From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

Which camera should you use?

From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

Start my 1-month free trial Buy for my team

Which camera should you use?

“

- Alright everybody, we're going to shift our focus here from talking about lighting to talking about cameras. One of the most common questions most filmmakers have is, what camera should I use? That's just kind of an unfair question. It's like saying, hey you, which camera is best for my needs? Or it's kind of like the equivalent of asking another person, hey you, which shoes will I like best? No one can really answer that for you and just like your shoes, your particular needs and your budget will dictate what the best solution is for you. And remember that it's okay to rent camera gear. A lot of new DPs make the mistake of thinking that they can't shoot on a RED or a RE Camera because they can't afford the tens of thousands of dollars that these cameras cost. But you will likely live around a camera or gear house which rents gear or maybe you could even rent stuff from an online service such as lensrentals.com. Companies like these rent camera bodies but also all the accessories. You know the media cards, lenses, batteries, and so on, all that you'll need to get the job done on the day. We'll talk even more later about renting gear later on in this course. When selecting a camera though, even to rent, it's important to prioritize what matters to you and your production. If you're shooting a movie with a lot of visual effects, then you might want more dynamic range or a higher bit rate or maybe a camera that shoots in a less compressed format. If you're shooting a visually vibrant piece, then you might want to shoot with a camera that shoots raw video so you have more latitude to color the film in post production. If you're film is going to be shown in theaters, even just in film festival theaters, you might want to shoot in 4k to capture more detail. If you're shooting a student film and it's a character-based drama with no real art direction, then maybe you don't need any of these bells and whistles, but I would suggest that for story telling, you probably want to use a camera that uses interchangeable lenses. As we'll learn later in this course, lenses make a big difference in telling stories with a camera. This includes the ability to achieve a shallow depth of field where some objects are in focus and others are not. This particular effect is quite difficult to achieve with camcorders or other cameras that have a built in lens. DSLR cameras are perhaps the least expensive way to get a camera that shoots video with interchangeable lenses. Now, we chose to shoot The Assurance on a RED Scarlet. Probably mostly because it's my camera so I'd be able to do pick up shots and whatever else I needed on that. Also, it shoots raw and 4k which are great for visual effects and color. We're actually recording this training on that same camera now, but I also bought this camera because the way the footage looked. The grain feels very filmic to me and it has a lot of dynamic range which gives me a lot of latitude when coloring the footage in post production, but you know if you don't have any of these cameras, please don't let that stop you. The type of camera really doesn't matter. Case and point, this movie, it's called Tangerine. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won tons of awards. It was shot entirely on the iPhone 5s. So, that means it didn't have any depth of field at all. No 4k, no interchangeable lenses, no raw video, but it had a story and characters that resonated with a lot of people. So you have no excuses. I mean, you more than likely have a better camera than this in your pocket right now or you might be watching this training on that camera. If you have a bigger budget and more resources, then decide what matters most to you and let that inform your camera choice.

Contents