FILM - Before you shoot your film, you'll need to know what format to shoot it in. Ask yourself this question, what is the final output of your film? 35mm is the industry standard for feature films. It uses the 16:9 film format and has a large negative for high contrast. 35mm film can have 8 stops of diffrence between black and white compared to 4 for 16mm and 2 for video. If you're doing a film for a film festival, but don't have the money to produce something in 35mm, your best bet is the super 16mm film format. Supper 16mm cameras use the same 16:9 film format of 35mm giving you the cinma scope look and later making it easy to blow up to 35mm if ever needed. Supper 16 is still a costly format more so than requalar 16mm. 16mm shoots in 4:3 format used for telavisoin. If you final product will be for TV of the video market 16mm is a good choice. Super 8mm is a great film format if you plan to do simple animations or films that will be transfered directly to video. The resolution quaility is comprable to the resolution on a television screen. This format is one of the least expensive formats out there. So if you're a film-maker that is just beginning you should use this format to learn on. Excellent Super8MM cameras can be picked up at a pawn shop for under $200 dollars.

Consumer formats

ANALOG VIDEO - There are so many video formats but which ones should you choose? Consumer cameras are great if you intend to shoot video for family and friends not a very good distribution format. Converting video to film won't give you the good quality and we don't recommend that you try doing this in your productions. Analog video is the cheepest way to shoot films. there are esently 4 formats.

VHS & VHS C- lowest quality about 320 lines of resolution low contrast high grain.

SVHS & SVHS C - 400 lines of resolution better contrast and grain

8mm - 400 lines of resolution better contrast and grain smaller camera size than SVHS

Hi8 - up to 420 lines of resolution much better contrast and grain.

New to the market are two compeating digital video formats aimed at consumers and pro-sumers. these cameras have amazing quality for the price. DV stands for Digital Video the consumer format is mini DV these are small tapes that store the sond and video in digital format 1's and '0's these cameras are great small good contrast about a 3 to 1 ratio and cheep to buy or rent. they have about 500 lines of resolution and make great cameras for no-linera edditing. most of these cameras have firewire (IE 1394) a serial conection that lets you capture the video to your computer with no loss of quality. Currently Apple produces several macintosh computers for use with these cameras. The other entry in the market in Digital 8, it is a advancement of the 8mm format. It also has about 500 lines of resolution, firewire and a 3 to 1 contrast. However thes cameras are more consumer orientated and don't have as many add on options like external mics, camera lenses, and filters. Mini DV is our format of choice for shooting video for the web.

profesional formats

If you are interested in producing a film that will go directly to video, dvd or may transfer to film later then you're best option is to use DVC or DVC PRO. These digital cameras have great quality and they aren't that expensive to rent. They are definately cheaper then Betacam SP or Digital Beta. These cameras have tons of featurs from interchangeable lenses to balanced XLR audio inputs for up to four channels of sound. Betacam SP and digital Beta are still the industry standard for video, while DVC is quickly catching up BEta cam has had the market since the 70s. The cameras are much more expensive and only have slightly increased quality in sharpness and resolution of video. If you are shooting for TV this is the industry standard and best choice.

Remember the camera is cruical and should have the majority of the budget alacoated to it for low-budget films, you final product will look much more profesional.

There are several looks you may want to achive in your film, filters are a great way to get some intresting looks. If filters are to expensive here are some industry tricks. If you rub vasoline on the front of the your camera lens then you can soften the cameras focus into a dreamy effect. The drawback of this effect is that you will have to clean your lens after you do it. We recommend that you apply the vasoline to a skylight or UV filter. This is done to avoid scratching the camera lens. Another way you can get a similar effect is if you stretch pantyhose over the lens. This too will soften the image, but in it's own special way. Note some autofocus cameras will not function properly with either of these tricks.

Camera movement is a great way to add a profesional look and feel to your film if done right. Poor camera movement will weeken the film, no movement is better than bad movement. A great way to do moving shots is through the use of a dolly. But motion picture dollies can cost you a pretty penny. So what do you do? Well a wheelchair can make a great dolly and it isn't too hard to find. However there are problems that will be encountered when using this makeshift device. If you handhold the camera shots while being pushed by someone, your shots will usually be trembling and unsteady. Professional cinematographers use tracks to allow the smooth motion of their dollies. You can duplicate this by putting plywood or flattened cardboard under your wheelchair dolly. Professionals use camera mounts on their dollies. So you should make a camera mount for your wheel chair. An effective way to do this is to tape down your camera tripod to a piece of flat plywood and mount it to the seat of the wheelchair. Getting a good grip to your wheelchair with smooth start and stopping skills is required to get a professional looking tracking shot. This can only be done with practice and rehearsal. If you need additional no-budget ways to get steady shots then we recommend that you use either a baby carriage or automobile. By letting some air out of the cars tires you can smooth out the shot and remove some of the bumps from the pavement.

there are also several low cost stedi cameras on the market for video cameras and smaller 16mm cameras. These are good for what you get, realize they are not profesional stedi cams and will require a siginifant amout of patince and pratice to control the camera.