Video
It became immediately obvious that one high-quality camera is NOT the way to film a race event. I ended up with a bunch of short clips of cars whizzing by 2 or 3 corners, and not much else. Ideally, I'd like to have a camera on each corner, but looking at Philo's course map, I think I could get away with one mounted on each of the following locations:
- START
- Turn 3
- Turn 5
- Turn 8
- Turn 10
- Turn 12
- Turn 14
- Turn 16
- Turn 17
- Finish
- Interior driver-facing (x3 cars)
- Bumper (x3 cars)
- Fender (x3 cars)
I already have one Nikon camera for interview footage, but being able to get two shots would be really helpful and generate a lot more interest.
http://www.borrowlenses.com/product/nik ... ikon_d5100 - $28 for the weekend
I already have around $5k invested in photo/video gear, but it's still not really enough to shoot an event like this properly.
Total - $370 to be well equipped for 3 cars
Audio
For fun video, GoPros typically need to be mounted on the outside of a car, but that limits audio to almost nothing but wind noise. I would rent a Zoom H4N audio recording devices (they have convenient, decent-quality mics built-in) for each car.
http://www.borrowlenses.com/product/aud ... oom_4track - $26/each
That's really it, since these can be used for a number of different types of recordings and I already have around the same investment in mics as I do in photography gear. These could certainly run multiple duties over the course of the event.
Total - $78 to film 3 cars
Accessories
This is where costs start to pile up quickly.
Storage
We would need at least 1 per camera and 1 per audio device. Fully outfitted, we'd have 23 devices, so that's (at least) 23 small (16gb) SD cards @ $6/each. $138 total
Batteries
I'll naively assume we can charge all these batteries at the same time during lunch and overnight. In theory, we could squeeze by without needing spare batteries. We'd need a pile of AA's for the Zoom h4n recorders though.
Projector
There seems to be a lot of interest in a projector AT the event, and I think that's a fantastic idea. However, the one projector BorrowLenses offers is pretty crappy (http://www.borrowlenses.com/product/pro ... _projector). I think we should seek an alternative plan if we're going to do something like that. We have a few HDMI-capable 1080p projectors at work, and I might be able to borrow one from there to use for the weekend.
Shipping & Insurance
Brace for impact, this ride is about to get rough. The shipping quote I received was $187.26 (round trip, though). Insurance for the spare camera body and audio recorders (unavailable for the GoPros) was $38.
The grand total to shoot this event right, after all is said and done and assuming I have my gear (and nothing else) available is:
$837.27 and would end up with something along the lines of this quality:
https://vimeo.com/62442366
As you may have noticed already, I'm excited about doing this. I can't quite afford to throw the full amount at it right this moment, and I'll try contacting BorrowLenses to see if they're interested in sponsoring a promo video like that. This sport is cool as hell, and I'd love to see it get a little (not too much!) attention.
Here's what I need right now:
- 3 Drivers who aren't afraid to talk in front of a camera
- Just enough cash to make this happen. I don't mind putting up a good portion of the cost, but I can't really afford/justify directing, editing, AND producing something like this myself. It'd be great to turn this into a collaborative effort.
- GoPros. Lots of them.
- SD cards (MUST be at least 16gb though)
-Jesse