My advice to filmmakers looking to make short or feature films:
Are you feeling the urge to spend money? Like those late night TV promos of some belt that will miraculously melt away body fat. You want it so bad you’ll believe anything. I bought it too! Though technically it did lighten my wallet so overall I did lose weight.
Seriously, what ten things could be so important to filmmaking you need to buy them right now?
1. Your Camera
Which camera should you buy? What house should you buy? What should you eat? Who knows? Look around, you’ll find cameras in all sorts of price ranges, sizes and even colors. They exist because someone is buying them.
Also, look at those YouTube videos comparing the iPhone to a Red camera or whatever combination. Yet, the stingy studio executives still insist on shooting with Arri Alexas. That’s money they could spend on an expensive vacation in Paris. Yet they grudingly sign the check. What do they know that you don’t?
After all, hasn’t it been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt the iPhone is as good as an Alexa, on YouTube? The thing they know that you don’t, is that they know what they want. Maybe this will help:
Say you want to advise a budding chef. What knife should I buy? And someone on the Internet makes a video comparing a chef’s knife to a shaving blade. Both can cut, so you can convince a beginner a shaving blade is a must-have item for a chef with a full-grown beard, right?
Before you put money down on a camera, think about what you want, as specifically as you can. And no, “I want to make a movie”, is not specific enough. Think about where it will be seen, by whom, what the actual conditions of the shoot are, and how much money you have. Then think about camera angles and about how you’re going to use and move your camera. By a process of elimination, you’ll come to realize you only have a few options remaining.
If you don’t know what you really want, you’ll never find the right camera.
Some movies need an Arri Alexa. Some don’t. Some movies can be shot on an iPhone, most can’t. Not yet, anyway.
Which camera should I buy?
Which camera should I pick for my movie? Easy. Pick the Arri Alexa LF. Can’t afford it? Then pick what you can afford, and be at peace. If you can’t afford the camera that’s right for your work, rent it. If rental rates are too high, hire a DP who can wet hire the camera.
If you’re a cinematographer who wants to buy a new camera, listen to the market, and buy the camera others want. There isn’t a better answer.
I’ve shot a feature film with the Canon EOS R5 (Amazon, B&H). 30-day schedule. Many said it couldn’t be done, overheating and all. I knew what I wanted, and I knew what the R5 can do, and I didn’t have to think twice about it. It released in theaters last year and image quality was just great.
2. Lenses
Here’s a little secret: Professional cinematographers call up the rental house, get the lenses they want and test them personally. It is the job.
They don’t go by hearsay. For every production they’ll go through this process. Even if they have a favorite lens, they’ll still do this. It’s called due diligence.
The way a lens works it tells a story, an emotional story. Most beginners don’t understand that about lenses. I learned early on in my career that a lens is an intensely personal decision. You know what it’s like? It’s like underwear. We pick what we pick, and it’s personal.
Lenses are personal. They do have some technical requirements to fulfill. Like underwear. It should fit. The rest is all about forgetting about it so you can live your life. The same with lenses. Once it’s in front of the camera you need to forget about it, and focus on the story.
A lens tells a story, an emotional story. That’s more important than the technical specs.
So, which lens should you buy? Buy the one that makes you comfortable. Buy the one that makes you excited. If it makes you smile, buy it. Do you feel like carrying it everywhere like your mobile phone? Then that’s the lens you should buy. Most important, buy the lens that will help you tell your story.
What lenses do I like? I can shoot an entire feature with two focal lengths – a 50mm lens and a 75mm. If it’s a T2 I’m happy. Arri Master Primes are my favorite lenses, but I can’t buy them and don’t use them all the time. For my film I picked Zeiss CP.3s, because that’s what was available and affordable.
If you’re looking for a bit of technical help, I’m happy to oblige. Check this out:
3. Tripod
You need a tripod if you plan on filming static shots.
There are other uses for a tripod as well. You can put your camera down someplace to take a breather. You can hang your bag off it. You can attach a light or reflectors to it for some extra fill. You can attach a microphone to it. You can attach a teleprompter to it, or an external monitor. You can extend it to heights for other angles. You could use it to rest your steadicam or gimbal, and it works as a boom pole if it’s light enough.
If it’s a good tripod, you can even sit on it.
Oh, and by the way, it gives you smooth panning and tilting, and keeps your camera safe.
A tripod comes in two parts, the head and the legs. There are some people out there who don’t know the difference between a friction head and a fluid head. For filmmaking, I would never even consider using a friction head.
This is one of those cases where if you haven’t tried it, you don’t know what you’re missing. Let me put it this way. I wouldn’t use a friction head on a serious production even if somebody gave it to me for free. Here’s another one: I wouldn’t use a poor fluid head on a serious production even if somebody gave it to me for free. I’ve actually done both!
The best fluid head I own is the now discontinued Cartoni Focus HD (Amazon, B&H). If I had the money though, I would have bought an OConnor, so for me that would be the next step up. Anyway, for specific choices, I have a great article on my blog on some good heads and legs you should check out:
- 12 Fluid Heads for Every Budget – from $100 to $30,000
- The 6 Best Single-Tube Lightweight Carbon Fiber Camera Tripods
Look, sometimes you might get away, El Mariachi style, but the reality is most filmmakers don’t get away. Their movies vanish into oblivion. Taken by itself a tripod might seem trivial, but its influence on your movie is profound.
In my two-decade plus career I’ve used everything from the cheapest plastic tripod to OConnor tripods, and I’ve made my peace with them.
4. Microphones
Please note, it’s in plural.
You need more than one, no matter what movie you’re making. If you’re using shotguns and you have two actors at two ends, you need two shotgun microphones.
If you’re smart, and you’ve hired a production sound mixer (like I told you to), then they will have wired a lav mic to the actors as well. And you need one mic per person. People can’t share lav mics, not even in kissing scenes.
A microphone is as important as a camera. Get a decent one. No, wait. Erase that thought. Get a world-class one. The starting quality level for a shotgun microphone is the Sennheiser MKE 600 (Amazon, B&H) and for a lavalier microphone it’s is the Sanken COS-11D (Amazon, B&H). They are not cheap, but are not earth-shatteringly expensive either.
For more specific choices check out this list I’ve put together for microphones. I think you’ll find it helpful:
- 5 Budget Wired Lavalier Microphone Options for Video Production
- 5 Budget Shotgun Microphones That Won’t Let You Down
5. Audio recorder and/or mixer
When you have many microphones, you’d better not try to connect them all to the camera! That is wrong on so many levels, pun intended.
If someone tells me they did that I know immediately how much they don’t know about audio. Rack it up to something I learned the hard way.
You need recorders with XLR inputs in them, and you need good cables as well. Don’t buy an expensive mic with cheap connectors or a poor audio recorder, or any other stupid combination. Buy stuff at the same level of quality so your audio output is of the same quality.
Hire a production sound mixer. Anything in between is asking for trouble on a feature film or short film.
Any decent sound mixer will tell you one simple reality of audio life:
Your location is more important than your audio gear.
If need help with recorders, check this out:
6. An external monitor
Can you make a movie without an external monitor? Sure. But it makes your life so much easier, whether you’re a cinematographer or director.
7. Enough batteries
I’ve made this mistake as well. If someone tells me they just one or two batteries I know that person doesn’t have real production experience.
Buy batteries, as many as you can. Buy good chargers, at least two. Because one will fail, or get lost, or get wet because your assistant poured tea over it.
The other one, the one you reluctantly bought because I told you to even though you didn’t have money for it, yeah that one – it will help you complete your movie because you were not stupid enough to enter into production with two batteries and one charger.
You need at least two chargers, period.
I really like battery bricks. For a great budget option, I recommend FXLion batteries (Amazon, B&H). I bought a few long before anyone knew or cared about FXLion, and it was a risk. But they still go strong, almost a decade later.
8. Data backups and cards
I make these fun comparison articles and in the media section I always add extra memory cards. Invariably some newbie is shocked – “You don’t need five memory cards! I just use two.”
It is pretty obvious at that point that person has never worked on a professional shoot where the stakes are high.
If somebody shows up with just one memory card I’ll go ballistic. Bottom line, get as many memory cards as you can, as long as it is at least four.
If you need help with cards and backups, check this out:
9. Light Stands
When I say light stands I really mean C-stands. I’ve owned all kinds of light stands. The only stand I really look forward to using for lighting setups is the C-stand.
There’s always that something extra you need to do, that’s why the C-stand exists. A photo light stand stops where photography ends and where cinematography begins. Matthews stands (Amazon, B&H) are an industry standard.
10. Lights!
What are you going to do with light stands without lights, right?
What lights should you buy? Let me give it to you straight: If you don’t know what lights you should buy then you don’t know enough to buy anything. So stop worrying about buying.
For feature film or short film work, you’ll need many kinds of fixtures, gels, cloth, diffusion, and so on. Why buy all that when you should be renting it?
Whenever I shoot a professional film I hire a lighting crew, and these are my favorite people to work with. They have saved me so many times I can’t believe I ever considered actually buying lights when I started out.
So take my advice. Unless your script has minimal lighting or just one or two setups, rent your lights. For minimal setups, let the DP bring his or her own lights, it’s not the filmmaker’s job to worry about lights. I owned my own lights and stands when I made my film, but even so for half the film I rented lights and crew.
I have a lot more stuff I want to add, but this is enough for now. It’s not your typical filmmaking shopping list, but then again, I actually care how your movie turns out.
For a complete list of gear, check this out:
Great advice for beginners. It may seem general to experienced people, but immensely helpful to the newbies. Thanks and love from USA. I always read your articles.
You’re welcome!
very general.