Choosing the equipment

Never before in the history of production have there been such a wide range of camera technologies available to shoot with.

A number of years ago you could count the medium and top end shooting formats on one hand.  Now there are dozens of options and a limitless array of opinions as to which one is the best.   There are still cameras that do video, high end digital in a half dozen main flavours and a couple of dozen camcorder varieties to choose from.

The bottom line is that most solutions in 2010 are actually pretty good.   Very good actually.  So how does one decide what to shoot on?  

It all boils down to a couple of questions.

What is the budget?   This more than anything sets the parameters of the range of options.  Every production must creatively tread the line between having the ultimate set of equipment and people and having lower end equipment but more shooting days. 

What is the story about?   If the story is about a man who doesn't believe that his house is haunted and sets up home video cameras to capture it requires a much cheaper pallette of equipment than a high energy story of an international SWAT team that uses helicopters.

How does the director want the story to look?  Will this look like a viral impromtu web video with the associated grain, camera shake reality look, or is it going to be more cinematic.

How long will the shelf life be?  In general the longer you wish to keep and re-use the material the higher technical quality of the camera is required.

There are lots of options.  Your Cinematographer will work with you to choose the best equipment to do the job.