Which is the best camera to do an indipendent movie?
- Thread starter John Kes
- Start date
The "best"?
What is your budget? The best cameras are in the £25,000/£35,000 range.
However you can get a good camera for less. What can you spend on a camera
and audio equipment? Remember you will need both.
What is your budget? The best cameras are in the £25,000/£35,000 range.
However you can get a good camera for less. What can you spend on a camera
and audio equipment? Remember you will need both.
Your project will only look as good as it sounds, because
"Sound is Half of the experience."
"Sound is Half of the experience."
The "best" thing to do is hire a DP who already has a good camera with which s/he is intimately familiar, and hire a PSM/Boom-op who already has good production sound gear with which s/he is intimately familiar. This will get you far superior footage and sound than you could ever hope to get on your own. And do the same for post; hire a sound editor and a visuals editor.
If you have only one good project then rent a cinematographer and learn while paying considerably less.
Try this guy: http://philarntz.com/
And believe me, if you're making plenty of splellin and glamaticle errrers in ur post to buy a camera to make an "indipendent movie" because "i've in my mind a good project please" then you will greatly benefit from someone who already knows to what level of detail attention must be payed to every aspect of simply filming.
And then there's pre-production.
And post-production.
Marketing & promotion.
Exactly what are you going to do with the final product?
What's the project budget and what do you hope to get in return for the money and time you spend on this project?
Try this guy: http://philarntz.com/
And believe me, if you're making plenty of splellin and glamaticle errrers in ur post to buy a camera to make an "indipendent movie" because "i've in my mind a good project please" then you will greatly benefit from someone who already knows to what level of detail attention must be payed to every aspect of simply filming.
And then there's pre-production.
And post-production.
Marketing & promotion.
Exactly what are you going to do with the final product?
What's the project budget and what do you hope to get in return for the money and time you spend on this project?
Any prosumer HD camera with manual controls can be made to work.
What's your camera budget?
Do you have audio covered?
What's your skill level? (hire a DP vs doing it yourself)
Do you have audio covered?
Do you plan on doing more projects? (rent vs buy camera)
Do you have audio covered?
What kind of project is it? (narrative, documentary, porno)
What kind of visual style?
Also, do you have audio covered?
Do you have audio covered?
What's your skill level? (hire a DP vs doing it yourself)
Do you have audio covered?
Do you plan on doing more projects? (rent vs buy camera)
Do you have audio covered?
What kind of project is it? (narrative, documentary, porno)
What kind of visual style?
Also, do you have audio covered?
An Arri 435 
But seriously, it depends on a great number of things, not the least of which your budget.
Also, a camera is only a tiny part of a production as a whole. So many people get caught up in which camera is the best or why X camera is better than Z camera, and honestly - the camera body itself is not a great deal. You'd be better off renting a Scarlet, Master Primes and a whole lot of lighting and grip equipment than renting an Alexa with Compact Primes and none of that.
And then you have sound. And then you have your costume and make-up, and your Production Design, set dressings etc.
Production Designers are the people that make the frame look good - withuot them you end up lighting and shooting a blank wall. Cinematographers get a lot of credit for what the Production Designers do - I see so many people comment on great scenery or great Production Design as 'great cinematography'.
But seriously, it depends on a great number of things, not the least of which your budget.
Also, a camera is only a tiny part of a production as a whole. So many people get caught up in which camera is the best or why X camera is better than Z camera, and honestly - the camera body itself is not a great deal. You'd be better off renting a Scarlet, Master Primes and a whole lot of lighting and grip equipment than renting an Alexa with Compact Primes and none of that.
And then you have sound. And then you have your costume and make-up, and your Production Design, set dressings etc.
Production Designers are the people that make the frame look good - withuot them you end up lighting and shooting a blank wall. Cinematographers get a lot of credit for what the Production Designers do - I see so many people comment on great scenery or great Production Design as 'great cinematography'.
That's true. Some have commented on how some movies have great cinematography, where the cinematography is kind of ordinary, and it's the set pieces they are looking at. Which is more important though, is a good question, since on our budgets, production design can be quite crappy since you take what you can get for locations, which you will not be allowed to change around very much likely.
One thing to take into account is that movies such as Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Hurt Locker and parts of Black Swan amongst many, many others were shot on 16mm film. Now film neg has quite a large dynamic range, though some would argue not much more than an Alexa, and film certainly has a nice look about it - but these movies were shot on 'sensors' (the film neg) that were half the size of a 7D, Red, Alexa, etc. etc.
Some will argue that Red beats it because it has 5k of resolution, some would argue that Alexa beats it because of it's dynamic range and it's larger sensor, some would argue 16mm is better because it has the film look.
It's all subjective, and unless you are a DP with knowledge of camera, then it's hard to make a decision about which is 'best' - well which is best for you? Is it the Red with its high resolution? The Alexa with its film-like look and falloff? Film for its look and dynamic range? A DSLR for its price? And the best camera can change depending on the job. For example Film X might suit the look of 16mm reversal really well, whereas Film Z might suit the cleaner, perhaps more clinical, look of the Red. Film Y might suit the look of an Alexa, and then Film W might be a corporate shot for the web and so doesn't need anything better than a 7D.
And then there's all I said above about how the camera body is only one small part of a much, much bigger production. The camera itself is not what necessarily makes the film look good - that is to say a great film shot on a 7D with EF lenses will look even better shot on 35mm film with Master Primes, but an average film will still be an average film whether it was shot on an Alexa with Cooke s/5i's or a 7D. I'd rather have a good crew, a collection of lighting and grip equipment and a 5D than an Alexa with no crew, no lighting and no grip etc.
Some will argue that Red beats it because it has 5k of resolution, some would argue that Alexa beats it because of it's dynamic range and it's larger sensor, some would argue 16mm is better because it has the film look.
It's all subjective, and unless you are a DP with knowledge of camera, then it's hard to make a decision about which is 'best' - well which is best for you? Is it the Red with its high resolution? The Alexa with its film-like look and falloff? Film for its look and dynamic range? A DSLR for its price? And the best camera can change depending on the job. For example Film X might suit the look of 16mm reversal really well, whereas Film Z might suit the cleaner, perhaps more clinical, look of the Red. Film Y might suit the look of an Alexa, and then Film W might be a corporate shot for the web and so doesn't need anything better than a 7D.
And then there's all I said above about how the camera body is only one small part of a much, much bigger production. The camera itself is not what necessarily makes the film look good - that is to say a great film shot on a 7D with EF lenses will look even better shot on 35mm film with Master Primes, but an average film will still be an average film whether it was shot on an Alexa with Cooke s/5i's or a 7D. I'd rather have a good crew, a collection of lighting and grip equipment and a 5D than an Alexa with no crew, no lighting and no grip etc.
The best camera for any given no budget project is always the one in your hand.