All over the internet where new filmmakers meet, on the message boards and chat rooms, one question is repeated over and over: What is the best camera?
Have you ever wondered this? Are you stuck with almost no money, and need to get a camera now to start filming? Or maybe you have a ton of money, and just don’t know what to do. Either way you need to know what is the best and you need to know now!
Well, let me ask you a question: What is the best hammer? Is it a claw hammer, a sledge hammer, M.C. Hammer? I think you know where I’m going with this…
It all boils down to a more important question: What are you trying to do?
Start at the end and work back to the beginning.
If you wanted to go on a rampage killing zombies, you’d probably pick a sledge hammer. If you wanted to make a crappy reality TV show with has beens from the 80’s, you’d probably pick up a claw hammer and hit yourself in the face (or at least you should).
In the same way, its best to make your initial decisions based on what you want to come out with. Since, this whole blog deal is about indie film, I’ll assume what you are making falls somewhere in the ball park of film, short, series, or documentary. But for simplicity we’ll just use ‘film’.
So lets consider the factors that go into your final product:
Distribution
Are you thinking about distribution yet? If not you should be. So how is the most likely way your film will be distributed?
- Theatre
- Festivals
- Television
- Internet
- DVD
Even if you haven’t thought about it, you have a good idea of where you stand. You may have totally discounted some of them (probably theatre and television) altogether because you don’t think you could break in. You can…but that is a subject for another article. For now, lets go through them:
Theatre
If you are going for a theatrical release then your film should probably be…well…film. As in good old fashioned 35mm celluloid. That is how it will be shown, so why not just shoot and edit that way. Alternatively, you can go High Definition. HD will probably save big money on production costs, but it may be costly to get the initial blow up to film. Nonetheless, it’s a good alternative.
Festivals
Depending on the festival your going for, you could practically shoot with anything. However, most of your competition will be shooting with 3-chip miniDV cameras such as the DVX100, some of the newer HD and HDV cameras in the $6000 to $10,000 range, a $100,000 “real” HD camera, or on film. That’s tough competition if all you have is a $300 miniDV camera. But a compelling story, and good acting trumps all of that. If you all you have is that $300 camera but you think you’ve got the talent, then by all means go for it.
Television
These days television is sorta tricky. Most of your reality shows are filmed either on digiBeta, or on 3-chip miniDV cameras. Sitcoms are shot on million dollar studio cameras (I personally don’t even know what you’d call them, but if I had to guess I’d assume Ikegami makes them). Episodic shows, like HBO series, most of the time are now shot on 35mm film just like movies.
It’s also a tough market to crack, so if you are shooting a movie you probably won’t get any major television deals unless you’ve either had a theatrical release, or you make Sci-Fi originals. Either way your shooting film or HD. On the other hand, you can get docs and shorts onto channels like IFC that were shot on miniDV. And if cartoon networks “Saul of the Molemen” is any indication…you can probably get on TV with a rectal biopsy scope up a goats ass if you are good enough at negotiating.
Internet
I’m talking here specifically about streaming video…we’ll get to selling DVDs on the net next. Lets face it though, your video is going to be about 320 pixels wide. Unless you are sponsored by some car company trying to tap into this “trendy new internet thingie”, there is very little reason to shoot on anything that costs more than $1000, unless you just so happen to have something better already.
The internet audience is widely accepting of video…even really bad looking video, so long as the content is entertaining and the audio isn’t terrible. Just look at programs on YouTube like Ask a Ninja, or webseries like Pure Pwnage, or sketch comedy like that produced TeamTeam (produced by Zach and Andrew, writers for KillerFilm which I also manage). Now I’m not saying these look bad, but its just plain old hand held video. On the internet, cinematography takes a back seat to entertainment. Spend your money on good microphones, not cameras!
In the next article I’ll cover budget considerations, and finally in the third article we’ll discuss how to go about buying the best digital camera.