Attempting to make a small independent movie and looking for a camera?

Question by Cameron H: Attempting to make a small independent movie and looking for a camera?
Are there any pretty cheap cameras, keeping in mind I don’t have a grand or 5 to fork over for a camera. I was looking for something in 16mm but I’m not completely sure. I want the ‘dreamy’ feel with the film so a 24fps is a must (I’m pretty sure that’s what it is) but i’m not sure if you can change that with a camcorder (I didn’t think you could but not completely sure) or if I need to buy an actual camera. I’m planning on recording the sound separately anyway so it’s not a big deal if it has good or bad sound. Thanks for all your help. (I’m planning on starting off with a five minutes feature and working my way to around half an hour to an hour movies, also the last thing being how much would film stock the camera or a 16mm cost?)

Best answer:

Answer by Pon
well here’s the thing. You can get something like a Bolex or a K-3 camera. They are both MOS 16mm cameras (meaning they’re loud as hell to record sound). Now mind you, you’ll need to know a bit about cinematography before you actually shoot or you’ll waste good stock. You’ll need to know something about focal distance as well as light exposure. I’d suggest you rent the camera instead. If you want something quiet enough to record sound on, I’d suggest an Arri SRII. Its 16mm and can take a 400ft reel.

Now, stock wise, Kodak makes a fantastic stock with their new Vision3, its about $ 15 for a 200ft reel if you have a student discount. 200ft will give you about 2 1/2 minutes of raw footage if you load it properly. However, you also need to consider the costs for the processing of the film and cost of the telecine to digital for editing.

It adds up pretty quick.

Message me for more info.

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