It’s crazy to think that someone decided that filmmaking had to be a borderline expensive endeavor for no particuallar reason. For the longest time, it seemed like that was the only way to create high-quality videos. But times have changed and technology has advanced to the point where we can now create decent quality videos with just our smartphones. And with some additional gear, we can almost achieve a cinematic quality. The question is, how do we choose the best gear for the best price, and what do we really need?

Editing Software

Essential part of almost every video is editing, you could either choose good or bad here,

• DaVinci Resolve - Free/$295
  • Best unviersal tool for everything, and it’s as good as it gets, you will not only edit your videos here but also colorize them, edit sound, and create professional looking VFX. Advanced node based compositing until some time ago was reserved only industry standard compositors like Nuke($8,853), but now we can do 3D composting with free version of DaVinci!
• Final Cut - $299.99
  • Never used, hear it’s fine for just editing, especially for MAC users
• Premiere Pro - $20.99/mo
  • As some sardonic joke it became standard, it isn’t usable for about 4 years, unfortunately professional industry moves slowly, and so they are stuck with this half-baked piece of software, if you can avoid this, save your self some nerves, pricing is also terrible as it’s a subscription-based.

Audio

If you want to have good audio, you need to record it. Whether you’re doing an interview, review, short movie, or tutorial, you’ll need to capture some sound.Poor sound quality is one of the biggest turn-offs for viewers, so it’s important to invest time and effort in recording quality audio.

Shotgun

• Takstar SGC-600 - $25

  

Wireless

• Ulanzi J12 - $25

• Ulanzi UW-MIC 2.4GHz - $100

  

Lighting

There’s no way around it - lighting is an essential aspect of filmmaking. While you could try using natural sunlight or your home lights, you’ll likely run into issues. Getting “professional” lighting gear can be quite costly, often running into the thousands of dollars. So what can be done about this?

• Reflector

  • Film ready light is pretty hard to get on cheap, however, if you can’t produce light, you can always reflect it, any reflective surface will work, but the most convinient and versitale option are collapsible reflectors. The construction is so simple that “pro” manufactures couldn’t pattern it and stick $1000 onto it, you can get ant shape/size you want, my recommended would be an elliptical one bought from used market as it tend to be way cheaper even than Chinese websites, it’s recommended to have 2-3 reflectors in your toolkit.

When it comes to recording indoors, reflecting lights may not always be enough, especially if you’re looking for controllable and static lighting.

• Wireless RGB lights

  • It’s fairly new product on the market, probably made to resolve the issue of an old smartphones/tablets battery with no use, super convenient constructions, charged with USB, no cables needed, you can mount it anywhere often come with magnets, so you can stick it to the metal surface. Chinese market is very rich with those constructions, just get whatever shape and size you need, most of them are OEM’s so the brand doesnt really matter, but maybe do some research befor buying one.

• DIY lights

  • If you have the skills and patience to do it, building your own lights can be a great way to get high-quality lighting on a budget. However, it’s important to note that it can be a bit more complicated than it initially appears, you will need LED diode / COB, heat radiation, dimmer, driver, and a power supply. Easiest and cheapest option would be to use AC growing COB’s you can get one for less than a buck, and they can be powered directly from outlet, however these can be difficult to control and cool properly.

Camera

As we were able to cheap out on almost everything, there is no way around this time, there are just better and worse choices.

• Smartphone

  • As first and most cost-effective solution is obviously using your smartphone, as presumably you already have one, you can get truly great quality from some of them especially paired with proper lighting, as low light is usually the biggest factor on your smartphone quality. The biggest issue with that is lack of control, there are some alternative camera applications that will give you more settings and some attachable lenses.

• Old camera

  • The whole used market waits for you with their greatness, ultimately it will depend on you how good deal you will find. The older used cameras are still viable option, and for most important they will give you full control over your image Shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and focal length with proper lenses, so yes you want to create something more you will need proper camera. The market is very rich, so what should you be looking for?
  • Firstly I would recommend going with mirrorless camera instead DSLR, you obviously can capture great footage with DSLR, but having mirror doesn’t contribute to anything, and weight and size reduction is definitely appreciated.
  • Connectors like Microphone Jack and HDMI
  • max resolutions, video codecs, flat/logarithmic color profiles
• Some recommendations:
  • Canon EOS M (2012) ~$250 The Canon EOS M is a compact mirrorless camera, it has a large APS-C sized sensor and offers good image quality and video capabilities, making it a budget-friendly option for those looking to get into video production. The camera is compatible with Canon’s EF and EF-S lenses. True potential of this camera comes with custom firmware Magic Lantern, it gives a lot of advances options. Especially recommend this YouTube channel Zeek.
  • Lumix G7 (2015) ~300 By many best overall camera for YouTube and vloging
  • Lumix GX80 (2016) ~$400 Slightly better quality than G7, 5 axis stabilization, more compact size, but It doesn’t have microphone jack and flip screen, however microphone can be soldered, I did this mod myself and it works great! Screen issue can be resolved with Wi-Fi remote device control or external monitor.
  • Sony a6000 (2014) ~$350 ASP-C sensor, especially better for autofocus and app

• Renting Camera

  • If you are planing 1-2 day shoot, and quality cannot be compromise then you will be probably better with rented camera, just make sure that you know how to use it.

Other

• 3D Printing

  3D printing is great, and there is a lot of stuff that can be made for video purpose varying from tripods, mate boxes, grips to sliders and external monitors. There are some stuff where plastic just doesn’t work for example a lens adapters, as the mounting is too thin and it breaks quite easily.

• Refurbishing

  As filmmakers are not often electric engineers, you can try buying damaged stuff and fixing it yourself, there is almost everything with broken condition on used marketplaces, and they are often in such a great prices, but be aware that repair can vary from cleaning to BGA soldering, so you will need to make a decision for yourself depending on your skill level, I’m just letting you know that there is an option