Film Production Query

Fishooks12

Hey,

Ok so basically I'm a young journalist with aspirations of being a Louis Theroux type gonzo interviewer

Huge interest in films to and do a bit of freelance critique work

I had an idea today to rent a Camper-van for the forthcoming Euro 2012 championship and travel to every Ireland group game as part of a fly on the wall documentary

Needless to say I'd be looking to do this on a tiny budget and I was wondering what tips people had?

m83

I really doubt you'll be able to do this on a tiny budget. Especially if you want (presumably) broadcast production values.

AnonoBoy

What's your angle on it though? You'd want to have something interesting to say other than just following football supporters around.

Also you want a crew that will work on it full time. Camera/sound/director.

Might be an idea to get a non-Irish crew that won't get caught up in the excitement of the tournament.

New_Flash

My basic technical tips for anything like this would be:

Practice with your kit beforehand. Learn what all the buttons are and what they do. "Auto" settings may be fine if you're recording your granny's birthday party but they aren't much good in a real job. Know how to use the white balance, focus & exposure controls. White balance problems can be fixed in post but poor focus and overexposed footage are often difficult / impossible to fix. In my experience, with lower end cameras it's better to be slightly underexposed then over.

I know it sounds obvious but, learn how to frame a shot, watch some docos and see how they frame their interviews, their cutaways etc. Use a tripod where possible, it can really make the difference between good and bad footage.

Sound is REALLY important and is often overlooked by first timers. The viewer can often forgive less then pristine pictures as long as the sound is of good quality so that'll usually rule out the mic on the camera . A tip I once got from a very experienced sound recordist was something along the lines of "get the best mic you can afford and stick it as close to the f***er as you can", he may have been a bit less polite then that but I think the advice stands.

As I've said these are tech tips, it's up to you to tell a good story, best of luck with it.

ScumLord

Camper van will add thousands to the cost of travelling. If you don't have one you'll have to rent one which last time I checked is expensive. Then you'll have to buy fuel for it, have spare cash for emergency's like breakdowns, parking, tolls the list can go on and on, it's going to be a real burden having the van.

If you want to work on a tiny budget I'd see if you can fit the equipment you need into one rucksack which I don't think would be too hard with todays stuff. With the money you'd spend on a camper van you'd get a whole load of useful tiny tech.

Tomk1

First great idea, best of luck.
Now I have no experience on fly on the wall docs, the posts above are great, have you thought about getting others on board, there's bound to be others interested that would also have experience & equipment, last thing you want is problems with camera/audio equipment at critical moments like batteries going dead or flash cards failing.

Maybe contact some media production companies with your idea, at least they might get involved with editing up to production standards.

As the poster above said, good audio is the key, once you have that you can use different cuts of video.