ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years, 11 months ago - Jamie Kennerley

You should hook up with the guys at Filmonik (links below) which is THE low-budget filmmaking collective in Manchester. You'll learn more from 6 months of making shorts and attending screenings with those guys as you will in 3 years on the MMU course :-)
I exaggerate, but it's rare to find a filmmaking collective that is as active and organised as Filmonik is, and it's definitely worth getting to know them.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/filmonik/
http://filmonikweb.blogspot.co.uk

9 years, 11 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

If your uni haven't given you a list, assume you'll be told on arrival. Some film courses are achingly theoretical, I've had fresh graduates who made one short over 3 years, but had loads of classroom time. Other courses are more vocational, and this outs where your own kit will save you from having to wait/share.

I'd suggest any camera and mic setup that you understand is better than a flashy one you don't, so maybe start cheap. Your first films will be awful anyway (they always are, and waaaaaaayyyyy too long toboot), so don't worry that technical quality of equipment will hold you back, story, composition, etc are massively more important at this stage. I would, however, look at even something like a 'handy zoom h2' (or whatever it's called) which is a pretty decent mic with built-in SD card recording - you can get away with a cheaper camera and position the mic close to the action to get decent sound (compared with the camera on-board mic, which it's safe to assume is useless)

9 years, 11 months ago - Marlom Tander

If you have any type of budget for kit, buy, try to buy a camera, a decent external mic and a basic lighting kit. Armed with that you can just get on and film an awful lot of types/styles/content and practice makes perfect. Around a grand should suffice to source everything second hand on Ebay, and that's all your natural light and domestic interiors covered.

Key law of life, the person with the kit decides what the kit gets used for, and when you're not using it, allowing people to borrow your lights and mics (I never lend a camera out to those unable to afford to replace it) gives you plenty of favours to call in for your own projects.

You could also build one of these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da4dTGk-G6g and then take orders from your classmates. The margins could pay for more kit :-)

9 years, 11 months ago - Roy Hanney

From my knowledge of MMU you will be doing plenty of practical work and you should find they have lots of equipment to use. I personally wouldn't advise spending lots of money on equipment unless you are filthy rich. Save your cash and use the uni kit. By the time you graduate any equipment you buy now is likely to be out of date/broken and when you graduate that is the time to buy the kit you will need to do whatever job you decide on (lets not forget that not every role in the film game requires a ton of kit to do it). You know new entrants to the film/TV business obsess about equipment but actually it isn't the equipment that is important it is your ideas and your creativity. You can have a million cameras and cinematographers but if you don't have ideas that can be taken to market they are all going to spend their time on the dole. Books the same, the uni will have all the books and journals you can think of plus you have access to all that wonderful 'expert testimony' online these days. So again I would hold onto your money. What do you need to do then? Watch films, watch more films, watch old films, watch new films, watch TV, watch more TV! Saturate yourself in the stuff. It is always frustrating to meet people who want to work in film and TV who have never seen classics, have no knowledge of the cannon, the tradition and can not speak about the greats. If there is one thing you could do that will be worthwhile it is this. Watch films & TV. Finally, use the kit and the facilities while you at uni to make your own stuff, don't just stick to the curriculum, you only get three years of plundering a free facilities and kit hire company so make use of it cause after you graduate you will be paying for it (yes even favours are not free you have to pay them back in the end).