I have been thinking about putting together videos of some of my sketches recently, but I don't really know what kind stuff I need to do a decent job of it. For the video I'm guessing just a decent hand-held camera will do, but what about sound? I know there are quite a few on here who do film their own stuff, so I was hoping they could advise.
Cheers
Wotcha Chris, I've made some clips and slapped them on the 'net. Check out the link in my sig. In fact, I upload to about 8 different sites so am a complete internet whore!
I'm fortunate enough to know a number of people with broadcast quality cameras(Sony Z1's). These all have mics on them which seems to do the trick. I think most (all?) cameras will have on-board mics. Whenever the opportunity arises I try and use radio mics.
Obviously, you'll need to get them edited as well which can make the or break clips.
If you don't have any buddies with kit you could try asking about on talent circle or shooting people.
Even cheep cameras are pretty good really, the biggest thing is make sure you have enough lighting. Darker shots always look grainy - much more so when you have low end equipment. Outside (When light) is always a good move - be careful of back lights if indoors (to much light behind a subject - i.e. window behind person = silhouette)
Sound wise if your camera has no mic socket you don't have much options, more trouble then its worth trying to sync external audio unelss you have some decent editing software. (might be easier these days but it'll be fiddely whatever)
If it does have the plug though you can add a pretty decent mic fairly cheaply, and can then move that nearer the sound for better audio. (Plus you can add a windsheild so pick up less wind when filming outside)
If you're just starting off then don't spend too much money on it. A cheap mini-dv camera to film on, perhaps a tie clip mic (if it's just one person talking) you can get them from Maplin, and Pinnacle is a good cheap starting off piece of editing software. Although if you have a mac it'll probably come with a starter version of Final Cut which would be a hundred times better.
If you can attach the camera to a telly while you're filming you can instantly see if it's going to look good and make changes to the light accordingly.
Oh, and buy a tripod for a tennor out of Jessops or somewhere. It'll save a lot of hassle.
Best advice and one that I'm currently working with now, is to concentrate on sound. Which is paradoxical, given it's a visual medium. Many people will put up with crap visuals but not usually vice versa. Following are options:
1) Get a camera with an XLR (balanced) input and a shotgun mic.
2) Feed a shotgun mic into the mini-jack mic input of your camera (but length of cable in unbalanced becomes an issue)
3) Feed an xlr shotgun into a pre-amp and then feed that pre-amp into the unbalanced mic input - reason being to cut the length of unbalanced cable
4) Currently my personal route - I use a portable high qual digital sound recorder and then synch and add via clapperboard cues at the edit. This means you can be far from the action and not need huge cable runs to the camera and you can always conceal the sound gear right in the centre of the action, where the best sound placement occurs.
Agree with Stu's tripod suggestion too. Got one this week and it's so much better than trying not to breathe while filming.
Thanks for all the comments here, really helpful.
I think what I'll do is get a decent camera and tripod, decent mic and then set that up to my laptop and record the sound on that, then use SlagA's clapperboard idea to be able to sync it up in the edit, and pick up a copy of Pinnacle as Stuart suggested.
I'm not really planning on filming anything too ambitious, mainly dialogue based sketches to start with, so I think that set-up should work pretty well.
What do you think?
Cheers
Do an audio trial with the laptop first. Make sure it can give the qual you need before finding out the day of the shoot... or worse, the day after.