Q. I am filming a documentary and I need to know what sort of camera and what kind of sound equipment I need to purchase. I also need to know if this equipment is easy to train people on, or if it would be smarter to try to hire people who already have experience and training with this sort of equipment. If so, where do I find these people? What is the most basic sort of camera I can use and what is the most advanced, and what difference would that make? I plan on making this a professional looking documentary that I can enter into film festivals. Thanks!
A. It depends on how picky you are, what sort of audio is being recorded and where the audio is being recorded.
For example, audio captured live during a drag race or other noisy environment will have different mic needs than if the audio is captured inside a room where there is little noise.
Another example has music recording - as opposed to just talking heads or recording the noise a cat makes when purring.
Does the equipment need to be portable? Is a 2-channel field recorder (like a Zoom H4n) enough or is a 16 (or more) track board required along with a Digidesign/ProTools set-up and computer interface?
Shotgun mic, lavalier, handheld dynamic mic... wired or wireless... stereo or mono mics... the list is endless.
We don't know anything about the project, your budget or where you are. The complexity of the project can dictate all these things. If you think this is complex, then see if the local community college has a media or audio-for-film class - and meet with the instructor.
As for cameras... well, if you have to ask, then you might want to be taking the classes...
Consumer cameras and camcorders have small lenses and small imaging chips. They cannot do well under low light conditions. They have few manual controls - and those that are available are usually accessed through a menu. As the cameras and camcorder increase in price the lenses and imaging chips get bigger and the commonly used manual controls move to the outside of the camcorder/camera. As well, at the low end, the video compression is very high - this results in low quality video. As the cameras/camcorder increase in price, the compression goes down and the video quality goes up.
If the lighting is ALWAYS good (bright, sunny daylight, outdoors), them pretty much any camcorder will do - assuming you are not very picky. In my opinion, the *least* I would use would be a Sony HDR-FX1000. Low compression HDV format. Most advanced - for your needs probably something from Red (Epic, One, Scarlet). HDV records only 1080i video. Red cameras can capture 4K video at very low compression. And any in-between (like any from the Sony HDCAM/XDCAM or Panasonic Varicam areas... or the Canon XF300 series... Some would even suggest a good dSLR that happens to capture good high definition video as "convenience feature".
But when all is said and done, someone with experience and skill using the least expensive camera available can produce awesome content - and someone with no experience and skill using the most expensive/best gear available will generally turn out not so awesome content.
Where are these experienced people? They are trying to make a living being independent audio engineers and cinematographers. There are near or recently finished from film school. They are at community colleges teaching - or are wedding videographers hoping a compelling script comes along. Maybe they have regular day-jobs and have been doing this sort of thing for a LONG time but it can't pay the bills... Or they work at corporate AV companies or hotel AV departments... they are lots of places...
For example, audio captured live during a drag race or other noisy environment will have different mic needs than if the audio is captured inside a room where there is little noise.
Another example has music recording - as opposed to just talking heads or recording the noise a cat makes when purring.
Does the equipment need to be portable? Is a 2-channel field recorder (like a Zoom H4n) enough or is a 16 (or more) track board required along with a Digidesign/ProTools set-up and computer interface?
Shotgun mic, lavalier, handheld dynamic mic... wired or wireless... stereo or mono mics... the list is endless.
We don't know anything about the project, your budget or where you are. The complexity of the project can dictate all these things. If you think this is complex, then see if the local community college has a media or audio-for-film class - and meet with the instructor.
As for cameras... well, if you have to ask, then you might want to be taking the classes...
Consumer cameras and camcorders have small lenses and small imaging chips. They cannot do well under low light conditions. They have few manual controls - and those that are available are usually accessed through a menu. As the cameras and camcorder increase in price the lenses and imaging chips get bigger and the commonly used manual controls move to the outside of the camcorder/camera. As well, at the low end, the video compression is very high - this results in low quality video. As the cameras/camcorder increase in price, the compression goes down and the video quality goes up.
If the lighting is ALWAYS good (bright, sunny daylight, outdoors), them pretty much any camcorder will do - assuming you are not very picky. In my opinion, the *least* I would use would be a Sony HDR-FX1000. Low compression HDV format. Most advanced - for your needs probably something from Red (Epic, One, Scarlet). HDV records only 1080i video. Red cameras can capture 4K video at very low compression. And any in-between (like any from the Sony HDCAM/XDCAM or Panasonic Varicam areas... or the Canon XF300 series... Some would even suggest a good dSLR that happens to capture good high definition video as "convenience feature".
But when all is said and done, someone with experience and skill using the least expensive camera available can produce awesome content - and someone with no experience and skill using the most expensive/best gear available will generally turn out not so awesome content.
Where are these experienced people? They are trying to make a living being independent audio engineers and cinematographers. There are near or recently finished from film school. They are at community colleges teaching - or are wedding videographers hoping a compelling script comes along. Maybe they have regular day-jobs and have been doing this sort of thing for a LONG time but it can't pay the bills... Or they work at corporate AV companies or hotel AV departments... they are lots of places...
Why do professional camcorders use tapes and not hard drive?
Q. I am looking to buy a professional camcorder, and am just wondering why they all use tapes and not hard drives? Does using tapes offer better quality? Also, what is a good professional camcorder to buy?
I have a budget of about £18,000 for 5 cameras.
I have a budget of about £18,000 for 5 cameras.
A. Your right, Tape based camcorders do produce a much higher quality video. Until you start to get into the higher end such as Red a basic camera would be around $30, 000 certainly out of my price range.
So us mortals have to use the best we can, its all down to compression, the more the video is compressed the less information in actually saved. Sure tape based video is compress but we are talking about the amount of compression, uncompressed video runs at about 85GB per hour, there are not many flash drive camcorders that can one hold this amount of data, two can handle the data transfer rate. Hard drive cameras are not much better obviously they can save/hold more.
If you watch outside broadcasts, you will see many tape based camcorders, even documentaries will use them. are you looking for a "professional" camcorder or a "prosumer" camcorder. the latter is more of a half way between the two, most people (unless you are a trained camera man) would opt for this type of camera, they give you the best of both worlds automatic features such as exposure and focus, but also to be able to use manual controls. the more you pay the better the quality but the less things there are to help you out.
You do not give a budget, but you would need to start at around $2500 minimum, then work upwards.
Canon, Sony make good quality equipment, but obviously other manufacturers do have cameras for that market.
Again with out a budget there is no point in suggesting a $3000 camera when you only want to pay $1000 or 500
RR
So us mortals have to use the best we can, its all down to compression, the more the video is compressed the less information in actually saved. Sure tape based video is compress but we are talking about the amount of compression, uncompressed video runs at about 85GB per hour, there are not many flash drive camcorders that can one hold this amount of data, two can handle the data transfer rate. Hard drive cameras are not much better obviously they can save/hold more.
If you watch outside broadcasts, you will see many tape based camcorders, even documentaries will use them. are you looking for a "professional" camcorder or a "prosumer" camcorder. the latter is more of a half way between the two, most people (unless you are a trained camera man) would opt for this type of camera, they give you the best of both worlds automatic features such as exposure and focus, but also to be able to use manual controls. the more you pay the better the quality but the less things there are to help you out.
You do not give a budget, but you would need to start at around $2500 minimum, then work upwards.
Canon, Sony make good quality equipment, but obviously other manufacturers do have cameras for that market.
Again with out a budget there is no point in suggesting a $3000 camera when you only want to pay $1000 or 500
RR
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