What sort of lights would be best to evenly light this screen and get a perfect key? Ideally under $500 for a pair of lights (or more lights if needed). I am thinking of lights that I can mount on C-Stands or light-stands.

The talent will be lit separately with soft boxes, around 4 meters away from the green screen.

• GoPro, DJI & Insta360 are too expensive
• All other budget action camera out there seems exactly the same HW & SW with (sometimes) different housing and terrible video compartment.
• It seems impossible to find a honest review nor a review of the photographic capabilities. I get the impression that many of them don't even have the 12-megapixel sensor they boast of having.
• Discontinued YI cameras seemed to be the only really apart from the other.

Based on the above, could you suggest me some budget action camera?

Thank you in advance

More info about the making of the film here: https://www.dominicjacksonfilms.com/polar

It is a drama comedy about substance abuse, mental health and not fitting in. If you enjoy it please share the link and please leave a review on IMDB and AMAZON we really need it as we hardly have any!

Thanks so much for your time if your get to watch it I hope you like it, it is available at higher resolution and without the stamp in the corner for a low cost, the money will be used to keep the film production moving forward and possibly making another feature!

It is on Reelhouse.org and Amazon UK and USA.

Thank so much hope you enjoy and please subscribe to us on youtube I will be making more videos about the making of Polar and other similar stuff.

Regards, Dom.

Thats the credentials out the way..... I wanted to start a topic that could act as a powerful resource tool for anybody wishing to enter into Wedding Videography. A collective center of useful tips, past experiences and success stories by way of sharing inspiring films from other members. This could be useful then for someone perhaps wishing to start filming weddings, or perhaps someoe who has been given that difficult challenge of filming their friend's wedding and doesn't know where to start. Useful also to those that have been doing it for years and are looking for some inspiration and a fresh set of eyes that newcomer's bring to the table.

With this in mind, I wanted to share the trials and tribulations we have encountered over the last year or so, the bad decisions with equipment we made and the ones where we got it right. Of course I add the caveat of everything I write being my own opinion and may of course not work for you. Every area in the world has accepted styles of what a Wedding Film should be, and what maybe works here doesnt necessarily work elsewhere. My focus in the business is the Techinal side, therefore I will only share my experiences and opinions with the equipment. As for the running of the business and interfacing with customers, maybe someone else will go into that.

We started in the business because we saw a growing demand for Wedding Films in our area, and yet not enough people to meet that demand. In our local area exists some guys who had been doing it for many years, and were able to provide a very traditional approach to filming a wedding, but there were not a lot of companies that would cover the day with a more cinematic flare. This need combined with my wife's insatiable appetite for watching wedding videos created our business.

We filmed our first wedding with a Panasonic SD-700 and a Panasonic SD-900. Fantastic camcorders for our first time. (We have changed cameras quite a few time before we ended up with GH3s.) We filmed a lot, maybe a lot more than we needed but we made sure we got everything we needed. We arrived early and left much later than we had planned for, but overall we are still delighted with our first film we put out. We used a RODE Videomic for the sound and generally this worked well. Where it was not so good, was when we used it directionally over one of the guests tables during the speeches. Had one of the children at the table sat somewhere else we might have picked up more of the Grooms' speech but the lesson learned was that always get your mics as close to your subjects as possible. Buy a Zoom H1, a little stand, and place it in front of your people on the top table. Sync later on and now you are free to focus on the shot and not worry about the sound. Want to be even more professional, get a wireless mic set up like the sennheiser G3 wireless kit. Mic your groom and feed the sound direct to the camera. Now you can monitor the sound through the camera.

One of the other lessons we learned at our first few weddings was how important it is to be FAST. Using tripods all day for every shot is going to make you slow. If you are not slow, then you will be squint (not level). We quickly learned that a Monopod with the added stability of some little feet was going to be our solution. Have a look at this topic....

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/7003/monopods-with-legs#

This allowed us to be quick but not at the expense of stability. In my opinion there is no excuse for going handheld all day, unless you are going for that specifically "documentary" type style. We still use tripods, but only for the Live stuff. Ceremony, Speeches and the evening dance. However we have other cameras that we use on monopods during these times and the tripod stuff is mostly used as a fall back shot (a shot to cut away to when you don't have anything else). Don't try to save money on tripods, a £35 Hama job is going to be a struggle and just bite the bullet and go for the well-known names. We use Manfrotto, not to say that they are the best, but it happened more organically. We bought a manfrotto tripod and then when we got quick plates for all our cameras we then wanted to make sure all the other tripods had the same quick release mechanism. You need to be able to go from tripod, to monopod and then back to tripod fast. So if you do buy lots of different brands of tripods or monopods, you are going to have to buy lots of quick release adaptors. Such as this one.....

http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/eng/product/calumet_quick_release_video_head_adapter/ck9007

You will need Lights, whether you go for the fill the room with light tactic, or maybe the more subtle approach, a good light is going to give your footage the added clarity it needs. Handycams and low-light are a disaster without good light. Just search for video LED light and make sure it has at least 160 LEDs or above for a reasonable amount of light. Watch out for size though, if you want it mounted to your camera hotshoe, dont go too big. If you intend to put it on its own stand, then think about how you are going to connect it, power it and operate it.

Backups, backups, backups. Always think, what if this doesnt work? Have another camera running, use one more sound recorder. Take plenty of batteries, cards and more cameras if you can afford to. Dont go small with cards, if you can afford it, save yourself a lot of hassle by buying big (64gb) and trusting a good name like Sandisk. Brandless types make me very nervous.

Putting equipment aside, there is only one bit of advice I can offer that is more interpersonal related. No matter what happens on the day, try your best to stay calm and in control. Nobody wants to see the video guy getting stressed while he screams at the guests to just hold still for one more second. Things will break, shots will go wrong, photographers will get in the way, but through it all you need to be relaxed and able to deal with whatever is presented to you. (I'm still practicsing this bit :S)

Well, im going to leave it at that just now and see what other contributions we get. I joined this forum about a year ago and it has been my one stop shop for help, advice, information and inspiration. I hope that maybe I can pass this on in some way to someone else who was in my same position.

I'm saving up for a G85, and with that I'm looking for a new 4k screen.

The screen is going to be used as a monitor for my pc. I like to have 40" +.

My priorities are:

1. viewing angle
2. colour accuracy
3. NON flickering when set to low brightness
4. latency
5. HDR ready

My budget hovers about € 700.

Any recommendations?

• Thanks!

Simply I wanted to thank the people who developed the hack and the patches and say to the world how much I like this camera, it's unique, go grab one and feel his vibe.

Greetings.

These are the sort of companies that more than likely would not have engaged a video production before, or just made their own simple youtube videos.

The success rate in getting initial meetings is about 20:1, we're getting favourable comments regarding our corporate examples. However the main worry for these companies is controlling the cost and knowing what they are going to get for their budget.

On some recent projects with a customer I know well I've used the script as a sort of 'contract' as to what they are going to get - if they want more or a change to the script after it has been shot they know that there will be a charge incurred.

I've expanded the idea a bit more and made this page on our website:

     http://wbavproductions.co.uk/resources/script.html

I'd be curious to learn if anyone here has any tips for engaging with companies that need video but haven't started yet.

Thanks for thinking .... Andy

Thinking about improving audio with my GH2. Originally I thought that for low-budget, okay, cheap (just a hobby for me), that the Rode Videomic would be a nice option.

Then I start reading here about audio recorders, and take a look at the Zoom H1. Seems pretty neat, and cheaper than the Videomic!

Now I wonder, why would anyone choose the Videomic over the H1, for a budget option? If I understand things correctly, the H1 offers more capability. You could mount it on the camera and run line-in to camera AND have headphone monitoring (with a splitter), or you could take it off the camera altogether for interviews, or attach a separate mic to it like a lav mic. Am I correct? Am I missing something?

Some friends and I are shooting our first feature film in a couple weeks. I'm the DP and using my GH2 (not sure which hack yet), but just wondering where we should prioritize any of the funds we do have? Also, I know we're not supposed to solicit on here, so I won't, but have any of you had success with Kickstarter or other crowd-funding resources? We've just put one up, but it's rather slow going.

Thanks!

see IMDB "Jobs" Page

*(from IMDB): The story of Steve Jobs' ascension from college dropout into one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of the 20th century.

Hear American Cinematographer's Podcast (45 min, 84 MB) interview with cinematographer Russell Carpenter, and director Joshua Michael Stern about the Alexa, decisions to abandon anamorphic, to go ProRes, how to get that "gauzy, filmlike look", the importance of location - and so on..

from ASC:

American Cinematographer's Jim Hemphill talks with cinematographer Russell Carpenter, ASC and director Joshua Michael Stern about the film, Jobs, which explores the life and career of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Working with the budget of an independent film, they created three unique looks to capture the feel of different eras in Job's life, but were careful never to go 'over the top.'

Read about other films being made and listen to more ASC podcasts at http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/podcasts.php

These lenses are so sharp, crystal clear and well built with smooth focusing so for an almost giveaway price you should really consider looking into them. A must buy if you are on a budget.

This was made in 3 weeks including devising a storyline and pre-production. All comments are appreciated and I will answer any questions you have.

Thanks, Aaron.

El Mariachi was shot for just under $7000 and that was film costs plus a few hundred for miscellaneous expenses. The reasons he did it so cheap was:

1. He had a partner in his star Carlos Gallardo. They were childhood friends and both had a passion for making movies. Carlos had the town they shot in wired. He knew everybody and he was from a well off family. So he could get his folks employees free as extras or henchmen. He got the hotel, the bus, the turtle, the dog, his apartment, etc... At least $20-30k of production value free because he was able to talk people into giving it away for free. You need a partner or partners who can get stuff free.

2. Rodriquez wrote the script with everything free in mind. He knew he had those items and he'd been to the town before many times so he could write the script based on what he had avaliable. If you don't got it, don't put it in the script. They say write what you know. Write what you HAVE also.

3. The most important thing that never gets mention is Rodriquez already had 10 years filmmaking experience prior to shooting El Mariachi. He would make short films on Beta or VHS with his family. He had around 9 brothers and sisters so he got them to be in his short films. He recorded on video and edited on two VCRs hitting pause and play and rec. This taught him how to pre-visualize and edit in his head so he would know which shots to get and what he didn't need. A vital skill when you can only do one take.

Now Primer:

Primer is a better example to first time filmmakers as I believe the writer, director, star Shane Carruth had zero prior movie making experience. BUT, he was an engineer so he knew he needed lots of pre-planning.

1. He went to every location he had and shot 35mm film stills with various stocks until he got a look he liked then went to the local film distributor and asked how he could emulate that look on 16mm. They like what he did and his vision and helped him out and gave him a discount. EDIT: I also believe the preshoots were designed to find film stocks he could use with the natural light available since he had no crew or wouldn't be able to add lights to the locations.

2. Like El Mariachi everything was one take because more takes cost more money. He rehearsed and rehearsed and only shot what he needed. Something unnecessary in the digital age, at least until some of the GOP1 hacks started coming out. ^_^

3. Like Rodriquez he only put in the script stuff, locations and actors he could get for free. His house, his job, wife, friends, family, etc... He did get some actors through regular auditions, like his co-star, and the reason they wanted to be in it was the script was so good they didn't care it was free. Write a good script and people will do it for free.

Now Clerks

Shot for just under $30k, it's still a good example of what to do and what not to do. It shares a lot of the same things as listed above. He had the store. He had his friends and he got actors to work for free because they loved the script. So I'll list the main problem imho. Multiple takes. He wanted the acting a certain way and he wanted long takes so any error and they had to start again. This caused multiple takes of almost every scene. A no-no in the film age, but not as big a deal in Digital.

So in closing the main points are, you either need a great script that attracts people willing to work for nothing or you need a partner/s who can get stuff free. Yes...sadly I have neither at the moment....sob.

Let's start with Popatopolis. A doc about veteran B-Movie maker Jim Wynorski. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0691061/ He's made over 70 films, some with titles like "Bare Wench Project", "The Da Vinci Coed", and the classic "The Return of Swamp Thing". This time he's making a move called, "The Witches of Breastwick" and he's trying to do it in 3 days. We can all take some lessons from him, especially his casting choices. ^_^

Next let's go underage and gory! A 12 year old girl decided to make a zombie movie. Zombie Girl: The Movie This follows the multi-year journey of young Emily Hagins and her desire to make a full length zombie feature. Great flick and you can learn a lot from seeing the problems she encounters along the way.

And finally we go overseas to the heart of Africa with Welcome to Nollywood. Did you know that Nigeria has the third largest movie industry, IN THE WORLD?!?! You could almost believe this is a mocumentary, but no way could anybody write fiction like this.

http://vimeo.com/natechapman/pacificradiofire

Short film I just finished using hacked GH2. Lit with the 312-Bi LEDs i got from here. Comments/feedback/questions welcomed ; ) I've been a quiet lurker here for awhile and learned a lot. Thanks everyone for the rad community! Especially VK! -nate

Hey guys, Im new on here but wanted to share my latest short film shot in Dublin Ireland.

All thoughts and opinions are welcome.

Mark