Gear Help

Thanato

Thanato

Hey Guys,

Well I've decided to take the plunge and try and make money with film. I'm not going to go deep into my business plan but what I need help with is decided what gear is essential that I do not currently have.

What I have.

VG20 with Kit Lens
NTG-2 with XLR to Mini Adapter
Boom Poll
5x7 Green Screen
8 foot Jib
Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium
Cheepo Tripod
Budget Lights

What I know I need

Better Tripod
Audio Recorder
Sand Bags
C-Stands
Better Lights.
Lenses (looking at the Rokinon Primes)

Can anyone with more knowledge figure out what else I need, not particular brands yet as I have yet to work out a budget. But just items what will be beneficial.

~Thanato
 
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Audio mixer, wind protection, hypercardioid mic, wireless lavs. I'll assume that you have a shock-mount.

As I always recommend, retain someone competent to do the production sound.
 
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You say "make money with film" which is vague. If you are planning on
being a camera operator you will not need a full grip kit or audio rig. If
you are planning on being a director you do not need a camera and camera
support equipment. So what will be beneficial to you depends on how you
will be making money with film.

You mention some grip equipment. You mention c-stands and sand bags
yet you do not even touch on what c-stands are used for. You will need
flags, silks and scrims. How deep into owning a full grip kit do you need
to go?

In most cases it's much better to rent and hire than to own. As Alcove
mentions when you get a paid job you should hire an audio person to cover
that aspect. When you get a paid gig you then rent the equipment specific
to that job and charge the client. Of course that might not be what you are
planning. You don't mention your plan so it's difficult to tell you what
equipment will be beneficial to your specific plan.
 
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VG20 - a prime is essential. First prime is the 30mm Sigma 2.8. It's dead cheap and is already an improvement.

I don't know what kit you would need but this is what I have and it is what I would consider to be 'basic.'

Recording kit:

1. Recorder - Tascam DR100
2. Mic (I have an ECM 674 - great piece of Sony kit)
3. Mixer - Promix 3
4. Blimp with dead kitty for recording outdoors.
5. Boom and head (I notice you have a whole pool of booms...)

Once you've tried a mixer, you will never want to go back to a straight DR100.


Tripod:

I have an early 074 which is the one in the Bogen / Manfrotto adverts with the guy hanging off it. It's as sturdy as h"ll and cheap as chips so it's a great combo (plus fluid head). You need a good tripod. It's not optional.

A steadicam Merlin which is incredibly useful.

Monopod (for those tight little spaces). Sooo useful.


Sundries:

Lights (3 point kit) but I want a generator for shooting outdoors. I have some halogens which are useful. Gels are necessary on top.
Greenscreen with stand (cheap and extremely useful). Incredibly useful. Couldn't do some stuff without it.
Spare batteries - tons and tons of them.
2Tb external hard drive as footage eats disk space. A pro needs a minimum of 8 Tb before getting out of bed.

Software:

FCP7.03 (really beginning to creak, I need Premier)
A few bits and pieces e.g. something to convert Sony files to .mov - this is essential if you have a VG20.


What I dream about at night:

AE - think I will get this soon
Shoulder rig, matte box, follow focus.
Blackmagic with EF lenses. I have pushed back the purchase of this to March 2015 (or whatever will be there at the time). And naturally about a grands worth of cards and batteries etc...
Sound kit - a Fostex FR2LE, a beautiful mixer and wireless lavs.

My priority is definitely AE.
Second is between the shoulder rig and the Fostex. Can't decide at the mo...
 
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I should of gone further into details. Well, right now I am looking to trying to get clients who are interested in having video's shot, such as Commercials for small business, music video's for Indie Bands, etc. I live in an area that is a decent drive from any rental houses so renting all my equipment is out of the question right now. For larger shoots I will make the drive however I need to be able to equip a shoot with my own equipment if I want to save on gas costs.

But I'm not looking for a rental house amount of gear. Just the basics in Grip, Lighting, Sound, and Camera to get the job done on set for all the jobs that don't require a run to the rental house 2.5 hours away.

~Thanato
 
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To build upon what directorik had to say...

You WILL NOT be making movies if you are interested in making money; you will be shooting commercials, corporate videos, internet promos, and doing forms of ENG.

You if you are a production company you make the arrangements for the crew and the equipment, whether it is hiring freelancers who have their own gear (or you rent what they request) or using in-house personnel and equipment. If you are going to own your gear an NTG-2 and low-budget recorder are not going to cut it. I don't know about the visual side of things, but a basic production sound kit will set you back about $10k. You will be looking at names like Lectrosonics, Sound Devices, Nagra, Sennheiser, Sanken, CountryMan, Schoeps, Neumann, etc.

A single mic will cost $1.5k, a mixer $1,800 and a recorder $2,500 - MINIMUM!!!! Accessories alone will set you back a solid $2k. Oh, BTW, you're responsible for set communication; walkie-talkies, bullhorns, production audio distribution, etc.

This is what paying clients are going to expect; they will not be satisfied with make-do prosumer gear. This is not some half-assed indie project, this is serious competition with experienced professionals.


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Thanato said:
I am looking to trying to get clients who are interested in having video's shot, such as Commercials for small business, music video's for Indie Bands, etc.
Click to expand...
If you only had the gear you mention you would not attract clients
who will be paying more than a couple of hundred per project. Not
a bad place to start. Is there enough work in your area? Are their
local businesses that pay for commercials? Not just one commercial
but three to five a year? Are there local bands who actually pay a
filmmaker to make music videos? If so do you know how much they
pay?

Clients pay for everything. If you need to drive 2.5 hours to rent gear
you charge for a truck rental, a driver and gas. And you mark up your
costs by 4% to 8% for those costs.

But it doesn’t sound like you will have clients that will pay going rates
- am I right? So you need to start form the other end; how much will
your local clients pay and how often will you get jobs? Then you purchase
the equipment you can afford.

You have a business plan. Realistically how many commercials will you
be hired to make in a year and what will they pay? Realistically how many
music videos for Indie Bands will you be hired to make in a year and what
will they pay?
 
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I'm still doing the research. Right now in my area I have 3 cities of 100,000+, along with a number of tourist towns. There isn't much local competition, which could be 1 of 2 things, A) Because there is no business, or B) Because no one has seen the potential for business. I am hoping it is the later.

I understand that I will need to invest money to make money. But being that I am not an expert on these matters, I came here since there are experts.

My goal is to be able to start making money in the next few months. I know for a fact that a few of the local businesses which rely on people coming from the City for 90% of their sales will be interested as the local television station charges an arm and a leg for them to produce and shoot their commercials for broadcast. Now what I am going to try and angle them towards is Internet Advertising, there are a number of local bands in my area as well, however I am still in the process of researching to see how many would be interested in shooting a video.

There are a number of events that go on here all year round, so I am going to try and get into that market as well to record them. I have connections in the event organizing in two cities within my catch basin.

I am in the research phase of my business. I am looking at getting grants etc to help finance equipment purchases, etc.

You guys are the experts, which is why I came here. I'm not here looking for the easy way to cash as I know in this business there is no easy way. I want help in order to get headed into the right direction.

And Audio, I know I wont be making movies. I want to make money. On the side I do plan on shooting my own shorts however financing those will come from other sources.

~Thanato
 
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Lights, lights, lights!

Also, there are much easier ways to make more money money than through corporate video ;)

Anyway..

Make sure there's enough work to sustain you, and I wouldn't count on getting grants for equipment purchases..
 
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