Hi, I'm edd and I'm new here, and to filmmaking... I have some questions (if you hadn't guessed fomr the title)

I'm intending to make a fairly experimental film that is basically a self-portrait where various aspects of my own personality are given life through other people. The majority of this will be illustrated in a sort of quiet interview style with actors (plainyg me... but not me...) talking about their own views on certain subjects.

So far (on topics) i have: love/hate, alienation (largely 'cause I thought of a cool visual metaphor to introduce this), beauty and freedom. Any more suggestions on big topics I could try and give perspectives on?

Also, any good ideas for film titles?

Now... newb questions.

I'm intending to get a HV20 and edit using Final Cut Express (I'm on a pretty tight budget (student) and even this is stretching it a bit...). Good choices?

Also, on the subject of microphones, I haven't any "proper" film mics, but I do have a selection of mics for musical use (an SM58, and another more expensive one...) and the XLR cables that go with them. Would this sort of mic be sufficient?

Also, I've heard good mics are a waste of money unless you have a camera with a good pre-amp or a good recorder. I have very close to neither as you may have gathered... would putting the mic through a vocal pre-amp (or something similar) then into the camera provide some form of fix for this problem?

Thanks in advance,
Edd

:welcome:

Hi, i have the canon HV20 and final cut express HD and Final cut and they work brilliantly.

I would advise to use HDV tapes with the HV20 and on the setup of final cut express set the codec to apple 1080i.

Here is some stuff i have edited with final cut express hd and hv20.

Title sequence : http://vimeo.com/849506

Vignette : http://vimeo.com/740908

Random footage : http://vimeo.com/722865

Hope this helps your technical question :]

thanks for the welcome :)

@james

I really loved those short pieces, the HD quality is definitely a bonus, but I did notice on some of the shots where the camera itself was moving there seemed to be some jerkiness, is this to do with the camera or export or what? (it had occured to me that you may have had to scale down the quality to upload it to web)

EDIT: On second viewing it appears it may have largely been caused by my old computer being lazy yesterday :P Absolutely love the cup of tea short :)

Thanks again,
Edd

hate to double post... and bump my own thread, but i'd really like some advice/suggestions on my other questions.

thanks in advance,
Edd