Making a short film is always a triumph of willpower over budget. Finding willing volunteers to help with casting is relatively easy because there are plenty of talented people who want to be in films, but getting crew to work for free is harder. So this means that we often have to run with minimal crew and yet still produce a feasible product. To do that you need lots of planning and lots of accessories.
Take, for example, the little box above. It may look a mess, but that is what we’re shooting with on Saturday. Buried under all those wires is our little Red Dragon, sitting on the pole of a Sachtler Artemis stabiliser (steadicam equivalent), with an unseen Parallinx Arrow wireless HD on the other side of the camera, lavalier mic receiver, shotgun mic (which during the day will be swapped for another lavalier receiver for certain shots), 25mm Contax Zeiss prime lens and wireless follow focus. With this a two man crew can shoot both video and sound with the minimum of fuss, flying around the action and filming at 6K HD quality.
To get all this gear on the pole and powered I had to build my own cables and 12v-5V DC power regulator, which takes power from the V-Mount battery at the base of the pole and saves us weight at the top, thus leaving a bit of spring in the arm to allow smooth flying.
We’re filming on Saturday and have found a great team of willing actors who are lending their time to make something new and, hopefully, a little bit cool. Fuelled by love, a bit of planning and lots of pizza.
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