I have done tons of shoots in the past using cheap gear. When I first started filmmaking back in 2010, I made a fig rig out of PVC pipe. I try to use inexpensive lights to light my scene. I go for budget lenses! I try to stay as low cost as I can whilst trying to achieve cinematic looks.
I think that content producers who use budget-friendly equipment in this way, instead of high budgets and expensive equipment in the cinematography and photography industry, establish a much more intimate bond with people from all walks of life. I love the content you share. Thanks for making this video
Pro tip for the V-Mount battery - cable adapter - solution: Try to power all your gear directly from your battery plate. So if you need to change the V-Mount, you don't have to unplug every single cable. Even better, if your plate has a power input, you could short cut with mains power for the seconds of changing the battery and not have to restart everything again!
Re: the Fisher dolly - They're not sold to consumers at all, intentionally. It's a business-model decision that allows them to ensure that everyone who uses a Fisher dolly uses one that is upkept to the manufacturer's standards for maintenance. You can buy a Fisher dolly franchise and then rent out dollies, but you can't just buy the item.
I have so much cheap gear you wouldn't believe it. My one absolute is audio cables, I kept an XLR to Jack and Jack to Mini Jack in my bag for a year, doing nothing until I was working a show and the sound board failed. Everything was on a laptop and my connector saved the day. But the cheapest things are coloured plastic Quaility Street wrappers which I would use on flashes and small led torches which I got free after I went to a Christmas party and picked them up. "Thanks for helping clear up." "No problem."
Very well said Simon, absolutely true quite a lot of shots can be achieved with cheap gears only this is to use identify the right one. Thanks for making this video
Thanks to your video I shot my first project using anamorphic lenses and confidently used the 20€ diopters and couldn't be more happy with the results. So thank you for sharing actual use case scenarios of equipment, helps a lot!
Great video, as always! Through the years of buying camera or set equipment I realised that there are indeed items where you want to buy the more expensive version, cause the cheap version is not worth it, but there are also so many items I spend way too much money on, that are not even better than the cheaper version, or the difference is negligible.
Wow I watched all your videos like 8 years ago and I only just now noticed that you are still on it. Really well done dude…. And now I have some catching up to do 😅
It absolutely makes sense to work with cheap tools. If you have a $3000 Budget for a music video, why would you rent a dolly that is + $500 a day? You won't have a decent profit margin after that. Also take crew, gear, locations, food, shelter, costumes and additional costs into consideration. I thank you on the behalf of all filmmakers. If you want to make this a career, you have to think about the margin. Thous cheap ways to produce the videos... I would have even gone so far and take out the anamorphic glass and just shoot with one camera and one lens. Thank you for showing us all the cheap ways!
precisely! luckily the anamorphic lenses were free - one of the perks of having this RU-vid channel. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to put money from the budget into renting expensive glass! You're so welcome, thanks for being here Willem
Regarding the batteries, I recommend switching to an NP-F setup. They are much, much cheaper. For the price of one V mount battery I can buy at least 4 excellent NP-F
Nice to see a 4k upload. The bitrate boost is welcome. Next you need to find a way to work around the colour banding. RU-vid compression doesn't like dark gradients.
i bought those inexpensive Diopters for my GreatJoy-A's and they work perfectly fine for its price point. No complaint on that and if it breaks i can buy 3 more sets of them ;)
Love the cheap gear recommendation, and I love the anamorphic look. Just a question, do you know if there are any anamorphic lens that work with a canon 600d?
The only EF mount anamorphic lenses I’ve shot with are the Great Joy lenses, but I think the protruding rear element would damage the mirror on the 600d, so I wouldn’t recommend that. Anamorphic works best with a camera that can film open gate 4:3 or 3:2 as well, so the 600D would create a very wide image after desqueezing the 16:9 footage anyway
Following up: The cheap Amazon diopters are good, but don't contain the 0.5, 0.25 diopters you'll need for 3m - 1m focus. The low power diopters are the rare / expensive ones.
About the Diopters, could you get the same effect by using macro tube extensions? Often times people say that you should get high quality diopters, because you bring in another glass element, which can influence the optics of the final image. By using macro tube extensions you don't use glass at all, which would technically be the best way to not further change the image?
When it comes to powering your camera with d-tap, approach with caution. There are some horror story of people using cheap dummy battery for their camera and it killing the camera. Always a good idea to do some research to safeguard your camera.
What audio setup does Simon use to record his talking head shots? Is it recorded externally with a zoom h4n and boom mic? Also, are his recent talking head shots done on his Canon T3i or has he evolved to something else?
definitely agree with you on all accounts except the cables! friends of mine and myself have had major issues with cheap cables. it was never on the first boot up either. be safe! a $30 cable may cause a $200 in-camera fuse issue.
Thank you for sharing the info. I always enjoy your videos. I have a question. You mentioned using D tap battery adapters, what was the multi port device that you plugged all the d tap cables into and had the one cable running to your V lock battery?
One thing I have to say, is, that you have to be careful with powering the camera and the monitor from the same power source. I don't know if that's even an issue for most cameras, but with the black magic pockets you can ruin you HDMI Port when you don't do it correctly. That's why I always power the monitor from a different source.
The code for amazon when does that start? Is it only for camera equipment or? Great video! I been following you for a while you have really helped me out when I first got into shoot videos!
Honestly, since nobody is going to see the gear in the final product, who cares if it was this or that filter, 1 big or 4 smaller batteries, and so on . the then saved money is better spent on the production value of the project. Just use, what gets the job done in the most beneficial way for the final outcome.
Great video ! Would love to see the finished music video ! It looked like you were using the PortKeys EVF - how did you find it? I'm interested in getting it.
done, I've added the amazon US links, and here are the UK ones: close filters: amzn.to/3ihDDrF HDMI adapters: amzn.to/3VzpBA1 clamps: amzn.to/3gEr21s S1H to D-tap cable: amzn.to/3gNHAUx NPF to D-tap cable (not the exact one I used in the video): amzn.to/3F8t9nm
wanna find an super steady dolly ? get a wheelchair. the big wheels are amazing ...other than that i invested in a ronin 4d and it was so worth it it makes dolly and slider shots most of the time unnecesssary since it is simply stable enough
Great video, I got inspired to add a few things to my own collection. What EVF do you use? What is the price of that one? Also, V-mount batteries are very expensive, at least in Norway, any way to get cheaper good v-mount batteries?
it's a portkeys LEYEii, not sure about the cost in Norway but it's one of the cheaper EVFs out there :) and yes, V-mount batteries tend to be pricey, don't have a recommendation for that beside renting!
Do you believe having the dci p3 or log matters so much where few cameras do come with that and you also have canon t3i? Would it matter while you are planning on distributing or selling your indie film?
Shooting with a log profile (logarithmic trasnfer function) gives you more latitude when grading and as such allows for more fixing in post. Also as important if not even more is shooting in at least 10-bit (bit depth) and low chroma subsampling (4:2:2 instead of 4:2:0). This is because if you shoot in 8-bit, as soon as you start changing anything in terms color, you're stretching the information and can easily get visible banding.
@@KaurH Don't forget about having wider dynamic range you can get from log profile video in post production. Useful for videos where there are bright and dark things at the same time.
this is probably the least i've ever been involved in a shoot, and to be honest it was quite nice being on set with less responsibility! Enjoyed being able to film my behind-the-scenes footage and getting stuck as an extra pair of hands where necessary!
I haven’t tried it with a camera that has SDI, but on my HDMI cameras, there is a short lag, but not usually long enough for me to focus past the sharp point. Then again, I’m not a pro focus puller so I’m not the best person the evaluate it for focusing :)
the S1H belongs to Tiara, the director of the music video, but I did buy a second-hand BMPCC OG (1080p version) for a DSLRguide video a few months back
From spending years of my life cheaping out...I can catagorically say...please invest in good equipment. You'll save money and pain in the long term. Cheap equipment is short sighted.
i'd be curious which categories of gear you've found that to be most true for, and whether you recommend aiming for middle of the road, or highest quality stuff
I ordered and tested this monitor and it kept totally shutting down my iPad on set making it totally unreliable. also the fact its UI on iPad or iPhone is different then the UI on the screen is very confusing.
sorry to hear that! I spoke to Hollyland about this, and they said it's worth double checking that you're on the latest version of the app, and that they are releasing a new version of the app to solve this issue very soon.
