My friends and I are doing a film project for school, and we have no real film "background" that will help us. However, I have a good set of skills in photography. At the moment, I have a Canon HF20 Camcorder, and our movie is mainly based on a night time setting. The problem with the night time shooting is that there will be minimal amounts of time to actually film, which is going to throw us back, as the deadline for the movie is within a month, and our actors have minimal amounts of time. Is there any way around shooting only at night, such as filming during the daytime using a filter?

Id prefer to avoid using Adobe After effects since it will be time intensive.

I was wondering if someone could give me some pointers on how to film, and if there are any options other than filming close to night

Any tips or tricks that can help us film overall?

What are good ways to pick up sound? I have no external mic, but I hear a shotgun style mic is "okay", any thoughts?

Thanks!
-Matt

 

Matt,

It depends how good you want your video to turn out. If you film with a filter it won't look very good imho it would look awkward. I believe there are filters you can buy to make it look night time but i dont know for your specific camera nor do i know how much they would cost. check with san jose camera.

For sound, same thing, if you just need a basic film to present if you guys speak loud you could capture the sound with the camera and then boost the sound levels in post processing. If you need it to be better i would suggest renting some wireless audio gear. another thought would be to use a second camera or maybe cell phone or something that can record audio and be hidden from view of the camera and then overlaying and syncing the video with the audio clips.

 

You will need a boom mic if you want any sort of audio. The in camera mics are crap.

What school do you go to again? The AV department or the theater tech group should be able to help with equipment.

 

I work at a studio and for audio, we normally use Rode microphones for more natural sound and wireless mic equipment for specific dialogues. For night time, you obviously need some sort of light so maybe a soft box on the subject will definitely make them stand out from the shadows. Finally, if possible, you should try shooting at the golden hours (sunrise and sunset). If you can get the lighting consistent, your audience may not know they were shot at two different time periods. It'll probably help if they're shot at different locations too.

 

I will check out san jose Camera, and your tip with the phone may be one of our best options. We would speak louder, but I still would think it would catch too much background noise.

Ill look into a boom mic. We don't have an AV department, and theater tech is really stingy with their equipment and don't let anyone borrow/use lol

What do you mean by "natural sound"?

Soft box would be nice, but issue is where will the power come from as some scenes will be in a forest/mountain.

Ill take that into account!

 

I do freelance film work for a living. Feel free to message me with any questions, Id be glad to help!