Equipment You Need To Start Filmmaking

If you have always wanted to make films, you can start by making short films. Short films can be anywhere from a minute long to an hour long. There is only a few pieces of equipment you will need to start creating your own films, and after you learn the basics, you can start getting new equipment to make the quality even better.

• Camera: 

This one is quite obvious but very necessary. When you are just starting you can use the camera on your phone or a small sized camera. Once you expand, you can start looking into DSLR cameras. The brand I recommend looking into is Canon, but it is very expensive. Another popular camera brand for filmmaking is Nikon.

• Lens: 

Once you have purchased a DSLR camera, you will need to purchase a lens. There are dozens of lenses you can choose from. If you want to film unfocused shots such as wide shots or scenery, I suggest purchasing a 50 millimeter camera lens. If you are looking for a lens to film cinematic close-ups, you can browse the other lenses on Canon website. There are dozens of lenses to choose from that have different cinematic appeals. The lenses I own are from Canon but Nikon lenses are great too.

• SD card:

If you buy a DSLR camera, you will also need an SD card. Unfortunately, they can be quite pricey. If you plan on filming YouTube videos or short films, you will only need a 32 GB SD card. However, if you are filming longer films, you will need a 64 GB SD card, maybe even multiple. Make sure when purchasing an SD card you get a level 10 because it has the best quality.

• Tripod:

You will need a tripod to put your camera on whether it be your phone or a DSLR camera. If you are able to film without a tripod you can do it handheld, but not every scene flows with handheld. For example a serious, emotional scene shouldn't be shaky, it should be controlled so that the audience is focused on the actors rather than the camera movements. Tripods can be quite affordable or pricey. I bought mine for 40 dollars at Best Buy and it works great. You can find cheaper ones on Amazon as well. You will want to make sure it is sturdy and can hold your camera.

• Microphone: 

After graduating from using your cellphone and you purchase a camera, you may want to buy a microphone. Microphones vastly improve the quality of audio. The first microphone I purchased was a Takstar shotgun microphone. It attached right on top on my Canon Rebel t5i camera. This microphone is only about $20 and greatly improved the quality of my short films. The only downside of it is it doesn't have a very far range so subjects need to be fairly close to pick up on the mic, and it has a static so you would need to edit it out in post production. Below are two examples of camera and audio quality from previous short films I have created. Change is Everything was the first short film I ever made and was shot with my cellphone without an added microphone. Merry Christmas was the second short film I made, and it was shot with my Rebel t5i camera and a Takstar microphone.

In Change is Everything, the camera quality was quite poor, especially in the second clip outside. The outside clip also had very awkward audio because of the loud white noise of outside and not having an external microphone. Merry Christmas looks and sounds much better because the resolution is higher with the Canon Rebel t5i in comparison to the iPhone 6 which Change is Everything was filmed with. The audio is also much better because music was added to the background in editing to enhance the scene, and the microphone naturally amplifies the dialogue. 

Moving forward from these short films, my most recent piece titled Our Place which will be released within the next month on my YouTube Channel was filmed using a Canon 6D camera with a couple variations of Canon lenses. The audio was produced using a NGT4 Rode microphone held over the actors with a Rode boom pole. These greatly enhanced the audio and produced very high quality sound. However, this microphone costed $400. There are several budget friendly microphones though that Rode offers. The microphone was connected to a sound recorder leading to the next piece of equipment:

• Recorder: 

A recorder is a great investment to improve the quality of audio in your films. While filming Our Place, we used a Zoom recorder which worked very well and produced very high quality sound. Unfortunately, it costed over $300. Sound recorders are often very expensive, but you can find cheaper ones on Amazon for near $100. Having a recorder is not necessary because you can plug your microphone straight into your camera, but it greatly enhances the quality so if you can get it, you should. Also, when you have a recorder, you can record the audio separately and edit it if you need to before uploading it into your editing software, which is what I did when producing Our Place. 

• Editing Software: 

You can't edit a short film without some sort of editing software. If you are just starting out and have never touched editing software before, I highly suggest downloading Cute Cut, a mobile app, on your cellphone. It is free and is a great place to start playing around with editing. You have a lot of freedom on the app which I really liked when I used it, and the upgrade to get rid of the Cute Cut symbol and get more access is only about $5. I used this app to edit my school project Web of Lies. If you already have some experience editing but little money, you can download iMovie on your computer or mobile device. I used iMovie when making Change is Everything and Merry Christmas. Once you have saved up some money and have gotten quite advanced in editing, I suggest downloading either Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premier. I personally use Final Cut Pro and love it. There is so much you can do on the program and it is a one time payment. Adobe Premier on the other hand is also an amazing program originally made for Windows computers opposed to Final Cut Pro released for iMacs. Final cut pro costs about $300 but is a one-time payment whereas Adobe Premier costs about $30 a month. 

If you have a recorder and an external microphone, I also suggest downloading an audio editor. While Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier have functions to edit audio, audio editing programs have even more functions to enhance your audio. I use Audacity which is a free program and it works great for raising the sound and removing unwanted background noise.

• Lighting:

Lighting is something that I have not yet had to deal with. My previous short films I made before Our Place were made on very tight budgets in which lighting did not even cross my mind. Our Place was filmed almost completely outside, so we did not use external lighting. However, if you are doing a film indoors or outdoors at night, you will want to invest in standing camera lights which you can find on Amazon. These lights will help the scene appear brighter and can bring attention to the characters you want the audience to see without being harsh. 

• Props and Makeup: 

Depending on the type of short film you are filming, props may be a necessity. For example, if your short film is about a murderer, you will need a fake weapon (fake knife, BB gun, fake chain saw, etc.). Also, if you are including the graphics, you will need special effects makeup (fake blood, eyeshadow, fake skin, etc.). While filming Our Place, we used fake blood and eye shadow to give the character, Adam, a black eye and a cut on his forehead. While filming Merry Christmas, I also used fake blood to give the gory effect. 

I hope this list helps you on your journey to filmmaking, and if you have any questions feel free to comment below! If you are interested in seeing any of the short films I discussed above you can visit my Youtube channel, Sydnayy, at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHwYUvoe_nfh-yVje_h_y1g.