Lights, Something, ACTION!

So I figure I have everything I need to start. I have a lame script, some storyboards, animatic, jury rigged lights. Everything but a camera and actors.  I am, for some reason, not really concerned about actors. I think it is because I want to do a guerrilla type shoot with maybe just me and a friend. I guess sort of make a live action animatic.

I want to test my abilities with the camera, lighting and lenses firstly. I really have no experience with exposure, frame rate, aperture. I played around a little bit with some SLR’s in grade 10 photography. I can’t say that I learned too much about film. I recently bought a Sony A350. It’s really nice, and came with a decent lens. But I have problem figuring out how to get a decent picture without the flash and not very much light without it being a 2 second exposure. Perhaps I should just take this camera and just shoot some test shots in the sun in the backyard and in the shed in the dark. I could set up some lights and try to mimic the imagery I’m looking for. I just came up with that idea, and I think it’s smashing! WOOT!

So since we’re in the rainy season the Lower Mainland, I guess I’ll be forced to shoot overcast. I’ll concentrate on the interior of the shed shots, good thing my camera has a 10 second timer. I’ll have to set the shot up and click it and run to the door. I’ll have to look up some lighting techniques. Perhaps that’s what I’ll do today while I work.

I bet I can even take some of those pics and throw them in After Effects and play with their colours a bit too. I really want the look of this flick to look a little more pro than most indie films out there.

I really don’t know what kind of camera to use when I do start filming. Obviously I don’t want to use a cheaper handy cam. I want some control, mainly on lenses, but also with shutter speed. I think that’s an important one that is overlooked too often. I remember this awesome short Doc that was shot with the Canon 7D. It looked great. Maybe something like that would be a good choice. As long as I have the lens options and frame shutter speed options.

Just checked the D7 out, it looks like it’ll do everything that I’d want…for $2500 that’s a lot of money. Gorsh! Ah well, at least I have an idea of what I’m looking for.

Well, until next time, here goes for learning some lighting stuff(s).