What materials due you recommend to start you own docuementary with a small budget?

Question

Please if you can provide what would be the best camera and other materials? My budget would be probably $800 - $1000 and I already have computer software for editing.

Answer 1

Spend 500 bucks on audio and lighting, with a budget of $800-$1000, and you're just starting out? If you're like me, you probably would've thought the same thing, "That's ridiculous." That's not to say that lighting and audio aren't important at all, but they have to fit your budget size as well as being high quality. I'll try to recommend everything on an $800 budget, that way, if you have more money, then it'll be better than trying to downsize a $1000 budget to fit a smaller one. As for a camera, of course I won't recommend a particular one, but Panasonic's upper-end pv-gs series is very good, with 3ccds and manual controls found only in prosumer cams. For a tight budget, these cams are the way to go. The 300, 400, and 500 are especially good, but if you get them from anywhere other than eBay or a cheap reseller, it won't leave a lot of room for anything else. So for the camera, I would say spend around $500. A good mic is nice, but a super-high quality mic is going to be overkill when you are just starting to gather your other materials. A rode videomic costs around $150, and a stereo videomic costs $250, both cheaper on eBay, of course. Assuming you get a stereo videomic for the $250 price, that leaves $50 for lighting and other stuff, if necessary. If you weren't planning on spending a lot on lights anyways, then excuse me for preaching to the converted and just ignore the next few sentences. Now on with it. I don't think lighting is one of the least important parts of a film, in fact it's one of the most important technical aspects, in my opinion. So then why spend a mere $50 on lighting, if it is so important? If you're shooting documentaries, you'll be doing mostly location shots or interviews. With location shots, you're probably not going to need light, unless it's the dead the of night, but even then, it'll probably just be a flashlight, or camera light, etc. For interviews, you'll need good lighting, but it's with how you light it, not what. A $500 light set will still look like bad if you stick a hard light right in front of someone's face. Lighting can be augmented by lights at the interview location, such as lamps. Okay, well now that were done with that, let's talk about buying lights. Home depot and Lowe's have 500w worklights for about $20 a piece. This is, combined with extra lights at your shooting location, will probably be all that you'll ever need (at least it has for me). And finally, there will be some extra money left over which you can use for whatever else is needed. Obviously, this isn't everything you can get to make a good documentary film. Other things like lenses, filters, a fast computer, food, paper, ink, etc. are all things that could be added to the budget, but obviously, I don't know your exact situation, so I can't make it all fit in. Hopefully, I gave you enough info with the major parts so that anything else can be easily put into the budget and towards a great documentary. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Greetings,

OK, so you have a PC to edit with and you want to do a documentary. To get the best results, get a DV camcorder in the $500 range. With the other $300-$500, buy a good microphone and some lighting gear. You will need tapes etc.

Most important, a good microphone. You have to get good quality audio for it to work.

The lights are important - even more so on a cheap camcorder. There are some good light reflectors and screens that you can buy for out door use too. You'll have to good a google search for them.

But, decent quality documentary stuff can be done if you put the effort into it and get very creative with the $1000.

Hope that helps,

Jeff

Answer 3

A Samsung 203 Mini DV or a Sony HC 28 or a Panasonic GR29

All are pretty good and cost under $300

Extra battery.

FireWire cord to connect to your computer.

Power inverter to charge from the car cigarette lighter.

The rest depends on your need. A few clamp lights or stand lights. A fluid head tripod. A low cost Steadi Cam mount.

A wireless mic transmitter recuver and lavaler mic (if you get the Samsung, it has an external mic connection).

You might want to consider two cameras.