Affordable DSLR for documentary

Digital SLR's that shoot HD video.  So fun.  I've been hearing around town about feature length documentaries being shot with the Canon 5DMachII.  Some television shows are using the camera to shoot promos, fancy B-roll, credit intro sequences and even rig these DSLR's into cars for filming cast while driving.  What does that look like for the indie doc filmmaker?

Shar Ray with the Sanyo XactiHD2000, the smallest full HD camera and all it's add-ons

Enter Miss Shar Ray - who is prepping all her gear for an upcoming shoot in India.  We sit in her office, the only room not packed up before her 2 month journey.  She is bringing 2 cameras:

The Sanyo Xacti HD2000, one of the smallest 'full HD' (1080X1280) camcorders.   A 4GB memory card will record 37 minutes of full HD video.  As of October 2009, the body costs about $350.

The Nikon D5000 is a digital SLR that can can do movie capture 1280X720p at 24fps with mono sound.  It records to compact flash cards. At the time of this writing, the body costs about $750 retail.

The Sanyo looks a bit like a curvy gun, and weighs less than 1/2 pound.  A small camera that looks like a strange ladies electric shaver can play a fun part in the story telling of a documentary shoot in a country like India.  With a camera so small, there are many chances to bring it everywhere you go,  capture the spontaneous scenes that are about the energy of the moment and not the picture quality of the image.  While it's true that such a lightweight, hand held camera is subject to shaky shots  - it also fits in small spaces, and can be thrown into a purse or backpack to capture the spontaneity of the moments as they happen.  There are drawbacks.  With a camera so small comes compromises.  To outfit it with more than 2 channels of audio (if you want camera mic and 1 wireless lav let's say), and maybe on on-board light - the footprint of the camera starts to grow and become a funny looking little device that is neither low pro or cute and tiny.

d:  It's so small!
s: Isn't it?
d:  Yah its great
s: It's nuts, i'm like looking at it, I don't know how I feel about the quality yet.  So, I got this little adapter so i can plug xlrs  into it.  Its frikkin tiny!
d:  It's like you are holding just whatever

s: I got this little mic to go with it to go from mini to xlr.  I tried it, and it works pretty good

d:  That's cute.  How do you hook it on? Is that a cold shoe?
s: Because it doesn't power anything, its just a holder so i can hook up more than one mic.  It's got it's own little deal, this thing?  It has it's own cable to attach separate mics.
d: Oh!

Sanyo HD camera with XLR audio inputs and on board light rig

s: Yah, it has it's own little adapter
d: It's proprietary, so you have to use their plug.  Lame.
s: But whatever.  Oooh and I got this little wide angle lens for the camera.  Kinda fun. It's like an little adapter.
d: Everything is so cute
s: I like things that are tiny.  It's funny with all the business on it.  I was shooting in low light, and it seemed a little shitty.  Look at it all together. (shows it to me all built)  This is all the shit!
s: I can't wait to get the steadi cam!

d: Does the camera have audio on it's own?

s: Yeah - it totally does

d:  So you can just shoot.  Oh - that's good a cute lil' light
s: All these products are by a company named Sima and it re-charges.  You can charge the light, it is supposed to stay on for 3-4 hours. And the light comes with a little rig to attach it to the camera and if you buy more than one, they can connect together - so it becomes a bigger source.  You can connect more together, and they are all powered on their own.

The Sima rechargeable light and it's mounting bracket

d:  How long are you going to india for?
s: 2 months

d:  What is the documentary going to be about?
s: It will be about us traveling through India, documenting our friend Nisha looking for her birth mother.   At the same time, we are all going to India to get back to our culture and heritage.  India is full of things we are not accustomed to on a daily basis.  There are 5 of us, we are connected b/c my sister is my sister.  My sis's best freiend is Nisha.  We grew up together, Nisha's been like that other sister.  We've grown up since they were in junior high.  When I was in college, we both lived in San Diego.  For me we got closer when we were in San Diego.

Nisha & the crew /// Photo by Adrienne Garcia

>twitter alert<

d:  It makes a sound every time someone tweets?

hiytesh: (whispers, it's annoying)

s: There's certain people I need to not have on twitter, like LP, he twitters just a little too much.  and Martha Stewart, she twitters a lot.  I choose to follow the wrong people.  Like John Dang - I get some twitters from here now and then, that are really funny.  Like the other day he tweeted that adrienne's dog was racist.  (Adrienne Garcia, photographer)
d:  What is the common thread between all of you?
s: We are all friends.  4 of us are of Indian descent.  Hitesh is full blooded, from Gujrat, me and my sister our dad's Indian, he's Bengali from Calcutta.  Nisha is Indian but she's been adopted, and so she has NO idea about the Indian culture.  From what we know , she is from GOA - we are going to try and find her mom there.
I went when I was little.  I asked for an American cow, for cereal.  I was like, 'Is this from an American cow, b/c if it's not, I don't want it.'  I just remember the bathroom situation in India was not fun when you are little.  I remember poop everywhere.   That's what i always remembered.  After being that little, I never had the desire to go to India, ever again.  I was like, 'I'm never gonna go,' but now it's different.

Photo by Adrienne Garcia

d: What are you going to use the Nikon D500o DSLR for?
s: For B-roll, time lapse footage. I actually really like the quality of it, depth of field with focus.  The smaller camera will now probably be used for sound and interviews.
>'ringing sound' from her phone<
s: See?  annoying

d:  What's the tweet?

s:  This is form the dosa truck.  'opposite 2500 broadway of helens bikes where kogi parks. stay tuned'

d: omg dosas are the most amazing things ever.

s: Beacuse it's so pretty, it'll be more fun to use this Nikon camera.  It looks more cinematic and dramatic.  It looks cool when things rack focus, I love the depth of field.
d: The gun/ you'll potentially get the spontaneous fun stuff - can have the gun on in bed - or a party in goa - people won't see that thing.

s: The gun can be my sound recorder.
d: You got a lot of good stuff.  What bag are you going to put everything in?
s: I have this regular backpack. wanted to look low pro.  I know this will all fit, but I'm debating if I want to separate. So it's not all the eggs in one basket. I don't want to look too camera-y. I just wish is was more compartmentalized.

d:  Once you guys get annoyed with each other, promise  me you'll film it.

s: I won't even be going on a trip, I'll just be. watching it. >laughs< I guess the one time I shot a band and followed them around.  They were comfortable with me - and they forgot the camera was there.  That's the kind of stuff I like capturing, when people are so comfortable with you, they don't act different around the camera.  I don't want to capture too many interviews.  I want it to be more on the fly.

NOBODY's gonna shoot me. >laughing<,  I'm just gonna shoot everybody else.  We are definitely going to have some fun times, thats for sure.  I don't really know, what I'm going to get into when I get there.  That's the excitement of it, and it's also really scary.

To read more about their documentary: My India 09

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Shar Ray - photo by Adrienne Garcia