Category : The New Rigs

Here is the link to the inexpensive  french flag that mounts to the hot shoe on your DSLR. Comes with 15″ flexible arm and flag/reflectors. It is much less obtrusive than an expensive matte box and adjusts to more angles. Keep it quick and compact.

So finally months after I purchased this, I got a chance to hook it up. One of the most inexpensive follow focuses, I had heard some good things about it, so I went ahead and bought it. My M.O. has always been to assemble part-by-part my shooting rigs, being cost-efficient yet not compromising quality. Put simply, it may not impress the guys working over at Panavision, but you’re a filmmaker not a technician so live with it and get to know the equipment you have and get to shooting.

Anyway, here’s my review from the Wisho site.

I started my indie filmmaking career with Roads and Bridges. At that time, if you were serious you had to shoot film. So I worked at nights as an editor in an online house in New York and shot Karoake videos for Pioneer laser discs with a Bolex to pull in even more money. Finally, I was able to buy a used Aaton Super 16mm LTR rig with two mags. Now, everyone whom I worked with professionally told me not to buy anything, just rent. But the problem is, if you are doing indie work you never know when you will have the resources or time to shoot; it’s not on a day-in/day-out schedule, though some people try to make it that way. Simply, if you are doing something on your own the equipment has got to be there when the opportunity is.

Needless to say, when DV emerged, I had to reassess my situation. The Aaton and accessories cost me over 20,000.00 and I made my money back by directing music videos and shooting with my camera. But since  didn’t want to buy production insurance to rent out the thing, I took a loss on ebay and bought a VX2000. My film diehard friends screamed “nooooooooo!!”, but it was the time.

That worked out pretty well, I shot a short film for about $500.00 on that VX2000 and that short got me into Sundance for the first time. I screened with a group of films, one of which was made by Toby McGuire with Robert Downey in the cast. Uhmm…yeah. So it was a party atmosphere, I heard Brittany Spears walked out for one reason or another. But soon after I sold the VX2000 because I heard HDV was coming down the road. I was unimpressed with the codec and long GOP edtiing so I passed. For my second feature I decided to use a SDX900 and shoot DVCpro50. That camera brought me into 24p and pulldown and a host of technical problems that I had to solve. But I got through it, and never used that camera again.

But this was the start of a constant state of researching, buying and selling that is the state of indie filmmaking today. Now I’m not talking about the guys that work for commercial companies, or people who have access to equipment in one way or another, they will always be playing with the newest best toys. For those of you who can’t borrow the RED ONE, finally there are options. God Is D_ad was shot with an HV20 and a Letus Extreme adapter. I built a miniATX computer with a Blackmagic Intensity card and a 750GB hard drive. So, after purchasing Cineform’s awesome Neo HD, I shot the entire U.S. part of the film with the HV20 recording full 1920×1080 files through HDMI. It took months of research and testing while working in Korea. It worked great and I sold it all months after completing the film.

So now on my shelf sits a Canon 5Dmk2 with the same Nikon manual lenses that I bought for the Letus. I am not sure how long it’s going to be there, with new better cameras always on the horizon. That is what makes this generation of filmmakers different from the rest. Technology was something you hired someone to deal with, and in the big leagues it still works the way it works. But the world is changing at a faster pace now, economically and technologically and you either keep up or become obsolete. I am not saying that story, script and attention to the craft of filmmaking should now be subordinated to tech. No, but to learn the craft, you have to have something to shoot with and Flip cameras aren’t going to cut it. The democratization  of filmmaking that Coppola dryly commented on years ago has finally come to pass. The question is, do we utilize this stage of development and help each other withstand the barrage of codecs, formats and software that gives us this freedom? Yup.

There are many forums to ask specific technical questions and you will find a community of people there to support or dismiss you. People who have been doing this a long time may not want to answer  your “what’s 24p?” question, but someone eventually will. Here I’d like to spend some time discussing the personal reasons, limitations and experiences related to the process of making, not buying or choosing. So you made your choice, you worked through the limitations and you got something done. So tell us about it man.