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Filmmaking With A Digital Camera
By Frey | June 2, 2007
What is filmmaking exactly? It’s really just putting pictures into motion. You can add sound for even more of an effect, but sound isn’t truly necessary to make a “Motion Picture”.
I often hear people making up excuses as to why they can’t shoot a film. Some of these excuses are really bad, some not quite as bad, but still - excuses are excuses. Film making is really just overcoming obstacles, no matter how big or small, and capturing those obstacles on a medium that people can view later… Get it?
So, if you don’t have a decent video camera, and can’t afford to buy that $45,000 Varicam or shoot on film, and you don’t even want to think about paying rental fees. Don’t fret, because I have a solution for you!
There is a way to shoot a high quality motion picture you can actually live with - I’m talking pictures that are higher quality than High Definition! If you don’t already own one, go buy one off ebay, or if funding is super tight this month, you can always borrow one from your Mother, Father, or even Cousin, but someone in your family should have a Digital Camera.
Think that still pictures put together with sound can’t make a good movie? Think again! One very powerful movie is a French film called La Jetée by Chris Marker. In black and white film, this film is well worth watching. What? You can’t speak French? Youtube has an English version as well (but if you can speak French, you will probably appreciate the French version more). Of course, it’s not the only film that has used still photography. There are others, like Patrick Rebisz’s short film between you and me. There are too many out there to list, but both of those should spark some ideas.
Most people assume that the higher the megapixel the better, BUT we really won’t need much more that a 3 megapixel camera, which is, basically, close enough to a 2K resolution, at 2048 x 1536, that it’ll work for your needs [Note that HD is 1920 x 1080 pixels, while 2k is 2048 x 1556 pixels. There are several different numbers for 2k resolution out there, but I'm going off of the standard 2k numbers from Autodesk, AJA, and Black Magic]. You can always get a camera that has a higher resolution, but the higher the resolution, the more storage space you’ll need, and the harder you’ll make it on yourself and/or your computer.
While shopping for a camera, try to get one that you can control the focus and aperture on. DSLR’s are usually recommended here, but any camera can do the work you need as long as you understand your cameras limitations and strong points. The more control you have over your camera, the better. You can always get those added cool features too - like time-lapse, in-camera color adjustments, etc., but they aren’t necessary. It would be nice to have a camera that has a continuous capture mode, so you can capture multiple images in a row, just by holding down the button.
Make sure to turn off the camera sounds - they are distracting. Get something to record sound (good sound is more important to a film than picture). I recommend something like the Zoom H4, or other decent recording devices.
Need a program to edit it all together? If you already have something that can edit, that’s cool. In this day and age, I’d prefer to edit in HD if at all possible, but Standard Definition is still king when it comes to distribution (everyone owns a DVD player - not very many own Blu-Ray or HD-DVD players). For Non-Linear Editing, there’s Final Cut Pro, Avid Xpress, Adobe Premiere, and more. If your budget is really tight and you have a Mac, iMovie HD does, as it’s name implies, edit in HD. If you’re a Windows user, then use Microsoft MovieMaker (a High Definition version comes with Vista). Or, you can always use the free Jahshaka.
Don’t forget - your sound is very important! Treat it with respect. Now go out and shoot a film already!
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Topics: high definition, other, photography, production |
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