A filming/location question for Shane

[Al Fresco]

Hi Shane as a budding amateur wannabe film maker (you must be bored of people saying that) I was wondering what kid of camera(s) you used for A Room For Romeo Brass and Dead Man's Shoes I'm looking for a camera that I can transfer the footage onto my PC for editing that has a realistic look (really f**king technical aint I) something not to crisp but not crap either I like the very real almost voyeuristic style of your films they are not to glossy nor grainy any advice/recommendations would be great.

Also how do you get round locations i've asked in a few places if I can film (i've done the usual family homes/workplaces) to gain experience and mess around with angles scenery etc but no one wants to give me the time of day especially when I tell them it's for experience and not being shown to the public (ie not plugging their land/business) did you ever have such problems in the early days?

[Dave]

There is a thread in the Dead Man's Shoes section in which Shane reveals what the shooting format was for Dead Man's Shoes. Take a look:

shanemeadows.proboards39.com/index.cgi?board=deadman&action=display&thread=1112374212

[fattaxi]

One of the first things I was taught as a film maker was the art of Bull-shitting. Thats all you need, just Lie to them. Tell them your enterting them into a comptetion, or theres a chance it could be screened on the bbc (that one always goes down a treat).

Si

[Al Fresco]

Thanks Dave! (great site by the way)

and thanks fattaxi (great name) I'm a terrible bullshitter and would probably get found out and kicked out

[fattaxi]

I am fortuantly quite a good bullshitter. Ermm I suppose you could submitt a request in writing?!

Thanks for the kudos surrounding my name!

Si
x

[RichK]

Hi lh,

Camera -

There's a setting on the higher end dv cameras where you can make it look like 24 frames per second (ie film) format. I've no idea what this particular function is called so you'll have to look into it. Anyway, this gadget makes the finished article look infinitely better than the normal home video stuff.

It's also good to invest in a better external mike for the dv camera to improve the sound quality.

Locations -

Best bet with locations is to go down the family and friends route. It's amazing what this can turn up, with friends of friends etc holding the keys to all sorts of different locations, and I think that's what Shane did in the early days. For outdoor stuff, if you're in a town, just get snooting round the backs of places, patches of rough ground, bits by rivers, the backs of old industrial estates, I regularly find that such places yield something of visual interest. So get on your bike and have a bit of a mooch around. Seriously, using a bike is the best method of looking for stuff. On foot is a bit slow, in a car is sometimes a bit too fast and you can't always get into those hard to reach areas.

Telling the odd fib can work but the best bet if you can is to be completely up front with location owners. Don't be put off by the no's - if you're passionate about what you're doing and can communicate that to others, you'll be surprised what you can achieve if you get them on board.

Rich

[Al Fresco]

Thank you very much for all your useful advice Rich!