Latest / Indie Film Podcast / Rent, Buy, or DIY: How We Got Film Gear on a Budget

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Rent, Buy, or DIY: How We Got Film Gear on a Budget · Indie Film Podcast

0:00
Welcome to Indie Film Podcast. This week we're talking about
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how to source film gear without selling a kidney.
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In other words, renting versus buying your equipment.
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We'll talk about our own DIY equipment hacks.
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Some equipment purchases that maybe we regret.
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What would we buy if we had $2000 to spend on equipment?
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And some creative solutions from famous film makers who inspire
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us. I'm Vic.
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And I am Chuck. Let's first start with Do you
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need 2 kidneys to make a movie? I'm I'm not exactly sure that
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you need 2 kidneys to make a move.
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I don't know if any internal organs, I mean maybe a brain and
0:38
a heart are required. They definitely are.
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And there is actually a famous example of someone who had a
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kidney removed, and that person is Steven Spielberg.
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You may have heard of him. So in February 2000, in February
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7th of 2000, Steven Spielberg had a kidney removed and here is
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his filmography. Prior to the kidney removal, we
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have Jaws ET, The Indiana Jones Trilogy, Hook, Jurassic Park,
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Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan.
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Some big ones, yes, some big ones.
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And when his kidney function was reduced by 50%, he released AI.
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Indiana Jones in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
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The Adventures of Tin Tin. Bridges of Spies.
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Bridge of Spies. Excuse me?
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I think the plural would be better.
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It may have helped, I don't know the post Ready Player 1, the
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Fableman's SO. I have heard good things about
1:36
the Fableman's. OK, I actually haven't seen it.
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I. Haven't seen it.
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Either I've kind of actually the second Jurassic Park I stopped
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being as into Steven Spielberg's Steven Spielberg's films, but I
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I, I, I did weight that a little bit heavily because you don't
1:50
know what's going on with Steven Spielberg, but obviously very
1:53
strong career at the. But he did have that whole 1943
1:56
whatever movie beforehand, and he won't even admit that he made
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it so well. Take it with a grain of salt.
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So yeah, I don't think people should sell their kidneys for
2:05
equipment regardless of the situation.
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So let's let's, let's help people.
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So that is an Internet rumor that Robert Rodriguez sold a
2:14
kidney to fund El Mariachi. And turns out that's actually
2:19
just a rumor. He did not actually sell a
2:21
kidney to fund that movie, but he did enlist in medical trials
2:24
for about a month. Oh, nice.
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And got the majority of the $7000 budget by doing that.
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So, you know, if you want to sell off bits and pieces in your
2:31
body to science, I guess go for it.
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But I don't think clinical trials pay that well anymore.
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Probably not. I don't know.
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Actually, I don't know. That's all speculation.
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So if any of you out there want to fund your next film by like
2:44
signing up for for prescriptions, prescription
2:47
trials, let us know how that works out for you.
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Let's let's talk about some other famous film creative
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solutions as far as getting around maybe some lower quality
2:57
equipment, some budget equipment.
3:00
Obviously, Blair Witch is a famous example of the found
3:04
footage. Yeah, but then Paranormal
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Activity took it to a different level as well with just like
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security camera footage too, and.
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Yeah, so horror genre they had can have leaned into the the
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lower quality equipment. Do you have any other examples
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of? People.
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Hacking things. It is technically a horror film
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as well, so I guess I'm not exactly straying that far.
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But my favorite is Sam Raimi, right, who holds a special place
3:29
in my heart. And for Evil Dead 1 and 2, when
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creating the the point of view shots for the evil spirit as
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it's or the evil presence as it's kind of going through the
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forest, they actually they rigged up the camera on a 2 by
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4. They did sand down the edges of
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the two by four to make it more of like a handle looking shape.
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And they had two crew people on either side with the camera set
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up in the middle. And like they're just running
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through the forest with a 2 by 4 to give it kind of that shaky
4:03
but still movement. But it meant that they could all
4:05
three run together to get the shot so that it was lined up and
4:09
everyone was happy with how the shot looked.
4:11
Oh, nice. I thought it was really
4:13
entertaining, and that's a really creative solution.
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And I would be lying if I said I hadn't, you know, sat in the
4:18
middle of a hardware store on the floor just trying to piece
4:21
different pieces of pipe together in the hopes that I can
4:24
create my own Steadicam. So you know, you do what you got
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to do. Yes, those solutions.
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You hear about the famous ones, yeah, but you don't hear about
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the ones that don't work out so well.
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I actually kind of came up with a couple options.
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This was thanks to my brother Elliot who is a huge fan of of
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films. He he reminded me that in the
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early 2000s there were a lot of films that tried to jump on the
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digital bandwagon too soon. So first example that I had to
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go back and and review it again to see how rough it looked.
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But 28 days later. I haven't.
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Don't they have another sequel of that coming out now that's
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like 28 years later? Yeah, it's it's AI.
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Don't know how many films they have in that series, but I did
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watch the the first one years when it came out and they filmed
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that on a Canon XL1. OK it was a 7 or excuse me, it
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was a $8 million budget film and the Canon XL1 had the original
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SM, the MSRP of $3700 and this was a mini DV Cam.
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Oh so they shot that film basically in 480P.
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So if you go back and watch the 1st in this series of films 28
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Days later, it looks pretty rough by today's standards.
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Oh, that's kind of. But again, of course it's the
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horror genre. Yeah, pretty fun course it is.
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But this was one that my brother was very proud to have
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remembered, and that was Star Wars Episode 2, Attack of the
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Clones. OK, They used an early Sony
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digital camera really And it they shot it in 1080P less than
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that because they were going cinema aspect ratio.
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And I pulled up some of the specs on the camera that they
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used. It was a Sony Sinalta HDW F900.
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Okay, I have never heard of that and will never remember that.
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Yeah, it was a really early 2K camera, essentially Max frame
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rate, 24 frames per second and bit color depth was 8 bit.
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It was shooting an 8 bit. And the the stops of dynamic
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range that it had was around the seven to eight stop range, which
6:38
if you're unfamiliar with that, I think a black magic like 4
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pocket 4K today is shooting at right around 12 to 13 stops of
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dynamic range. And each stop stops are
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exponential. So if you go up one stop, you're
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doubling the amount of information that you have
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available to you. So it's it was very compressed.
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But if you go back and watch the early Star Wars trilogy, not the
7:04
early, early one, but this is the first one that was filmed
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digitally. So episode 2, you can see that
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like the quality they used a lot of green screen, but the quality
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on the actual actors was a little bit pixelated.
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It's kind of fun. What was?
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What was the one before that? Then they shot.
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That on film. It was Star Wars Episode that
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was the first one that they did digitally, yes.
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OK. All right, that was a little
7:30
hack that they tried to use, but they dove into it a little.
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Soon you can watch episode 2. It's pretty pretty.
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Fun. You know what?
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Some people had to eventually pave the way and walk so that
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now everyone with an Apple or Android device can run.
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Oh yes, very true it. Was a requirement.
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Yeah, I mean literally that Sony Cam that they shot on for Star
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Wars, I guarantee most people's phones would have a similar
7:57
dynamic range. But it does.
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It does show that how important it is to learn how to light your
8:03
scene and know the equipment, know the limitations of the
8:06
equipment because it's not going to be, you're not going to be
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able to shoot Star Wars Episode 2 because you have the newest
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iPhone. Sorry, there's a lot more going
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into it. But with that caveat, should we
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talk about renting versus buying equipment?
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Yeah, because I've actually I've, I've rented equipment in
8:23
the past and I am a fan of it. I do think it's important to do
8:29
especially if there's gear you want to test out before you
8:32
throw however much money at it. Right, OK, because the last
8:39
thing you want is having this dream lens in mind.
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But it's, you know, a $1600 lens and you're like, do I really
8:45
want to splurge on this? You could rent it for, you know,
8:47
30-40 bucks a day, test it out for a weekend, do a quick shoot,
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see how it goes, see how it feels.
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And then that way if you hate it, you're only out like 60 to
8:58
80 bucks as opposed to 1600. So I do think that renting is
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important. I don't know if it's the best
9:07
long term strategy if you want to build out your own kit to be
9:11
able to shoot quickly, because when you're renting gear you got
9:15
to wait for shipping time. Yeah.
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So there's a little give and there's a little bit of take,
9:20
but I do think it's really valuable for trying stuff out.
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I think so too. I want to put like a asterisk on
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renting as well, because if you're just starting out, I
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think it's really important that you learn how something works.
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Yeah, in and until you learn the insurance and outs of 1 camera
9:38
or one piece of gear, 11 field recorder, a specific lens, it's
9:44
going to be really hard for you to learn a new one.
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So if you're renting something and you don't have much
9:50
experience, that's going to be a little bit trickier.
9:52
My favorite microphone story when I rented those lav mics for
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a shoot and I didn't really understand how the like zoom
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recorder that I because I hadn't really used.
10:04
I never really cared about audio sorry and this was my first time
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having a zoom recorder and I did not understand how the mic
10:12
inputs on it worked and did not pull any of that lab audio.
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Yeah, you're always going to be disappointed in how a piece of
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equipment works if you don't know how it works.
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Yeah, it's a huge caveat. I kind of want to throw throw a
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shout out to sharegrid.com. Yeah, because we're in the Boise
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area, Sharegrid is kind of an Airbnb or a Toro for film and
10:38
camera equipment. Nice.
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And so if you do want to rent something and the reason I bring
10:42
up the Boise area is we don't really have a equipment rental
10:46
facility here. There, Once Upon a time was
10:49
Idaho camera. But they went out of business to
10:52
independence. Yeah, they're toast.
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So. Which is kind of a bummer.
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Because Best Buy does not have the selection I need.
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No, they do not. Or you know, there's equipment
11:02
rental agencies that'll mail you stuff, which is what we have to
11:04
do here if we want specific equipment.
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But Share Grid, there are some local people here in our area
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that have production companies, small, medium and large, and
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then they'll just put their equipment for rent on that.
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The bummer with that is because of the size of the market we're
11:20
in, when I'm looking for audio gear, there's really almost
11:23
nothing on there that's of any valuable, any valuable, any
11:27
value to me. Because you already own most of
11:30
the audio gear and. What I need and and like.
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The really high high quality stuff is harder to source so.
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Though that is kind of one thing I want to throw out there as far
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as this whole renting versus buying equation here.
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And I know I helped brainstorm the questions for the podcast
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today, so I am at fault for this.
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But I feel like it actually does exclude an important third
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option, which is borrow. Yeah, definitely borrow if you
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can. Yeah, 'cause there are so many
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filming and I assume that either we're just really, really lucky
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here in our community is incredibly supportive and
12:03
amazing, which to be fair, they are.
12:05
They're awesome. I'm biased, but I assume other
12:08
places outside of, you know, LA or Atlanta or wherever.
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If you're in a smaller area and you're, you're being a part of
12:17
your community and you're going to these screenings and you're
12:20
seeing other people's work. You're kind of getting an idea
12:23
for what equipment people have, what they have available.
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And I bet that some of the people are really generous and
12:29
would let you borrow their stuff if you needed to, especially if
12:31
you just wanted to test it out or you just need, you're finally
12:34
needing to shoot something anamorphic.
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And I have no anamorphic lenses. So I called Danny and hope he's
12:40
willing to let me borrow something or, you know, whatever
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the situation may be. I feel like borrowing is an
12:46
important part of this, especially since you could also
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borrow styles and techniques and creative solutions.
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So again, shameless plug for community theater.
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You want to see how to do some weird proper costuming stuff and
12:58
you don't know how to make that happen or a weird practical
13:00
effect? Go see how your local theater
13:02
did it and they'll probably just teach you to yeah.
13:04
Yeah. And if you are in a market where
13:07
you're a little bit more remote, like where like where we are
13:09
here in Boise, you are going to have a lot of people that did
13:11
have to buy some stuff that is sitting and collecting dust
13:14
because they're not using it every single day.
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No, and yeah, that's a great, that's a great solution.
13:19
Definitely ask if you can borrow.
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Obviously that's the cheapest. Yes, that's the cheapest option.
13:24
I also wanted to talk about used equipment because I've
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definitely gone down that road quite a bit.
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I feel like used equipment is super helpful for microphones
13:37
and lenses. Yep, every time.
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And if you do see something used that pops up, I never see it as
13:44
losing money because a lot of times if you find a good deal on
13:47
a used microphone or a used lens, grab it if you can, try it
13:52
out, and if you don't like it, you can usually resell it for
13:55
pretty close to the same price. Yeah, they're not going to lose
13:57
their value super quickly. Versus field recorders or actual
14:02
camera bodies which just go out of date within a few years in
14:07
most cases. Maybe not field recorders as
14:10
much, but definitely I feel like camera bodies were kind of on an
14:13
exponential growth curve. Right.
14:16
Can't we be at that point already where like camera bodies
14:19
are set so I can stop having a budget to replace my camera
14:22
every few years? Like just aren't we there yet?
14:26
Aren't we at the pinnacle? Can we just?
14:29
I think. How many more pixels are you
14:32
actually going to notice, especially if it's playing on a
14:34
phone screen? Good point, good point.
14:37
Vertical video. I want the.
14:38
I need I. Need 12K for this vertical
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video. Well, then you can get like 12
14:45
or yeah, what would that be? 6 vertical videos right next to
14:48
each other you can do in one recording session.
14:50
But no, I actually kind of like how the camera equipment is is
14:54
is improving so fast. I will say that at the top end,
14:58
maybe not as much. If you look at camera systems
15:01
like red and RE, you know, high end Canon, high end Sony, those
15:06
cameras are, you know, a black magic makes like a 12 Ki.
15:10
Don't know how much more you really need than 12 K.
15:13
But the nice thing is that they're figuring out some of
15:16
these cameras in smaller and smaller packages that record
15:19
really high quality video that you can lug around very easily,
15:23
which is conducive to being able to practice shooting things.
15:27
Which is why I refuse to throw away my old the DJI stabilizer.
15:33
OK, I have a newer one that has a higher weight capacity but I'm
15:37
not getting rid of that older 1 yet because I believe that one
15:40
day cameras are going to be light enough I can use it again.
15:42
Oh, nice, because it was. Great.
15:44
And it worked really well, yes. So I'm not getting rid of it
15:47
yet. Yeah, some of that stuff.
15:48
Which means it's available to borrow if anyone's in town and
15:50
needs to borrow because it's just sitting there collecting I.
15:53
Bet I bet it'll hold my my GH6. It's pretty light.
15:56
It might. Actually, it might, yeah.
15:58
There you go. You can borrow it.
16:00
Do you want to? Do you have any other advice for
16:01
renting versus buying before we move on to some DIY hacks we've
16:05
done? No, I think those are the exact
16:07
same things. I feel like my favorite place to
16:10
find lenses. Pawn shops love it because yes,
16:13
online looking for the refurbished option is always
16:16
great. But even in Boise we have pawn
16:19
shops. Yeah, so we may not have a B&H,
16:22
but I can go find some lenses. Now, whether or not I have an
16:26
adapter for all of them is a different story, but that's
16:28
fine. And old vintage lenses can be
16:30
really cool too. And sometimes.
16:32
So pretty. You can get them for whatever
16:34
the current cost of a hit of meth is right now.
16:36
I don't know what how it works at pawn shops, but you know you
16:39
can get yourself an old cool like Nikon lens or we have a.
16:44
Is it a? Konica.
16:45
Yeah, We have an old Konica lens that is absolutely gorgeous.
16:49
It's an F12. We sourced it from my father who
16:53
had this camera that he used in the 60s and we got an adapter
16:57
for it, popped it on our our black magic and it was like, oh
17:00
wow, that looks so good. Because it's OK, it doesn't
17:05
always come down to the glass, but like you can get away with
17:10
maybe your camera being a little bit out of date if your lens is
17:14
really nice. Yeah, yeah.
17:16
And if you look at some of the stuff that we shot for Treasure
17:18
Valley Live, which was a live music series we did in here when
17:21
we upgraded to the Black Magic 4K, which shoots 12 bit raw, we
17:27
put a, you know, just a Panasonic lens on that.
17:30
And then we used our Sony A6000, which is a really old mirrorless
17:35
just pocket camera. And we put that nice conical
17:38
lens on it and it was holding up.
17:42
It was holding punching above its weight with that lens on
17:44
there did not look as good as the Black Magic, but it was
17:48
still, you know, like a 8 bit camera shooting in 1080P.
17:53
It still looked a lot better than the kit lens that came with
17:55
it. Oh yes, definitely, definitely.
17:57
Those kit lenses can be real rough.
17:59
Don't be rough. It's nice to have because at
18:01
least then you know this is a lens that fits my camera and I
18:04
can film or shoot something. Yes.
18:07
But yeah, you probably want to get different lenses.
18:10
That's the that's the first big expense.
18:12
But hey, they usually hold their value pretty well.
18:14
But to be fair, a lot of those like borrow lenses, lens
18:16
rentals, all those online places, they do oftentimes sell
18:21
off their old gear. And it's not just lenses, though
18:25
the names would make you think that it is.
18:28
But they have camera bodies, they've got lights and which is
18:33
really nice to get lighting gear at a discount.
18:35
Oh yeah. Like they they take anything
18:37
that's got maybe a little bit too much superficial damage on
18:40
it or they've just got overstock and it's not renting out as much
18:43
as it used to anymore. And you can buy it pretty cheap.
18:45
So I found entire Dolly systems on there before.
18:48
Oh, nice. Yeah, I almost bought it.
18:50
I didn't do it. I think I wanted.
18:52
To one key is to be. What I try to do is have a list
18:55
of equipment that I need or that I want, need and want two
18:59
different things. Keep keep an eye on places like
19:02
BN hkeh.com, they sell just mostly used gear and Adorama
19:08
camera. And then obviously like Amazon
19:11
and just the local marketplaces. And then if I'm checking that
19:15
every week or so for the stuff that I want slash need, usually
19:20
something pops up in like a month or two at a deal that is
19:25
too good to pass up, which I guess that happens a lot, but it
19:28
does. We get a little gear hungry.
19:30
Do you have some examples of situations where you've
19:33
Macgyvered your own gear that actually worked?
19:36
Yeah, I'm a big fan of my first Steadicam, and Steadicam is very
19:40
generous, but I did in Sharpie write the word Steadicam on it.
19:44
So it's official. Think it was official.
19:47
Nice. So this was college for me, so
19:50
very early 2000s and there weren't, you couldn't go buy a
19:53
DJI stabilizer for a reasonable price at that point, right?
19:57
It just wasn't there. It wasn't available.
20:01
I think Amazon still only sold books really.
20:03
So like your options were limited did.
20:06
You buy a book on how to build a Steadicam.
20:08
I did not, but this was the this was the early rough days of
20:12
Reddit as well. And I don't, I think it was
20:15
Reddit, it was a forum, so I'm assuming Reddit, but I guess I
20:19
don't know. That had a bunch of how to
20:22
guides on basically Macgyvering your own stuff.
20:25
So they had one for a jib that you could build yourself with
20:28
primarily a very large like the plumbing PVC, not plumbing PVC,
20:35
but the outside your sprinklers go through it type of PVC.
20:40
So it's got like a, you know, 5-6 inch diameter on it.
20:45
And my favorite was the Steadicam because I knew I had
20:49
weight plates from my gym set at my house.
20:52
So I just needed to find enough pieces of pipe that fit together
20:57
and one of them needed at the very center at the top.
21:00
I just needed to have a, you know, a threaded screw in it.
21:05
And in the very first iteration, did I just use hair ties to
21:12
strap a tripod shoe basically to the bottom of it so that it
21:19
could clip in my camera? Yes, yes, I did.
21:20
Did that make it very safe? No.
21:23
But the second rendition did get better, and it was actually a
21:26
part of the entire thing. And yeah, it was just all these
21:29
different metal pipes with enough counterweight at the
21:32
bottom. You just slid off the the bottom
21:35
like closure bit and slid on some weight plates because it
21:38
was really thin, narrow pipe, and then screwed it back on and
21:42
you were good to go. So nice.
21:43
Yeah. And it's often the movements.
21:45
It actually worked pretty well. I was really happy with it.
21:48
We tried to build our own steady Cam, not build our own.
21:50
Excuse me, We bought the least expensive one we could find
21:53
where it was just one of those weight balance ones.
21:55
Yeah, but our camera was so light that we couldn't balance
21:59
it. And so we just went into, my dad
22:04
famously has a garage and two sheds full of miscellaneous
22:08
tools and equipment and stuff that he just hasn't thrown away.
22:12
So we went in there and found like some old fishing weights
22:15
and we just masking tape them like behind the camera just.
22:21
So that it would actually counterweight it, as opposed to,
22:24
yeah, throw it completely off its axis.
22:26
Exactly. So yeah, because we couldn't
22:28
make it, we couldn't make it heavy enough with the camera to
22:31
to actually be able to work as a steady Cam.
22:34
But it still didn't work. It was pretty awful.
22:35
But we did do the PVC pipe thing.
22:38
OK for a Dolly. Nice.
22:40
And that we were never able to get to work because we built
22:45
just a square of PVC pipe giant, I don't know, like 16 feet or
22:49
so. So and then we made it like an
22:52
the letter H with PVC pipe to go over the top of our of our
22:57
rectangle and took an old pair of of roller blades and then
23:02
removed those wheels and then screwed them onto the PVC pipe,
23:05
the H so that it would just roll over the top of it.
23:08
But the issue was because they were used wheels, the the wheels
23:14
were so rough, so beat up from being on hard surfaces, that
23:17
that one, it was a little too bumpy and then two, it was just
23:20
so noisy. That's.
23:22
What I was going to worry about you.
23:24
Couldn't get audio. Yeah.
23:25
And that's something to those Dolly systems.
23:27
You got to be careful because if you aren't taking care of your
23:29
wheels, they do squeak or they do get stuck or it might get a
23:33
little bumpy even on the ones that you pay for.
23:36
So take good care of those. But yeah, I'd never, it never
23:39
worked for us. That is, that is my biggest
23:42
equipment purchase regret. I would say I was looking for a
23:46
cheap way around a Dolly and those little three sets of
23:50
wheels you've got that that are supposed to just let you clip
23:52
your tripod into and then you can move it around.
23:54
Oh yeah. Yes, if you're on like Berber
23:58
carpeting and nowhere else, it's just it's too bumpy, it's too
24:02
shaky. It you notice all the movement
24:05
everywhere and if the wheels can even roll so.
24:08
Yeah, those are maybe functional at the tech industry, the tech
24:13
firm I used to work for. That had the Berber carpeting
24:16
over the concrete they. Had a studio and so we got away
24:19
with being able to just roll the tripod around and I have bought
24:24
those for my tripod and they never work in real life.
24:28
No, I was trying to take it across a hardwood floor.
24:31
Oh my, it was so loud and so bumpy and just like you're just
24:35
watching the camera jitter and jump as it follows these people
24:38
around. I'm like, I can't use any of
24:39
this footage. I don't.
24:40
This is worthless. The one piece of equipment that
24:43
we built that actually did work, though was a jib made out of
24:46
tent poles. So not standard tent poles.
24:50
But you know, if you go to an event and you see one of those
24:53
those covered areas where people have their booths.
24:55
Oh, like a big canopy. Yeah, a canopy.
24:57
So we had canopy that was basically going to be thrown
25:00
away. So we got our hands on and so we
25:02
took all the poles on that and then just basically mounted the,
25:07
the poles to a tripod and, and it ended up working.
25:11
We used it for our first three projects, 2 feature films and a
25:16
web series. Yeah.
25:18
So that, that one worked OK. You had to obviously rely on
25:21
autofocus because we were just using like a, a handycam for
25:25
those projects. And we're like, hopefully the
25:27
focus follows the right thing and let's lift it up, let's drop
25:30
it down. So it ended up being a lot of
25:31
takes. Because a family would just go
25:33
right in front of the camera and then suddenly the camera's like,
25:35
oh, I should look at this back of dust that's right here
25:38
instead of the person. Exactly exactly.
25:40
Do you have any other DIY recommendations or don'ts you
25:44
want to share with people? I think no, I think that's the
25:49
biggest thing. So I'll be honest with you, I I
25:53
love hardware stores, so this seems like a no brainer to me.
25:56
But if there's something that you're missing, just go to the
26:00
hardware store, grab a bunch of different pieces and justice,
26:04
you know, have yourself a seat, bring a coffee with you.
26:06
A bunch of dogs will just walk by and you'll have friends to
26:09
hang out with. And you can just start trying to
26:11
build stuff that you don't have. So your tripod doesn't quite
26:14
reach where you need it to. You need to attempt your own jib
26:19
Dolly or steady camp. Like whatever you're looking
26:21
for, just. Dig around a little bit.
26:23
Yeah, go play. Something besides a Pelican case
26:26
to hold all your equipment. You might be able to go around
26:28
to hardware stores to find different waterproof cases and
26:31
find different sizes of foam and kind of mess around with stuff.
26:33
It'll take a lot more time, but you could save a pretty good
26:36
chunk of cash. That is something I should do
26:38
because I still use a hiking backpack nice my gear, so maybe
26:42
I should do. That say as long as you got
26:44
enough padding in there. So regrets bad or cheap
26:49
equipment purchases that we regret.
26:50
I do have like 2 that are huge, huge for me because over the
26:56
last 10 to 12 years we've shot so much and every single tripod
27:00
that we bought that wasn't that expensive has been thrown away.
27:04
Yeah, you. You can't cheap out on a tripod.
27:06
Sorry, so if you're just starting out, do yourself a do
27:10
yourself a favor and pay for a good tripod because it will last
27:15
a very long time. I'll be 100% honest with you.
27:19
I will agree with that on the tripod head.
27:22
Oh, good point. But I will say the tripod body
27:25
itself you can get away with a little bit more than you think
27:29
because those legs are hollow. You can fill them with sand.
27:34
If it's not durable enough, it's not holding up enough and you
27:36
need a little bit more weight to it.
27:38
You can't make the tripod head more fluid when it's not a fluid
27:43
head. Yes.
27:45
So I I guess there's the caveat too is you want to make sure
27:49
that you get a tripod that allows for a head to be replaced
27:52
on it. Oh yeah, If you don't, then
27:54
you're totally just yeah, which is a.
27:55
Different level of purchasing tripods because it's.
27:59
Very true. Because I bought some real cheap
28:01
crap before and basically it works for, you know, a few
28:05
shoots and then everything starts to fall apart.
28:07
So it's not worth saving money there, and it's not worth
28:10
cheaping out on boom poles either.
28:13
Oh yeah. Oh, I can't believe I didn't
28:15
think of that one because the two poles that I have are just
28:18
crap. Yeah, but I think I paid, you
28:20
know, 12 bucks for them. So they work about how you would
28:23
imagine audio gear that cost $12.00 with.
28:26
That and there are companies out there that will put their name
28:28
on a boom pole that's inexpensive and that does not
28:31
matter. I'm thinking of my Rd. boom
28:33
pole. Oh yeah.
28:35
They make a light 1 and I want to say it's like under 100
28:37
bucks. It's like 50 or something like
28:39
that and that thing just quit locking in place after after one
28:45
project. Well, you don't need it to stay
28:47
put. You know your mic can just move
28:49
through the whole shot, right? It made it made things real
28:51
interesting because I think it was mid shoot on a feature film
28:53
that has started to kind of like loosen up and not tighten.
28:56
So I if I had it at the wrong angle, it would just the mic
28:58
would just slide back in into the into the boom pole and it
29:01
was like, OK, obviously this needs to be replaced.
29:04
So just don't. Don't skimp on that stuff.
29:07
Yeah, I think my boom poles are now officially more gaffe tape
29:10
than metal. Oh well, I guess there's you can
29:13
always fix things with gaffe tape I guess in a pinch, but you
29:16
don't want to be spending your mental capacity on that.
29:19
Yeah, but it still kind of shakes anytime it moves and you
29:23
can just hear that rattling around.
29:24
And yes, it does pick up on the audio.
29:26
Of course it does. So yeah.
29:29
Good, not good stuff. Do you have any other regrets
29:31
that you want to share as far as equipment purchase?
29:33
Boy, that sure feels like a lot of regret already.
29:35
Yeah, a lot of regret, nothing else.
29:40
Are you wanting me to say that I regret my cannons because I do
29:43
not? Oh, I wasn't going to say that
29:45
you would regret your cannons. I love my cannons.
29:47
You can pry them from my cold, dead hands.
29:50
We have a Panasonic versus cannon thing going on, if nobody
29:54
out there would be aware of that.
29:55
But I do feel like cannons are a little overpriced for what they
29:59
offer when you can get a Lumix, which is more confusing in the
30:01
menus. I will grant that their menus
30:04
are very convoluted, but The thing is, is they have so many
30:07
options and they're not as expensive.
30:09
I'm just going to say. I'm standing by the cannon.
30:12
I have one more thing to share with people as well and that is
30:16
for studio equipment. If you do sound stuff, Behringer
30:20
makes some decent products and they also make some really cheap
30:23
products and I have bought several small Behringer sound
30:27
mixers to get me through in a pinch and they do not work
30:31
anymore. So just be careful if you're
30:33
getting a sound mixer. If you're going to be doing some
30:36
audio mixing in your studio, I would not skimp on sound mixers,
30:42
especially if you're monitoring audio.
30:44
And one good hack for that is if you do location sound and you do
30:48
mix, currently my setup is to actually use my, my field
30:51
recorder as my USB audio interface for mixing.
30:56
And so then it's serving 22 purposes.
30:59
It's dual purpose. Like if I'm using, if I'm doing
31:01
location sound, I don't have it hooked up at my computer station
31:04
anyway. So I can just pop it out and
31:06
then record onto it, you know, bring it back home, pop it in,
31:09
plug in the the monitors, which speaker monitors and use it for,
31:14
for sound mixing too. So don't buy the cheap, you
31:17
know, 50 dollar $50 mixers. I'm just imagining that that
31:22
sounds like it's maybe comparable to the to the
31:24
Behringer wine. Oh, the wine's great.
31:27
I don't know what you're talking about.
31:31
How much is? How much is that?
31:32
They have some that are good, but then they have some that are
31:34
like, don't do that if it's less than $8.
31:38
Don't do it Well if if you're buying wine for less than 8
31:42
bucks a bottle. I think you're looking for the
31:44
the feature. You're at Grocery Outlet and you
31:47
might find a real winner or something you hate.
31:50
Actually another hack if you're at Grocery Outlet bargain
31:53
market, find the Portuguese wine.
31:57
That's the one hack that I've found.
31:59
If you're digging around those 6-7 dollars bottles of wine.
32:02
Maybe you have a slow month when you're a freelancer and you
32:05
can't afford the good stuff. Then yes, if you find the
32:09
Portuguese. Usually.
32:11
Usually it's OK, A little safer, yeah, OK.
32:13
California's got some good stuff, but it can be a little
32:15
hit and miss. Portugal, I don't know what they
32:17
got going on there, but they can send it over here for 6 bucks a
32:20
bottle and it's totally palatable.
32:21
OK, we'll take that. Should we get back to equipment?
32:24
Yeah, probably. OK, so 2K to rig yourself out,
32:28
what are you going to buy? From scratch, right?
32:31
I assumed we were going from scratch.
32:32
Yeah, I realized I just kind of messed that up.
32:34
So do you want to? Do you want to start out?
32:36
I can. I'm going to try to run through
32:38
it quickly though, because we're already at a fair amount of time
32:41
here. So let's do it.
32:42
Let's make this one fun, OK? If I only had 2000, I would
32:46
start with the Black Magic 4 Ki. Just think that the pocket 4 Ki
32:52
don't think it's lost that much image quality.
32:54
It does get you everything you need.
32:55
And realistically anything that I'm shooting, I don't need to be
32:58
above 4K. I can make good commercial stuff
33:02
to fund myself and my projects for, for because it's about
33:05
$1000. So half my budget just went to
33:08
that. I'm going to look on other pawn
33:11
shops or lens rental sites for one telephoto lens so I can get
33:17
like a little bit of a longer lens.
33:18
I want, I want to be able to give that depth to my shots and
33:21
one that's a wider portrait somewhere in the, you know, 1316
33:26
millimeter, I guess that's a little bit wider than a portrait
33:28
would be. A portrait would probably be
33:29
closer to like 60, but whatever I want to be in that wider so I
33:34
have the ability to do nice big establishing shots that should
33:39
cover everything I need in between.
33:40
It may not be perfect for everything, but at least I'm
33:42
going to be able to cover the most range.
33:44
And I know I can treat that telephoto like a little bit more
33:47
of a macro lens if I absolutely have to and get some really fun
33:49
artsy stuff, especially for commercial gigs.
33:51
So that's what I'm going to do. I always skip on audio,
33:56
obviously. So I'm going to get a really
33:57
good on camera mic, OK, in the hopes that that's going to be
34:02
good enough. And I know I can see it in your
34:04
eyes right now that you're saying it's not.
34:06
I can tell. I already know. $2000 is going
34:08
to be next to impossible to do both audio and video.
34:11
That's see, so I'm focusing on the video right on which sorry,
34:16
anyone who's like I really needed audio suggestions.
34:18
That's not Charles will have or Chuck will have that for you,
34:21
not me. Yeah, Oh yeah.
34:25
And then I'm going to spend money on a good tripod head, but
34:30
a cheap tripod body because I can mod that body to fit what I
34:34
need to. I can go fill sandbags myself.
34:36
I can take pillowcases and turn them into sandbags.
34:39
I do not have a any qualms DIY and that stuff, but.
34:43
You want the head to be smooth. The tripod head to be smooth.
34:46
Nice. Yep, I just realized how hard it
34:49
is to gear yourself out for $2000.
34:52
It's. Really.
34:52
Hard it's it's it's next to impossible.
34:56
So I do have pocket 4K. Those are $1100 now.
35:01
The reason I like that you might you could get a used 1.
35:06
Oh, I was looking at used. You can get a used one for less
35:08
than that, so I guess that's something to consider.
35:13
The reason I like the new is that it does come with Davinci
35:16
Resolve Pro. And so.
35:18
You're already working on the footage that you gather in the
35:22
environment that it was designed to be color graded and edited.
35:25
So it's it's almost worth buying a new one because I don't know
35:29
what Davinci Resolve studio costs at this juncture, but it's
35:33
got to be a few $100 I would imagine at least for the for the
35:37
key. So but.
35:38
You can get away with a lot in the free version.
35:40
True, true. So I, I, I guess I'll find a
35:43
used 1, you know, because you could probably get one for like
35:46
800 I'm guessing. I saw him for 890, something
35:50
like 890-5897, something like that.
35:52
So I rounded it up to 1000 so that I wasn't lying for this
35:54
exercise all. Right.
35:55
Well, do what you can on the Pocket 4K because it is still
35:59
really good quality. There's a Four Thirds lens that
36:02
I actually use that I love. It's the Lumix 12 to 35 F 28 and
36:09
you can find those used around 500 bucks.
36:13
So if you're unfamiliar with micro 4 thirds.
36:16
If you're unfamiliar with cameras though, I don't know how
36:18
know how much this helps, but it's like a 12 to 35 is roughly
36:22
the equivalent of a 24mm to to 70mm zoom like zoom lens.
36:30
So 500 bucks. It's really good quality
36:33
honestly. Like the the clarity of the lens
36:35
is great. And then I would go with Rode
36:38
wireless pro lav mics if you're just starting out.
36:43
And I'm not normally a huge fan of lav mics, but if you're
36:46
running camera, the nice thing about the Rode Wireless Pro is
36:50
that it comes with actual lav mics, not just those big boxes
36:54
that people you see them clipped on their shirts, which drives me
36:57
crazy just. Because they are all over
37:00
TikTok. Yes, just just use some.
37:02
Just use some. It's called moleskin.
37:04
Tape it to the the actors or the talents underneath their shirt
37:08
or right to their chest. Moleskin is kind of like a
37:10
Band-Aid material. Yeah, I think.
37:12
It's literally Band-Aid on the back.
37:14
It's just got sort of a salt, softer, almost felt like yeah,
37:17
substance on the top. So you can put it right on
37:19
people's skin, put it on their sternum or hide it in their
37:22
clothes, clothing somewhere underneath their collar.
37:24
And you got good audio that you can then monitor through the
37:27
wireless dongle into your pocket. 4K and then put your
37:31
headphones on so that you can hear if there's any clothing
37:34
wrestling and you can monitor your audio while you're
37:36
recording. Which is a big win.
37:38
Yeah, unfortunately that didn't leave any money for a tripod,
37:44
which is kind of a bummer. You've got the ground, you've
37:47
got the trunk of your car, you've got shelves, you've got
37:50
options. And I'm going to say that that
37:52
Lumix 12 to 35 lens does have optical image stabilization.
37:56
So if you can just hold real still.
37:59
There are actually tips and tricks if you keep the camera.
38:03
This was one of my favorite things.
38:04
So the camera strap on and you pull it out away from your body
38:11
as far as it'll go and then rest your elbows on something that
38:16
that actually pulls enough tension to keep it a little bit
38:19
more stable. And that is your your go to
38:22
position. Whenever you do not have a
38:25
tripod available, that should be your go to stance.
38:27
You still got kind of like 3 points of tension holding this
38:30
thing, and with the strap pulled tight the entire time, all of
38:35
your movements will actually be a little bit smoother and softer
38:37
anyway, so they won't be quite as painfully noticeable or
38:40
jarring. Nice.
38:41
So. Nice, that's a fun.
38:43
That's a fun tip I learned. I dig it.
38:45
You can be just your own tripod, so.
38:47
Your own tripod. You didn't even need that there.
38:49
So there's your, there's your two grand ish.
38:51
But definitely focus on used and I really like Black Magic's
38:56
cameras just because they are legitimate cinema cameras and
39:01
they give you the feeling on how to set, you know the F/T, stop
39:07
the shutter speed slash shutter angle, how to expose correctly.
39:12
It gives you great exposure tools and their screen is
39:15
actually pretty decent. That comes on the Pocket 4K.
39:18
It's actually not a bad little LCD monitors.
39:20
Which you're not going to get with, you know, a hybrid camera,
39:23
photo video camera just doesn't exist.
39:25
So I dig that for film specifically.
39:28
You know what I personally love that we both completely left out
39:31
because I called myself out for leaving this out Lights.
39:37
Neither one of us budgeted any money for lights.
39:39
You just gotta start by shooting at golden hour.
39:43
You can get out there twice a day and practice.
39:45
Every single gaffer listening right now is so personally
39:48
offended. Yeah, they're like, I do way
39:50
more than that, like. Yeah, they do.
39:52
Yeah, they do. So yeah, lighting that's tricky,
39:55
but there are some ways to DIY some of that stuff and make sure
39:58
you're near a window. And that's a whole different
40:01
lesson that I am not at all able to.
40:05
Identify people on. I don't think anyone should ever
40:07
take lighting advice from me. I think that would be a mistake.
40:10
It's tricky. It's.
40:11
Tricky. Great.
40:12
All I do is just blast this thing with light and I'm like,
40:14
oh, we got a black background anyway.
40:16
If you're watching the podcast, it's just us exposed in front of
40:19
a black background. And I'm like, that's the
40:21
contrast you're getting there It is.
40:24
All right. Anything else to add for this
40:25
episode? I think that feels pretty good.
40:27
That's that's that's everything I have to say about Macgyvering
40:30
your own film equipment. Should we end with a succinct
40:33
goodbye? Absolutely.