Digital Film Making of Documentaries

There are many kinds of films, which fall under categories like expressionist and realist films. The documentary film falls under realist filming. It depicts events as they actually are audibly and visually. This is to say that there are no actors involved. Real people in their natural environments feature, usually as interviewees. Besides this, other aspects that influence documentary film making are cinematography, camera techniques, sound and lighting.

In cinematography, the film attributes are considered. The 7 stops exposure latitude, motion blur due to the low 24 frames per second frame rate and high resolution are responsible for the image quality. They give documentaries their 'film look'. This necessitates cinematographers to learn how to capture perfect footage. They learn this in film schools.

The documentary also incorporates digital film making, whereby digital cameras are used to select the format and aspect ratio. This digital cinematography is very effective in low light shooting, in which the film is not as adequate. The best documentaries that have utilized digital filming usually achieve the high resolution 'film look'.

The camera techniques employed are the same as those of expressionist films. They include camera movements like tilting, panning, dolling and zooming, among many others. They also include grammar of the shot. This refers to effects like close-up and panoramic shots. Besides this, the sound includes the voice-over narration and mice-en-scene.

There is absence of the thematic sound tracks present in expressionist films, used to heighten suspense. The voice-over narration is the only role one can get in documentary film making, besides being part of the technical crew. This crew is made up of camera, sound and lighting technicians. The narration details the image interpretation, but leaves the audience to make their own conclusions. It is more like a commentary or report.

The documentary is shot in the natural environment, which means the lighting is mostly natural. When enhanced by stage lights, the results must still look natural. This gives the film director the task of coordinating the various aspects of the film. This must be done in the most cost-effective way, as filming can be quite expensive.

The final stage documentary undergoes is editing. At this stage, digital enhancements are avoided. Everything must depicted as in reality. The sound, if recorded on the camera, is poorer quality than on an audio recorder. The sound is edited to a synchrony with the visuals. Most of the editing lies with the shots. They are cut into suitable lengths and combined to tell a fluent story.

All these areas of specialization require great skills. Talent alone is not enough. The skills in either the technical aspects or narration are acquired in schools of film. These schools also teach the different filming techniques, keeping at par with technological advancements. Enrolling in such a school, therefore, guarantees one expertise in digital film making, the new face of the film industry.

We provide the best info about documentary film making and digital film making. For further details please visit the provided links.

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Canon Digital Feature Film Making

Thanks to The Canon Company and the digital camcorders and DSLRs there is an underground digital film revolution happening. This revolution began a few years ago when Canon decided to add the 24 frames per second option into most of its mid range consumer camcorders. Later it would at this as a video option in its DSLR and the revolution has caught fire world wide.

There are so many sites and blogs dedicated to DSLR cameras such has the Canon D7, Mark II and the T2I that I thought that I would go old school and focus on the cameras that started the revolution and with a few add-ons can offer nearly the picture quality at a low price point. I will focus largely on the Canon HV series and the feature films that have been made with these little monsters and when the moment demands it I will get into some of the great work being done with the DSLRs.

Let's begin with why should a low budget film maker consider these cameras. I would say in response that a low budget film maker should not and by low budget I mean if you have fifty thousand dollars or more to spend then you should consider using the Canon Mark II or the Red or a number of the Panasonic pro-sumer camcorders if you want to make a feature film. If you have fifty thousand or more why not go 16mm film. The film cameras are cheap and if you know what you are doing with them then go right ahead. The truth is that I am not here for the low budget film maker. I am here for those who are called ultra low budget or no budget film makers. You fall into this category if you have less than ten thousand dollars to spend on your first feature.

Allow me to describe you. You or a close friend have written the screenplay for your movie. You will be doing this project with the help of friends and family who will work behind the scenes for no pay. You will be shooting on nights and weekends and at locations that you can get for free or get in and out of without being caught filming there. Your actors will be paid little to nothing up front. You will be looking to get the best production value out of the least amount of money spent possible.

In other words you are a lot like me.

You are only willing to pay for what is absolutely unavoidable. The three area where you are going to have to spend money are:

Sound, if your audience can not hear the movie then you are doomed. Viewers will give up on your project the third or fourth time they have to mutter what did he just say? Huh, What was that?

Editing, you may be able to use a free program, but you will need a computer strong enough and quick enough to edit and hopefully do some sound mixing on. If you have such a computer cool, you just saved money.

Camera, you need something that shoots in HD digital and shoots at 24p. Why 24p? That is the industry standard. This is the frame rate that gives you that motion picture look. You are going to have to spend some money on your camera. Money on the lenses and in most cases on a depth of field adapter.

The cameras are why we are here and let us talk about what to do and not to do. Get the best camera at the lowest possible price that will get the job done. Do not blow half of your production budget on your awesome new camera. It will feel wonderful to have that expensive camera and muse about all the things that it is able to do until it is day 12 of shooting and you have no money to feed your cast and crew. You have no money left for transportation, (gas money) and you have just realized that you should have set aside at least a third of your budget for post production cost. Treat your camera like the tool that it is.

A camera is not jewelry. It is not a diamond ring. It is a tool. You could consider it a hammer or a shovel. I think of mine as my axe. Like a good guitar it can make beautiful music if tuned just right.

As a independent movie maker I have want to share the bits of information I have picked up during the years, so I have started a blog dedicated to no budget digital film making. If you wish to learn more about the use of the canon series of camcorders and film making visit me a http://www.cannondigitalfeaturefilmmaking.blogspot.com/.

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Is 3D A Whole New Dimension Of Making Films?

Ever since James Cameron's 'Avatar' and its widespread success, filmmakers in Hollywood are desperately trying to use the revolutionary 3D technology for a number of genres. 3D has become a natural preference for most of the animated films as well as action and sci-fi films big on action and special effects. These films are meant to be big successes with the audiences in the theaters. 3D technology has enabled people to experience hurtling effects and spaceships which seem to pop right out of the silver screens. Even Bollywood is warming up to the sensation of the Extra Dimension. Last year, we had both 'Ra One' and 'Don2' releasing in a separate 3D format in theaters.

On the surface of it, 3D technology for films seems to be big success factor for Hollywood. After 'Avatar', there have been many spectacular successes like 'Adventures Of Tintin- Secret Of Unicorn' and of course the final installments of the popular Harry Potter series. They have made sure that the movie watchers have thronged the aisles with tubs of popcorn. But there have been some glaring failures as well. Films like 'Green Hornet'. Green Lantern' and 'Clash Of The Titans' have compelled people to question the profitability in using the 3D technology for every kind of film. The animation section, however, continues to ride high.

The problem is not with the state of technology being a fashion and fad. In the past, there have been considerable introductions of technique and innovation. These continue to be inspiring for many filmmakers and directors, even as they may be termed as old fashioned. The problem is that thing- use of technology. In Hollywood, filmmakers are simply pumping cash into films with big effects but little else. This means that after a time, the 3D technology, if used so ludicrously, will no longer be a novelty. Technology benefits film-making only if it makes storytelling novel and extraordinary to the audiences. The 3D should be used for movies which can be made exciting or genuinely sensational with the use of technology.

Then again, expensive technology is not the main thing. Even inferior or cheaper technology of making films can be used effectively to make a simple but well-written film more viable to specific audiences. Think about movies like 'Paranormal Experience'. The cheaply made horror flick revels in the gritty style of its hand-held, scratchy and realistic camerawork. I-MAX technology is another thing which could be misused. In most films, no one actually notices that the action scenes have been shot with I-MAX cameras. But in well-made films like 'The Dark Knight' or 'Inception', one does feel the difference.

With the current state of indulgence, 3D would be best used if left to the hands of a few filmmakers. Martin Scorsese's latest film 'Hugo' uses the 3D cameras to shoot people and real scenarios rather than computer generated imagery. The film's is a story of childhood and innocence but it also uses 3D so as to capture the expressions, emotions and the real depth to the characters and the backgrounds. If 3D films are filmed or made in such an impressive manner, it will be a really new dimension to film-making and storytelling.

Read my review of 'Hugo' at my blog http://moviechatterbugsunlimited.blogspot.com/. Also, read other reviews at my blog as well.

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People in Large Mobs Do Crazy Things But We Can Use That Footage for Movie Making!

When Hollywood wishes to make an epic movie, they often need to hire hundreds, if not thousands of extras. This costs a lot of money to pay all the background each day the movie is shooting the various larger scenes. Often the Hollywood films run into the tens of millions of dollars. Of course, often it is possible to use news footage, or footage from actual events in the real world, and since it comes from the real world it looks more realistic often enough.

Would you like me to give you a couple examples? Well, let's say you are making a disaster movie, why wouldn't you use the CNN footage, probably for a fee, of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami? What if you were involved in the Zombie drama genre? Well, it just so happens that there was a gigantic get together where everyone dressed up like zombies, thousands of people in fact. Imagine having that footage for your futuristic scary movie?

In Mexico City there was a group of 10,000 people marching in the streets and set a world record in fact. An article on this appeared in the LA Times on December 30, 2011 by Ken Ellingwood titled: "In Mexico, getting into Guinness can seem like a broken record," which stated:

"In November, the living dead took center stage: Nearly 10,000 people smeared with fake blood lurched through Mexico City's central plaza in what organizers said was the World's Biggest Zombie Walk. The record-setting phenomenon is, in part, testament to the eye-popping scale of the Mexican capital, the venue for many of the record-breaking stunts."

Gee, no wonder Britney Spears decided to do a free concert in the park on her visit to Mexico City - after all, if 10,000 people will dress up like Zombies, they'd probably be crazy enough to buy her latest music too! In fact, I can hear Katy Perry singing about something like this;

"Walking in the Dark, Zombies in the Park, Last Friday Night!"

Or better yet, Rob Zombie singing;

"Dead I am the one, Aztecs in the Sun, Zombies in the street, bleeding from their feet."

Still, all jokes aside, it would be quite wise for someone to take 20-50 of their friends with them to Mexico City to film something like this, and capture all those images for stock footage to sell to Hollywood. Anyone that produces scary movies would be very wise to invest in creating their own footage, or paying people a small amount of money as citizen journalists for capturing the images and videos for them. In fact they might have a contest, then claim copyrights for anything posted on a giant website. And from that website they would have tons of stock footage.

The website would get tens of thousands of hits, because everyone who went to the event would want to see themselves in the videos which were posted, and people would put links from their Facebook pages to the various videos. The owners of the website would build the stock footage for free, and then could make a movie and thus, save millions of dollars in costs, and/or could sell the footage they didn't use to other people who were also in the industry. It's a very good business model, and I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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Making Peace With Resistant Interview Subjects

When I started my business, I knew that I would learn a lot. But I never anticipated learning so much about people's fears, both real and imagined, and how to help unblock those fears.

Something that often comes up in my Pre-Interview sessions with clients are the topics we want to avoid when interviewing their loved one. These are usually the subjects my client thinks are taboo or might somehow "break" their parent or grandparent. While I am always sensitive and follow my clients' wishes, I sometimes find that the topics they ask me to avoid come out in the interview naturally. Sometimes, talking about difficult subjects in the context of storytelling can be therapeutic and not as shattering as some people might think.

What has surprised me most is the great deal of resistance I sometimes get from my older interviewees who do not wish to be filmed. Their reasons have no bounds. They think its "silly" or not worth their time. "Who needs to hear my stories?" they say.

The real reason behind their reluctance? Often it's about not wanting to put themselves in a vulnerable position. Especially with older subjects, I've found that people of that generation aren't used to reflecting on the meaning behind their life events. It just wasn't part of their culture growing up, and therefore they find it uncomfortable.

What I try to stress to my clients to help combat this resistance is to share with their parents (or grandparents) that by learning their stories, you can better understand your own life story.

A quick example: My husband and his father both revere Syracuse basketball. I thought it was just a "guy thing." Then I interviewed his father Jon, who told me all about how his father once played for the Syracuse basketball team. Jon himself was the manager and announcer for games. I realized their passion was more than the average sports fan. Syracuse basketball for them was steeped in family tradition--a bond between father and son that has been passed down for generations--a much bigger deal than I'd ever imagined.

So what are some ways of breaking through that resistance to get someone to talk on camera? Here are a few real examples that have worked for my clients.

• The guilt trip. I had a client whose father was a Holocaust survivor and had refused for years to share his story. She finally demanded that he do it, not for himself or her, but for his grandchildren. Something about doing it for the grandchildren made him relent.

• Feeling glamorous. I often hear from older women that they don't like the way they look. They don't look the way they used to and don't want to be remembered like this. So I suggest they go to the beauty parlor. Get their hair done, their make-up done, and put on an outfit that's going to make them feel fabulous! And then forget about the camera and focus on the story. Just making someone feel glamorous will help get them more comfortable.

• Relax. Do whatever it takes to help them relax. One client took a Valium before her interview--just enough to help herself relax and be at ease with the camera. Other clients have had a glass of wine beforehand.

• Focus on the Audio. Sometimes people are so intimidated by the camera that they would rather just have the audio portion recorded. While I prefer to have both audio and video, the most important thing is to have them share their story. You can always edit the audio with old photos to create a visually appealing story.

• Reading Old Letters or Journals. This is a last resort. Though I'd much prefer to hear someone's natural story unfold during an interview, sometimes people are more comfortable with a prepared statement. If you can't get someone to agree to be interviewed, and they are comfortable reading something they've already written, at least you will have captured their voice and image on camera for generations to come. And it just might relax them enough to share more after the reading.

• Work With a Professional. Or someone that's a non-family member. I say this because recently, I had my toughest case yet. An 85-year-old woman who had been adamant about not being on camera, or even having her voice recorded, for the past 5 months. So we had decided her husband would tell all of their stories. And yet, somehow, after my being there for a few hours interviewing her husband, she decided she would talk to me on camera for just a few minutes. She ended up sharing her stories in a beautiful 90-minute interview!! We're still not entirely sure what made her suddenly change her mind, but my guess is because I was a professional, and NOT at all related to her, that it became more comfortable, and of greater importance, sharing her stories with me. (She also likely didn't want to be upstaged by her husband!)

Whatever you do, remember that the most important thing is to capture someone telling their stories, however you can.

DMB Pictures is a boutique video production company specializing in producing broadcast-quality personal stories for families, non-profits and small businesses. The company opened its doors in January 2006 led by Debbie Mintz Brodsky, a three-time Emmy Award-winning television producer with more than 20 years of experience.

Visit us at http://www.dmbpictures.com/

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Vancouver Movie Producers - Making a Movie in Hollywood North

Every year, hundreds of movies and television productions are made in Vancouver, aka Hollywood North. It is the third largest centre for film and TV in the world, behind only Los Angeles and New York City. It is also home to many filmmakers experienced in making very low budget movies. These low budget filmmakers can also make videos for websites, including product promo videos, commercials, and infomercials. This article will explain why Vancouver is renown for being a centre for film and video production.

Vancouver is on the west coast of Canada, with the mildest climate in Canada. Movies shot here can be made to look like they were shot in most any part of the US, including California. Certain parts of the city can be used to portray many American cities, such as Chicago and New York City. Outlying areas of Vancouver have been used to make movies that look like they were made on farms and in small towns in Texas and the midwestern United States.

And because Vancouver is the third largest movie making centre in the world, there are a lot of actors here, mostly unknown, who are willing to work for modest pay. Similarly, there are many production crew members here who will also work for low pay. Vancouver is a multi cultural city, so actors of virtually any ethnicity can be found. With forests, mountains and the ocean nearby, spectacular scenic backdrops can be utilized. Many music videos made in Vancouver have taken advantage of the low cost of production, and the very varied shooting locations.

For these reasons, Vancouver is the first choice for low cost video and film production, and many American producers use the facilities here for multiple film and video productions. Anyone wanting to make a movie can locate the people, resources and locations they need by searching on the internet.

People to search for on the internet can include actors, writers, directors, casting agents, editors, production crew members and you can also search for camera gear rentals, and green screen studios for special effects. Green screen shooting is frequently used, to make it look like the actors are in non local locations, such as desert areas or tropical areas, and in overseas locations such as Asia, the Middle East and Europe. With these and other movie making tricks, Vancouver can be used to make most any movie that the human mind can imagine.

I am a low cost video and film producer in Vancouver Canada. I have won 4 awards for my short films, and I have made hundreds of videos for the internet. I have access to many actors, and I can find virtually any type of actor that might be needed. On my website, you can see about 25 sample videos. If you are out of town, we can work together by phone and email, with casting tryouts put on the internet for your review. This can be done for smaller productions such as TV commercials and web videos, as well as for a feature film. I offer free phone consultations with no obligation.
http://www.bushpilotproductions.com/

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Making Movies and Film Investors

There are extremely talented potential filmmakers out there that never make a movie because they just can't bring themselves to take the leap of faith. Saying yes to making a movie starts with an attitude that regardless if your movie is entertaining or terrible at least you give it an honest go to see if you got the fire in you to make movies.

In the world of making of movies, especially at the indie film level, there are zero guarantees that every aspiring filmmaker that sets out to go from screenplay to distributed movie will make it to the end. Making movies is risky creatively and financially. Sometimes a movie falls apart during pre-production, filming or in post-production for lots of different reasons.

Making a movie to me is like gambling. You try your best as a filmmaker to tilt the odds in your favor as much as possible so you can win. Professional gamblers make educated bets and so should filmmakers. The one thing that successful gamblers and filmmakers need is the attitude that they are going to go all in on their movie making risk.

Saying yes to making a movie is really putting your ass out there creatively and financially. Many indie films are funded through family, friends, online movie crowd funding or your own cash. I'm still on the fence if it's harder to say yes to making a movie with money from family and friends and your own pocket or to deal with film investors.

Honestly, using online movie crowd funding to me is risk free filmmaking. The people that donate aren't giving you money expecting to ever see anything back or get a return on investment. It's like gambling with a bankroll that's free. When I donate money to the people that set up shop outside of stores I don't expect anything back when I put money in the box or bucket.

It's like lending money to that one relative or friend that you know will never be able to pay it back, but you like them and still want to help them out without holding it over their head.

When you use money from family, friends, your own money or film investors cash there is a much stronger sense to get the movie done in my opinion. No filmmaker wants to face family, friends or film investors and say they couldn't finish the movie. Friends and family are always forgiving in the end, but you'll still feel an emotional letdown if you can't deliver a finished movie like you told them you would.

Film investors are not forgiving and will cut you off from future film funds. They can write off the loss, but your reputation will take a hit and you'll lose out on them investing in your movies in the future. Finding money to make movies is harder than making the movie. Without film financing you only have a screenplay and a movie making dream keeping you company.

I always like to try to put out the brutal honesty first before getting to the feel good part of things. The great thing about saying yes to making a movie is you're moving from being one of the people that only talks about making movies and never does it.

When you're not even in the game you can't win or lose. You sit on the creative sidelines as a spectator thinking "woulda, coulda, shoulda" about your movie making passion. When you mentally commit to taking the creative leap of faith you'll feel a rush of genuine excitement. That's living!

You're movie making fire is now lit and you're ready to roll. You're no longer going to be a talented potential filmmaker. You will be a filmmaker doer. Each movie project is different, but here are few thoughts that might help sharpen you're movie production. This isn't for aspiring filmmakers that want to write a screenplay that needs a million dollar budget.

Thoughts on Making Movies

First, think of your marketing and distribution plan before writing the screenplay. This gives you the chance to think of movie product placement and other marketing avenues you can write into the screenplay to boost earning potential.

Second, before writing a screenplay think about the film budget you will need and where you plan on getting that money. Indie filmmakers are masters at writing screenplays based on what their resources are.

I know it sounds like the craft of screenwriting should come first, but for a first time indie filmmaker it's important to understand making movies is a business. You need to be able to exploit, yes exploit, as many marketing and product placement opportunities as possible.

Family and friends will invest in you because of your relationship, but still respect their hard earned money like you would if they were film investors you didn't know. Avoid being sloppy with paperwork. Give them the same kind of investor package you would if you were pitching to a film investor that wanted a return on investment.

Make sure the locked screenplay is tight as possible before spending one dollar of film investor money. A screenplay that is overwritten and packed with fluff will burn through production money fast.

During filming don't take the approach studio budget movies do. You're not going to be able to have 20 takes of scene to get it right. There's not enough money in an indie film budget to shoot it with a Hollywood filmmaker mentality.

You're really have to get in there on set and kickass on scenes. Not every take you're going to love or even like, but it's a time issue when shooting indie films. You have to be able to accept you're not going to have the luxury of doing take after take.

When a scene is covered move on and don't look back even if it didn't turn out how you envisioned. Being take happy during filming will lead to you running out of money and having an unfinished film that will need finishing funds to complete.

Tackle post-production with the same attitude you did on set to get the movie done.

Film investors will ride your ass unlike family or friends when it comes to when the movie will be done, sold and their money paid. Don't get shaken or take it personally. The business world is not warm and fuzzy full of hugs and kisses.

At the end when you finish your movie you will have a feeling like none you've ever had before. It's a creative climax saying yes to making a movie.

It beats the hell out of only talking about making movies. Good luck with your future film and cheers.

Get the inside scoop on writing, producing, directing, and movie distribution at Slice Of Americana Films. Check out the life and times of filmmaker Sid Kali.

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Short Film Making Tips

Short movies are becoming more popular nowadays. In the side of film makers, these kind of film are great since it is easier to make them and the production cost is also cheaper. Having said that, let me then share some short film making tips for you.

But before going into the short film making tips, let us first define it. When we say short film, we are referring to the movies that are relatively shorter than the normal two-hour movie. It can be 30 minutes or even one minute. While it is short, it must still have a complete story. That means it must still have an introduction, body, and conclusion.

My Short Film Making Tips

1. Make a simple story

Since you will be making a short movie, just create a simple story. Don't make a novel because the time might not contain it. Just focus on a single idea and let the story revolve around it.

2. Make anticipations

Don't show everything from the beginning immediately. It's good to place some suspense to let your audience anticipate on what will happen in the end. This will capture your viewers' attention until the story reaches the climax.

3. Use few characters

I watched some short movies that are not so effective due to having so many characters. It makes the story not so focused.

Don't be afraid to use few characters. if you can even make a story that has only one character then that will be great. There's a short film I watched where in they only used two characters but it was very nice. Having few characters not only make your life as a film maker easier. It will also easily drive the audience to focus on few elements of the film.

4. Complete the story

As I said above, a short film must still have a complete story. I'm not really a fan of those short movies that just end abruptly without any conclusion.

I understand that there's another way of ending a story which is the open-ended one. In doing this however, you must still bring your audience somewhere. Do not just cut the story and that's it. So what's the point of ending the story if you only showed an introduction?

6. Gain inspirations

It's actually challenging to create a very nice story that you can use for your short movie. To gain some ideas, I recommend watching a lot of short films. You will surely be able to come up with your own idea when you see what others have made.

So that's all for my short film making tips. I hope you learned something from those short film making tips I gave that you can apply in your own.

Chamberlane Altatis

I'm a film maker. Let me share to you how to make a film.

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HD DSLR Film Making Basics - Understanding Aperture, Speed, and ISO Relationship - Part 1 - Aperture

I started doing videography using Sony PD-170 and VX-2100 DV system, it was back 6 years ago. Now, I use all DSLR equipments to shoot my videography. The image quality is really astonishing, as now we are able to achieve Cinematic look and feeling in less than $20,000-$30,000 equipments. But the downside is DSLR is designed originally for photography, the video is the extra feature, not the other way around. So in order to operate DSLR for film making, we need to know the basics of photography itself. Which I think, most videographer that used to with the DVCAM or HDVCAM equipments will have a challenge.

Lucky for me, my background is visual graphic design and photography. Even with that, I still met a lot of challenges with DSLR. One of them is the Manual Focus, which I will discuss more details in my next articles. This time, I will discuss the basics of DSLR, from photography to videography.

As we all know, photography is one of the major breakthrough in the 19th century. The principal is very simple, it's basically a black box with a small hole ( terms: camera obscura ), which allow the light pass and projecting image to the back of the box, and the image exposed is captured using chemical reaction to a media. Nowadays with the advancement of technology, this simple principle becomes more elaborate in pursuit of producing better and better image.

Let's take a look at the box. The box is the camera. The small hole is the aperture. Now the aperture is controlled by the lens, which in term the quality of the lens is crucial to get the sharpest, distinct image that allows the light to pass to the media. Most of the time a good lens price will cost more than the camera itself. Another factor is, the camera technology is advancing so fast like the computer, every year we see newer model coming up, with better feature and the price went down very fast for older model. By contrast, a good lens will be used at all time no matter what kind of body camera we use.

Aperture, is "the size of that small hole". Aperture is measured by 1/x. the x is 1.2, 1.4, 1.8, 2.8, 3.5, 4, 5.6 and so on. The smaller the "x" number, the Bigger the "hole". Lens price normally will commensurate with "Bigger" aperture. so if you see 35 mm f/1.2 normally the price will be more expensive than 35 mm f/2.8.

Now, you might wonder why is that?

There is several factors that I can think of. First, the technical difficulty might be more challenging in producing lens with bigger aperture. Second, the demand for this lens is less than other type of lenses ( ex: zoom lenses ). It's just economic, less demand, difficult to make means higher prices. Well I might be wrong, but this is just my take on this.

Now, you might also wonder, why the demand is less? it took really nice image right?

Yes it is. but it also needs someone with at least intermediate-advance level, to shoot a good picture with it. Trust me, artistic looks doesn't mean it translate to more appreciation with general public. If you don't believe me, just go to your local camera store and ask them which lens is their best seller? So the market is less for this type of lenses.

Ok, so why do we need big aperture lens for video?

I can only think of 2 reasons. First, we need it in lower light situation. The bigger the aperture, means more light comes in. Second, the "Bokeh" ( terms for that blurry background around the focused subject ) the bigger the aperture the more "Bokeh" you got. It is making the subject far more interesting and artistic than the whole frame focus.

How big of aperture do we need for video?

Again, this is more of an artistic taste of each video / cinematographer. For myself after using the DSLR for half a dozen weddings, I realized I can live with f/2.8. Because I mainly shoot for events, the pace is fast and there is no take 2 or take 3 or more. It's only take one - and you can't ask the bride to walk in the aisle again just for you to shoot the video. Bigger aperture can mean out of focus easily, since the 3" screen is so small, sometimes is really took some experiences to develop "the feeling" to get the right focus.

I do use the bigger aperture like 1.4 for the scripted featurette, such as the pre-wedding featurette or short film or just for interviewing ( the talking heads ). So I have one or two lens in handy.

That's my take on the HD DSLR film making basic - Part 1 - Aperture

You can follow Fond productions DSLR education blog at

http://facebook.com/fondproductions

Fond productions is an independent wedding, events and commercial video / cinematographer based in Los Angeles.

http://fondproductions.com/

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