The guys at the local school have told me to do some arty science type demos - they tell me for someone like me it's the way into the video scene. I'm thinking about it
Edmund,
Art? Whatever.
Your worrying too much about the camera and not the other things that matter.
First. Define your audience. Filmakers don't shoot for themselves (at least with success) They shoot with an audience in mind, the defined market, the family, some you tube yahoos, an award's committee, but they have the audience in the front of their brain at all times.
When you hear about a director's cut, it's not the artistic director's cut that people think. It's the cut that the director thought would resonate the best with the audience.
Second. Study film makers and don't look for the negatives, look for the positives. Michael Bay is the king of "save the day" action. Not a great dialog director, but a amazing visual emotion director. Ridley Scott covers a story and keeps it exciting.
David Lynch shoots art. Pretty art and the critics love him, but he doesn't resonate with most people, not people that pay. Wes Anderson has a style, is somewhat dry funny, but you know it's a wes anderson film.
Anyway, study how these people (and others) tell stories. Also study dps that work and understand how much they bring to the STORY. I can make a long list but the web is full of good information.
Second the story. Always have a story (with the audience in mind) It can even be a home video or a silly jump around story, but you have to have a story. Graphics, photography, sound score will not surpass a story that people are interested in.
Third, shoot it with the best, most interesting subjects you can put in front of the lens. Boring in, boring out, slow in slow out. Script it and if you can't write, listen to music with great lyrics, that's always inspiring.
Fourth shoot it and light it if you can. Lighting will make most cameras perform better, even if you have a slight fill light, anything is better than trying to take a fragile video file and fix it in post.
Fifth and I think the most important (because it relates to the story) is learn how to edit. Really edit, not half ass slap it together edit. I don't care what program you use, but learn it inside and out so you can work it intuitively.
Editing binds the story, or at the least tells the story in an interesting way, sometimes saves the story.
The rest, color correction, effects, titles are there only to support the story. The guys that sell all this plastic stuff will tell you different, but trust me, it's always the story and how adept you are at telling it.
So bottom line is, you have a camera, you have sound, you have a tripod. That's all it really takes to film something.
If you get good, heck let's say great, cameras are easy to find, cheap to rent and if you want to own by the time customers come knocking you'll know what you need to shoot with.
IMO
BC
P.S. Last year we took 1 1/2 days off which is a lot for us and went to a family get together in central texas, at an old B+B farmhouse. I didn't go there to film, I went there to have fun with the kids and the family but shot about 50 clips with the 70d.
Once I started shooting I instinctively started thinking about a story and my audience, which is the family. I had to make sure to cover everyone, so no feelings were hurt, use the kids to set the tone, because they move fast and are natural, pick a sound score that would resonate and not be over the top or too emotional but not bland either as this was MOS except for the end.
It's not beautiful cinematography, but that wasn't the goal, it's real, it's interesting and my audience (the family) loved it.
Once again it's the story but the story has to play to someone. Pretty pictures aren't the only goal, pretty pictures just add to the medium.
The world is full of pretty pictures of ducks, water, sunsets, mountains, skiers (god there has to be 5 billion skiers jumping something) and a lot of other stuff.
Most are boring, because there is no story.