Filmmaking Amateur | Odd Two Camera Shoot (Day Fourteen)

by Scott U
(Georgia, USA)

Video Shoot with Flip and DVX100A

Video Shoot with Flip and DVX100A

I recently shot a couple of interviews for a video segment about Koinonia Farm, a small Christian community in southwest Georgia. This was the first time I used my odd two-camera shooting system.

Here's the thing. I'm on a super tight budget and what I have at my disposal is a Flip MinoHD camcorder and a Panasonic DVX100 with a Seinnheiser wireless lav. Amazingly, the footage from the Flip blows away the image from the Panasonic (a $3,000 camera!). But the Flip's audio capabilities are not great.

So I did what any good documentary filmmaker would do... I improvised! I figured I'll take the best of both worlds and combine them.

So the Flip was used for video and the Panasonic was used for audio (using the Seinnheiser wireless lav connected with an XLR cable). It will be a pain in editing to sync the two up, but in the end, hopefully it will be worth it.

In a perfect world, a shooting situation like this probably can't even be imagined it's so obscure. But, this is what I have to work with for the moment.

Welcome to the life of a filmmaking amateur on a budget. :-)

Got any creative shooting stories you can share? I challenge you to beat this one!

Comments for Filmmaking Amateur | Odd Two Camera Shoot (Day Fourteen)

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Nov 11, 2011
 Improvising
by: Desktop Documentaries

Thanks Scott for your willingness to share your filmmaking journey with us!

Probably one of the best examples I can think of where filmmakers often have to improvise is with lighting. I know I've had to get very creative with lighting when the budget wasn't there to hire a lighting expert. If I know I won't have someone to help me with lighting, I'll schedule a shoot for morning or afternoon to use the nice natural "side" lighting from the sun. Or if the weather's bad, a nice big window is often a life saver.

Another way to improvise on a low budget is with audio. If you have a simple camera like a flip, the way to make the best of a camera like that is to hold it close up to your interview subject, maybe 2-3 feet away, so that you get the best audio possible.

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