Equipment: What are we filming this movie with?

     So I mentioned that we bought all new camera stuff for this film. I know most people probably don't care much about camera talk but for the indie film makers out there (and anyone else who cares about cinematography) I figured I would make a post about what we are shooting on and what sort of equipment we are using.

    This, ladies and gentlemen, is the beautiful Canon 7D. It is our primary camera for this film. The capabilities of DSLR cameras for video is amazing. We shoot in full 1080p resolution at 24 frames per second to give it that nice "cinematic" feel. Also, depending on the lens, we can get that really shallow depth of field that you so often see in movies. This can make for some truly stunning video work with the proper amount of skill and creativity.

Our typical tripod set up looks about like this:

 

    This sucker (tipod incuded) weighs in at almost 20lb! Me and Amanda have to lug this thing aroud pretty much everywhere we go. It comes apart pretty easily and can pack into a fairly small package (surprisingly) but having to carry around all of this stuff is not easy. There is a lot here and if you don't know anything about cameras and DSLR cinematography (I didn't about 6 months ago) it can look pretty complicated; so lets go through what all of this is.

• Camera & Lens: The camera body is (of course) the Canon 7D and the lens pictured here is the Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8 VC lens. It is a really really versatile lens and works absolutely perfectly for video. It is also several hundred dollars cheaper than the Canon brand lens in this range so this was a no brainer for us. We also have a 100mm Canon macro lens for extreme close up work and a Canon 50mm F/1.4 lens for low light or general "portrait" style shooting.

• Cage & Rail System: The apparatus that the camera is sitting in is called a DSLR cage made by the guys over at Jag35.com. This provides a bit of protection as well as a top plate with plenty of 1/4"-20 threaded holes allowing for a huge amount of customization as far as peripherals go. The cage is sitting on an industry standard 15mm rail system that allows for the addition of accessories like a follow-focus, matte-box, etc. Our rails are 8in long which is a step up from the standard 6in rails that came with the DSLR cage.

• Audio Recorder & Mic: Due to the limitations of the 7D's audio recording interface we opted for off camera audio. This means we have to sync it up to the video in post which is annoying but the quality is worth it. We use the Zoom H4n for recording and an Azden SGM-1X shotgun mic. This gives us decent range and the ability to "boom" the mic if we want to. 

• Tripod & Head: Our primary tripod is the SLIK 700DX (which is HUGE) along with the Weifeng 717 fluid head. This combo gives us great stability and sliky smooth pan and tilt motion.

• Focus: Because DSLRs currently do not have an auto focus feature for video, all of the focus pulling is done by hand. This is really really difficult... seriously. Imagine trying to get perfect focus in a razor thin depth of field on a moving subject while trying to stare at a 3in screen to see what is going on. Yea, not easy. So to help we have a D|Focus V3 follow focus. This is more of an ergonomical upgrade rather than a functional one. Having the focus knob on the side where it is easy to access is very very helpful. Also we have the D|Crank speed crank to make the focusing even easier. Along with the follow focus we also have a 7" HDMI LCD Monitor so that we can see what we are filming (that 3" screen is a joke).  

• Lighting: Our primary "on camera" light is the Z96 96-LED Video Light. Works perfectly for what we need. Not much else to say about it. For off camera lighting we us a 126 LED light on an old tripod my dad gave me. Works perfectly as a key light, or just as a way to lighten up the background a bit.

     That's about it for the stuff that is pictured. We have a few other things as well that are not shown above. Like our recently purchased Glidecam HD 2000. 

   This gets us those really smooth looking shots where it looks like the camera is just floating along. This thing is no joke to use though. It has a pretty steep learning curve and we are just now getting the hang of balancing it. We also have a set of wireless lav mics. 

   I have not gotten the chance to use this yet but I am sure it will come in handy for outdoor shooting when we cant have a mic that close to the subject.

That is about it for the "What are we shooting this movie with?" section. The first actual production log from our first few shoots will be up soon.

Dylan