Good cameras for filming skateboarding?

Which cameras should I use when filming a movie?

• Ok. I've never made a movie before, but me and my buddies are gonna get together and make a really ridiculous action movie. In order to effectively film some of the bigger battle scenes I would like to have two different cameras filming at the same time to get different angles. From there, I'd splice the footage together into one scene. I have been told by a friend of mine, who is a bit deeper into filming than I, that in order to splice two different sets of footage together in a competent program, I must use a Mini DV camera. I have two cameras that record directly onto their hard drives. Is it really impossible to splice the video from each harddrive together using a program other than Microsoft Moviemaker? I'm not sure if this'll make sense to many people because it definately doesn't to me. Any input/suggestions would be GREATTTTT! thanks!

• Answer:

  Editing video from one camera and editing video from two cameras is not so different. "Splicing" is no longer done since there is nothing - physically - to splice. Your challenge is to get the video from the camcorders into your computer. Too bad you use hard disc drive camcorders, but you can still do what you want - the video quality won't be quite as good, but you can see for yourself if you think it is good enough BEFORE you film your ultimate epic. Practice, Practice, Practice. Write the script. From the script, write a screenplay. From the screenplay draw the storyboards. From the storyboards, write the shotlist. The shotlist is your plan. Follow the plan. Download and install a video converter - like StreamClip http://www.squared5.com/ or HandBrake http://handbrake.fr/ Connect camcorder 1 to your computer with a USB cable, put the camcorder in "PC" or Play" mode and the camcorder's hard drive should mount like any other mass storage device. Copy some video from there onto your computer's hard drive (external hard drive is preferred, but this is an experiment, remember?) Using the video converter application you just downloaded and installed, convert the video files you copied to a format MovieMaker can deal with. Typically, this is WMV or AVI. Dismount the camcorder hard drive like any other USB device dismount... disconnect camera 1. Connect camera 2. Repeat this paragraph. When the file conversions are complete, quit out of the video converter application and launch MovieMaker. Drag the converted video file to the "Collections" area. Edit. Cut the garbage out, use transitions, titles.. whatever. If your camera has a firewire port, you can even import the video from that miniDV tape based camcorder and do a three camera shoot. (Or your friend can import on their computer, save to DVD as a data file and hand that to you.) WATCH what the pros do in most movies and TV shows. Scene transistions are generally cuts or crossfades ONLY. If you must zoom, do that SLOWLY. If you must pan, do that SLOWLY. ALWAYS use some sort of steadying device... tripod, desk, rock... try not to capture handheld. Most movies are shot with one camera - though action scenes can be shot with multiple cameras because they can be very expensive to set up - and they can be dangerous. Don't be stupid. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN the shots. If ANYONE thinks there might be a safety issue, reconsider how to get the shot - or don't do it. It is that simple. DO NOT CUT CORNERS and DO NOT RISK YOUR SAFETY. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS REMEMBER: Safety FIRST.