I need music for a film.

Wanting to shoot a low budget, indie doc about the process of making music. What is a complete list of what I need to film and edit this?

• Need a complete and specific list of everything I will need to film and edit this doc, including computer editing software and camera recommendations. The doc will be filmed both inside and out so I will need versatility as well as user friendly. This will be my first film as well as my first doc so any and all information or lists will be greatly appreciated.

• Answer:

  By "low budget" (which conventionally means anything under a couple of hundred thousand dollars) I assume you mean "no budget" - basically consumer/prosumer gear and a few hundred bucks. It's way too open a question to answer specifically, with no idea of your budget or experience.  Maybe post your shopping list, and get some feedback on that? Much easier.  However, some generic tips: At the bare minimum you need: A way to acquire images A way to acquire sound A way to edit the images and sound together I know that sounds trite, but it's important to go back to basics. You could do all of this with an iPhone and 5 bucks for iMovie.  Stepping up quality a bit, many people focus on the camera but it is really the least of your worries. You can argue until you're too old to make docos about which camera is better than another, but if you can make a doc with an iPhone, you can make it with anything else. Do you need a Red Epic? No. In fact, big imposing camera rigs often put off a subject, who gets camera shy.  Same with big lights.  A prosumer HDSLR will be fine.  If you can, get 2 so you have safeties, or can run multicam for angles or tight shots.  If you have a lot of pans and camera movement planned, get a CCD rather than CMOS camera to avoid rolling shutter. Shaky handheld footage has its place, but it can ruin footage.  Think shoulder rigs and tripods.  You can't fix it in post.  I know you think you can, but as good as the tools are, especially with CMOS cameras it can't be perfectly stabilised. More light = better footage. Think portability, safety and colour balance. Sound sound sound. Bad sound ruins spectacular pictures.  Depending on your style you'll need shotguns, lavaliers, handhelds, etc.  Unfortunately you'll need to do some research for your shots to determine what's right. You can record right into your camera if you have the right jacks, which you should at least for reference audio, but external recorders give you more quality. Don't edit audio with cheap headphones. Get a good set of closed back studio cans and another, more robust set for monitoring on location. Script. I don't really do docs, but I understand that contrary to what you'd expect, they are tougher to write and shoot than narratives. Do some research on how to do pre-prod for docs. OK, you've got your footage, now what? Personally, I love Adobe's tools. The new Creative Cloud gives you all of their professional grade tools (pretty much everything you might need for a doc) for 50 bucks a month.  Audio, video, post, encoding, DVD authoring, screenwriting, image editing, colour grading, even designing your doc's website. You'll also need lots of batteries, gaffer tape, black wrap and a multitool.  And lots of healthy, nutritious food for your crew.  Always, always feed your crew like kings, even if you're not paying them. OK that's pretty much every single thing I know.  Good luck!  Now, best join a few communities and watch some vodcasts to learn more about what will work for you.  Try: The Substream's Film Lab for production and a helpful forum Revision3's Film Riot for filmmaking and homemade gear DigitalRevCom on YouTube for camera reviews and tips Philip Bloom's filmmaking forum Video Copilot's tutorials and forum for postproduction http://camerasim.com/ to learn how cameras work