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General discussion

which camera should i use to make a horror film...........

Jan 15, 2006 1:57AM PST

okay i have been writing a script for almost 3 years now, it is called Alone and i am shooting it in the woods and in dark houses, i dont want night vision because its all green and worthless, i dont know much about cameras as you can probably tell and i want a high quality camera. what camera has the following.......

able to be shot in the dark, or closest thing too

able to be atached to a standard tripod

able to have fire wire atached so that i can edit the film on screen

has very high quality sound and picture


please someone help me, i cant give my movie up, because i know nothing about cameras!

thankyou so much,
Luke S. Johnson

Discussion is locked

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Read...
Jan 15, 2006 2:15AM PST
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Try a 3-CCD camera
Jan 15, 2006 11:05PM PST

Regardless of the brand, look into a 3-CCd camera. Most will have much better low-light capability than a 1-CCD camera and the colors and image purity are generally much better too. The cost will be higher buy hey, you've just spent years of your life on the script, so why go cheap now? Canon and Panasonic both make very high-end consumer-professional models. Just do a search here on CNET and use "3-CCD" as one of your search filters and you will see many cameras.

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thanks
Jan 18, 2006 6:08AM PST

you are very right, i need to buy an expensive camera. But thankyou that is what i was hoping for!

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PVGS-250 Shoot at night
Apr 11, 2009 7:49AM PDT

As a now freelance videojournalist with 3 Emmy's, having worked on Hellraiser III, Children of the Corn and a couple of other indy features .. ie horror genre mostly at night.. the point that no one shoots without some sort of artificial light. The trick is in learning by doing how to light so you get the shadows right.. avoid hard highlights. Anyone thinking that any video camera can shoot feature video in darkness has no business of starting such a film. I shot news for 25+ yrs.. in combat zones.. last in Afghanistan.. shot drug raids at night all with my old Beta SP News camera and with a Sony VX1000. I don't care how expensive the camera too little light means grainy video.. so.. make this work for you. People know it's night.. but use lights.. if you have to get battery lights, have friends hold them.. get close enough so they'll bring up the ratios. Or get AC which is better. use good stands.. or mount the lights to trees.. bldgs.. you can do it . .this is the fun of making a film.. try and try again till you find the right shooting style. DO you remember that god awful film.. Blair Witch Project.. worst film I ever saw half way through.. too shakey.. so dark I had to almost get my old night scope glasses from the Army. hey.. use both tripod and hand held. For horror and on location learn to hold in your hand. or get to a website that shows how to make a cheapo stabilizer.. they do work. I shot most of my war videos all handheld. Practice and it'll look more realistic.

Good luck.. oh.. never ever dub over video via USA.. always use Firewire.. !!!! I have vegas 7 and it works great.. far more intuitive and quick then any other software.

Jim Waters