Amateur Gear, Pro Results
Gear DOES NOT Matter
Quick disclaimer: there are going to be certain things you cannot get from base level gear that you can get from pro or prosumer gear, HOWEVER overwhelmingly those things are quality of life improvements and things that your audience will NOT notice while watching.
Okay, on with the show.
The famous adage of a multi-Oscar nominated director worth millions of dollars saying “get out and make a movie” has become so prolifically quoted (often by myself) that it’s hard to not see it as a cheap response to “how do I make a movie?”
Even worse, it’s almost always directly or indirectly aimed at children or young people gaining an interest in film.
What about the 20, 30, 40, 50 year old’s who aren’t just “trying it” anymore?
The thing about being so connected in the filmmaking community, through YouTube, Cinema5D, and a whole myriad of other blogs constantly regurgitating the latest news, reviews, and rumors on Canon’s 1.6x crop 4K mode on an $8K camera, or Sony’s latest Full Frame 12K sensor downsampled to 4K monster, is that it gets us all caught up in buzzwords and stats.
- The GH5 records 10-bit internal with 6K Anamorphic.
- The BMPCC4K (jesus, what a name) shoots 12:1 BlackMagic RAW.
- The Sony A7III has the same dynamic range as an Alexa (no, but sort of) and a 6K sensor.
And all of that^ is awesome, but they are also outside of the budget of a legitimate zero-budget shoot (unless you already own it)
Even if the funds for the film are there, maybe few hundred dollars or $1K total, blowing even a percentage of that on cameras that cost hundreds to rent or at least $1.2k to buy is incredibly reckless.
The gear that’s already owned is more than likely going to be the least sexy gear, because the truth is gear-lust is a never ending process.
The Sony A7III is just about the closest thing to pornography in the filmmaking world right now, but I know the moment I got my hands on it I’d suddenly fall in love with a Canon EOS RP2 or whatever is on the horizon.
But when you strip away the tech and compression stats and picture profiles, the fact remains that a T3i still produces images that are flat out AMAZING to look at, and the whole thing (with a lens) costs less than an Xbox.
When setting out to make my first film Abigail, I didn’t have the luxury of choosing gear. I had a T3i with a 50mm 1.8, and a Rokinon 16mm 2.8, and that was my kit.
(this principle is also applicable to my second film Mockingbird, because money is still something that’s demanded elsewhere)
While editing, I watched the movie more times than anyone else on God’s slightly-less-green-than-before Earth and got incredibly frustrated by the image compression and artifacts in the frame.
Every blown out pixel was like a personal attack against my family, and I felt like this movie was going to be the worst thing to come out of me since I tried to hit the high note in “My Heart Will Go On”
This is what that film looks like.
I tend to use this same image when discussing Abigail, but there is a reason for it: it’s probably the best looking image I’ve ever shot. Coupled with the music written by the man who is standing in the shot, it’s probably the best 40 seconds of footage I’ll ever release.
It was also shot with a T3i, no lights, no reflectors, on a $10 tripod to keep it steady, and a 10 minute walk from a parking lot.
I don’t think it takes a lot of hubris to say that this same image captured on an Alexa, or even motion picture film (oh boy here we go), would be all that different to your average viewer.
Sure I’d get all hot and heavy talking about how there’s 85 stops of DR or how the film was color timed chemically or whatever, but the average audience member, or even my mom, would just think “what a pretty shot.”
And that’s the point.
We don’t make movies for other filmmakers, and if you do you’re walking into a world of pain and torment because your tripod was off by .7 degrees and the talent should have been faced more to the left, 2/10.
We make movies for whoever will watch them, and the vast majority of those people will be seeing it on YouTube (or Vimeo), on a phone with a maximum resolution of 1080p and 8mbits/sec on their lunch break.
On that screen, the 8k Red Monstro and my T3i are the same thing; cameras that took a picture.
Fun fact, these two images in the article are shot in the same spot, and almost exactly the same view, on my 58mm Helios ($50), and 16mm Rokinon ($250), but the Helios is farther away because of the tighter view.
Martin R. McGowan is a filmmaker living in Aston, Pa.
He enjoys long walks in Tahiti, Arthur, and ignoring his responsibilities.
When not stressing, he can be found asleep, or pretending to sleep as the world around him may or may not be crumbling.
I can also be found on Instagram, and building a YouTube channel, about five years late to that party.
