type of camera for pro movie with editing

[dave schlick]

a friend of mine is set on making a movie.. he is movie camera

illiterat, i use about 5 for survelance so i am not illieterate but

probably not in the know how for sure.. he will not be talked out of

cashing in on the blair witch cash cow in his mind.. anyway i may be

able to keep him from making a mistake in cameras, he is looking

at a 3000 dollar canon for his movie. any suggestions on equipment

in this price range.. , im in large format and was surprised to see

this forum... thanks dave...

[j.w.]

Dave, in the mini-DV format there's several choices; the Sony VX-2000, the new Panasonic, and the new JVC (sorry, don't have the model numbers on those...just checkout their respective websites). The advantage of the Canon seems to be a large base of after-market add-ons, like lenses, XLR-based mike mixers, etc.

 

A step up from the mini-DV format is the panasonic cameras using the DVC or DVC-pro formats. These sample the video at 4:2:2 versus mini-DV's 4:1:1, and can be had for around $3k.

 

The camera is not the biggest cost of movie production. A compatent editing system - one with enough memory and performance to use Adobe Premier/After Effects + plug-ins and render the whole movie in the higher resolutions of MPEG-2 - will cost more than $3K.

 

OTOH, a web-based movie, using lower resolution internet streaming video can cost a whole lot less to produce. Depends on your definition of a movie.

 

BTW, I can buy a lot of 16mm color film + processing, and rent a Bolex, for the cost of that camera and computer...then have the movie bumped up to 35mm if a distributor buys it (like "El Mariachi").

[beerbrain_ronny_perry]

The people who directed Blair witch where film school grads, , it was shot with 16mm film.. CP-16 and Hi-8 video and intercut together.. I think that cash cow is gone, but to the hardware..The Panasonic AG-DVX100 is one of hot cameras now for shooting indy films , it will shoot in 24p,,30p or 60i(reg video) mode, which for a $3,400 camera is impressive,,,it also has a cinema gamma circuit to crunch the blacks ,,and loose some video electronic detail to give it a kinda film look.Normal video is 30 frames per second, it takes 2 fields interlaced to make 1 video frame, each field has half the video info, this is called 60i or 60 fields interlaced, .In P mode.. progressive, the whole single frame has all the video info, ..the 24P fps will also give it a kinda film flicker look .The Panasonic also has a Leica lens.The other camera to consider is the Canon XL1s, I use this camera sometimes, and after you get past the user unfriendly controls , the images are very good.You can go inside the menu of the XL1s and tweak the camera for a certain look, I crunched the black, and took off some detail, shot in movie mode 30p,I was surprised at the high quality of the Canon, I intercut XL1 footage regulary with a $46,000 Betacam ("B" roll part) and it holds up with the betacam thru the edit process. Both of the Canon and Panny cameras are the mini DV format, just dump the footage into a computer via a fire wire,, and have a fast processor , lots of memory,and a fast and large hard drive to store to DV footage,, there are many good editing packages, the standard is AVID and Final Cut Pro,,Adobe has Premire, and also there is Vegas editing,,I use AVID,the interface is great.Here are some links.

 

http://www.panasonic.com/PBDS/subcat/Products/cams_ccorders/f_ag-dvx100.html

 

http://www.canondv.com/xl1s/index.html

 

http://www.avid.com/products/xpressdv/

[k_t1]

There are a lot of options out there. It also depends what you define as a "movie". Do you want the more traditional 24FPS look of "film"? Then you might want to look into the digital camcorders outthere that offer 24fps mode, or you can go the traditional way of shooting in 16mm-35mm film (however this is not the case). I have also seen newer independent films shot in 30fps, but it doesn't give the same effect as watching a "traditional 24fps movie"

 

Just a side note: Director David Soderbourge shot the movie "full frontal" with the Canon XL1s digital video camera and editied the movie in Final Cut Pro. I guess that's the camera your friend might want to buy?

[ben_gervais]

If he's really serious about it, he should not be buying his equipment at all. Virtually everyone in the film industry rents their gear, and your friend could instead get some insurance and rent real movie making gear. Many rental houses will let you take old 16mm or 35mm cameras out for weeks while paying a fraction of the posted rental price (because pros don;t tend to rent the old gear, so they may as well get _some_ cash for it instead of it sitting on the shelf and collecting dust)

 

cheers,

-ben

[tim_p]

great site! any online samples of 24p/30p out there?