) and probably some of the manual control, but you get real HD resolution.

Something worth looking into.

[Matusalem]

Since I am in to anything not of the present, I am seriously considering on getting a super 8 movie camera and filming things with this, possibly in black and white. The more old-skool, the better. I know where I can get film and processing. Then I'd just get it converted to DVD and .mpeg.

50/50% chance I end up at the PIP festival this year, it's this like this that I would film.

[Sir Beachem Quick]

Rats,

Not sure where your from a great source is always going to be college and university film students who a. have access to gear and are always looking for opportunity to get wet. Oh and let's not forget far less expensive than a pro crew w/ gear. and for them I would stop by Productionhub.com and checkout people in your area. There really are a lot more resources out there.

Good luck mate

[theM.A.dDogge]

yo....rats,

a couple of buddies of ours...grauates of colubia film school in chicago...out in L.A now....one struggling director...other promising up-n-comming camara man...head camara director for trick my truck on cmt....we're trying to get both of em to come to pip....we have been talkin fer years trying to get a good ghost hunt on film...key west seems likely as any place...

any questions i'll get you in touch with him.....