Cinegear Expo 2006 Part #2: Movie Gear for Indies

Unfortunately, I had to work for most of the hours that the Cinegear Expo was happening last weekend. I did manage to get my butt up early and hoof it to Santa Monica Saturday morning. With only a few hours, I concentrated on what might be of interest to indie filmmakers.

One of the first places that caught my attention was the booth for rental house HD Rentals. HD is popular with budget-minded filmmakers. I asked the reps which of the cameras they rent was most popular and got a surprising answer. Although it has only just come out, the new Panasonic HVX200 has been a big hit with indie and documentary filmmakers and reality t.v. productions, they said. They rent a package for $305/day that includes one 4GB P2 card¹. (Prices can usually be had for cheaper than rate card, of course.)

What else?

Continue reading about Cinegear Expo 2006...A friendly booth rep at Tiffen showed me some of their new filters. Their HDTV/FX line has been popular with indie folks since they make DV or HD footage look like film. A lot of their latest filters seem to be targeted at the 'video feature' market that wants the look of DI without the expense. The Glimmerglass (especially the Bronze Glimmerglass), gave a real lush look that I dug. "It gives a psychological edge," the booth rep said. "When talent hears the name Glimmerglass and see how it sparkles in the light, they get confidence. Plus it has the added advantage of actually working." It sounds like a joke, but fretful talent is a common problem.

Sound

I've been looking at wireless mics lately, and I posed a few questions about them to the guys at Location Sound Corp. They said you can get away with some of the cheaper models if you are filmming in a location that doesn't have a lot of wireless chatter. With higher end stuff like Lectrosonics makes, you are buying the ability to find a clear channel more easily and more rapidly.

The standard method of recording seems to be what we used on Rain in the Mountains, putting wireless mics on the actors with the most dialogue and booming everything else. Sennheiser's line of shotgun mics offers good performance at each price point, the booth reps said. While I didn't have the money to take advantage of their convention special on the MKH-416, I did pick up a catalogue. I recommend requesting one from them if for nothing other than the back section, which contains a lot of short, informative articles on various sound topics.

Incidentally, Lectrosonics offers a free guide to wireless technology (careful: links to a document in the interminably sluggish .pdf format).

1. Most productions will want at least two P2 cards per camera. One to shoot with, the other the download from and wipe. That's how this movie did it at least.

MORE FROM THE CINEGEAR EXPO:
Part #1: RED Up Close

RELATED POSTS:
HD EXPO 2006 Report #3: Cool Stuff

UPDATE 7/2/06:
Chris Hurd has tons of pictures from Cinegear 2006
Steve Gibby reports at Studio Daily
HD Issues reports