Help with a budget DSLR video shoot!

JackJohnson

Hey there,
I'm doing a very low budget student film shoot indoors, using a Nikon D7000 for the video, and wanting a shotgun mike or digital audio recorder to either hot-shoe mount or boom mount - any budget-friendly recommendations?
Any general recommendations for a first video shoot? I'm on a pretty tight time-line and want to get something good looking and sounding out in a few days.
Thanks!
Jack

hsu

RØDE VideoMicro. I have one, and it works great for what it is, probably the best unpowered external mic that you can use in place of your camera's horrendous internal mic. It comes with a deadcat, but I ended up buying acoustic foam for it instead. This is what I use for run & gun situations, where I'm taking video on the move, particularly outdoors.
http://en.rode.com/microphones/videomicro
If you have a stationary indoors environment, with access to a laptop, I would rig a good USB mic onto a boom. I have a Samson Q1U at home and a C03U at work that I've been using for years, but the Blue Yeti is the prototypical USB mic that every podcaster uses. Run it in parallel with your RØDE and sync the Yeti's audio in post production. You'll definitely hear the difference (5 watts of power and dedicated DAC helps a ton), particularly if you can rig the boom close to your actors.
http://www.bluemic.com/products/yeti/
http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/microphones/usb-microphones/q1u/
http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/microphones/usb-microphones/c03u/
The pros use wireless lavalier mic setups, but I'm not a pro, so I can't help you there.

JackJohnson

Thanks that's awesome!
Any advice on budget lighting? I think shooting a 3 minute indoors is going to need something. I'm looking at some LED lights online that look good value?

JackJohnson

Also, anyone know any on-line tutorials for filming short info-mercial type PSAs? I'm trying to get something serious but funny to keep people interested. Honestly I'm kind of panicking about having this dumped on me at the last minute and could do with some advice.

hsu

For lighting, the main thing you want is lots of wattage, like 600+ watts worth of lighting, if not double that, from at least 3 directions, preferable soft boxed or reflected, so that the lights aren't point sources, but diffuse in nature, with all the bulbs being identical make/model.

The better your lens, the better your camera is at taking low ISO video, the less lighting you need for a good shot. But if you're using an older camera with mediocre ISO sensitivity with a kit lens, you'll need a ton of wattage.

JackJohnson

Thanks - any thoughts on incandescent vs LED?

JackJohnson

Thanks - that's really helpful - our president committed a major faux pas last week, and I'm supposed to be stepping in to clean up the fall-out.