LED Light Panels for Indoor Filming

On Camera or Stand/Tripod mountable mini lights (for a little fill light)

NEEWER CN-216 216PCS LED Dimmable LED Light
$43
weight: 16 oz (likely without a battery)
Battery: 6x AA batteries (not included) or NP-F550, NP-FM55H, NP-FH60 battery

NEEWER® 160 LED CN-160 Dimmable LED Light
$32

LED Light Panels for Indoor Shooting

Fancierstudio 576 LED Light Panel LED Video Light
$100

StudioPRO Photography Continuous Premium Daylight LED 600 Light Panel Aluminum Casing
$212
Daylight 5600K balanced light output

Dimmable, flicker free dial 

Includes diffusion filter 

Shipping weight: 7 lbs

Documentary Filmmaking Class for $55

Shooting Documentary Short Films by Griffin Hammond

$55 class with 16 video lessons in HD.

(Most of the lessons are between 15 and 20 minutes.)

Griffin will share tips on lighting, framing, and interviewing subjects so you walk away with lots of usable footage. You’ll watch as Griffin shares clips from a one-day shoot and you’ll learn exactly what it takes to turnaround a complete documentary-style short on a deadline. 

You’ll also learn a handful of helpful editing techniques and get insights on the ethical and legal responsibilities of documentary filmmaking. 

If you want to learn how to tell meaningful stories that look great and sell, while working on a shoestring budget, don’t miss Shooting Documentary Short Films with Griffin Hammond. 

About the instructor:

Griffin Hammond is filmmaker covering political news at Bloomberg in New York City. He shot and edited the award-winning documentary Sriracha, and has published hundreds of low-budget filmmaking tutorials for aspiring filmmakers. Griffin studied film at New York University, earned a Masters from Illinois State University, and worked as a video producer at YouTube and State Farm.

Sriracha Documentary - DSLR Filmmaking

The 33 minute Sriracha documentary, produced, shot, and edited by Griffin Hammond is available to purchase for $3 on Amazon (or stream it free with Amazon Prime).

The film screened at 21 festivals in 2014 and won several awards.

Griffin also did a full director's commentary on the making of the film on Youtube.  He shot the film entirely on the Panasonic GH3 micro four-thirds DSLR.

"It’s been 18 months since I released Sriracha, a 33-minute documentary about the iconic hot sauce. This was a passion project — I was curious about my favorite condiment, and wanted a short film on my reel. The goal wasn’t to make money, but after spending $12,728 on production, then $27,807 on merch and distribution, the film has so far generated $76,677 in revenue, or $100 per day."

Learn more about how the film started with an idea and became a successful documentary:

The 73 second trailer on Vimeo that helps sell the film.

5 Lessons Learned from my Profitable Indie Documentary
Griffin details what he learned from using different publishing platforms (Amazon, Vimeo, Hulu, and Youtube).

At the very end of the article, he also lists the revenue and profit margin totals for the first 18 months of distributing the film.

In a world where indie films fight to break even, I’m proud that Sriracha has turned a $36,141 profit so far. But considering the opportunity cost of eight months of producing/shooting/editing, and 18 months as a part-time marketer and DVD shipper, that’s a lot of freelance income I turned down to make this film. 

The real return on investment is bringing a film to life that I wanted to exist, and the unexpected opportunities that result from a passion project. Within a year of its release, Sriracha landed me a documentary filmmaker job at Bloomberg News.

DSLR Camera Price History and Feature Comparison

Canon 5D Mark IV
30 MP Full-Frame
7 frames per second continuous shooting
4k video at 24p and 30p
1080p video up to 60p
Dual CF & SD Card Slots
View on Amazon
View on B&H
Price: $3,500 on 11/3/16

Canon 5Ds
50 MP Full-Frame
1080p video up to 30 fps
5 frames per second continuous shooting
Dual CF & SD Card Slots
View on Amazon
View on B&H
Price: $3,500 on 11/3/16
Model R version without the Low Pass Filter is $3,700.

Canon 5D Mark III
22 MP Full-Frame
1080p video up to 30 fps
6 frames per second continuous shooting
Dual CF & SD Card Slots
3.2" LCD
View on Amazon
View on B&H
Price: $2,500 on 11/3/16

Canon 6D
20 MP Full-Frame
1080p video up to 30 fps
4.5 frames per second continuous shooting
3.0" LCD
View on B&H
View on Amazon
Price: $1,500 on 11/3/16

Microphones for Interview and Outdoor Recording

Unidirectional Lavalier/Lapel Microphones
When filming wedding interviews and business promo interviews, background noise can be a problem.  Unidirectional microphones do a great job of eliminating background noise.  The only thing to watch out for is that the person speaking does not turn their head too far away from where the lav mic is pointing.

Olympus Microphone ME-52W Noise Cancellation Mic
$20
4.1 stars on Amazon
* 3.5mm microphone jack for uni-directional recording in high-noise environments.
* Requires "plug-in" power in your recorder (Works with the DR-05 and the Zoom recorders that have 3.5mm jacks.)
* Some reviewers have said it does not work with smart phones...probably because it's not the right type of connection for an iPhone or because of the plug-in power requirement.


Handheld Wireless Microphones

Fifine UHF Wireless Handheld Dynamic Microphone
$50
4.2 stars on Amazon
* Seems to be one of the only inexpensive wireless handheld mics on Amazon that actually has a good rating.
* Reviewers said it was heavy and seemed to have a solid build quality.
* Does not have an antenna cable hanging off the end of the mic (most cheap wireless handhelds have this).







Hisonic HS308L Portable Wireless and Wired 2 in 1 Microphone
$25
3.4 stars on Amazon
* Primarily for Karaoke use
* Build quality is mentioned in a few reviews where people were suprised how good it was, but the weight and overall build quality is probably lower than the
* Silver color is not as professional



For Smart Phones:

iPro-Max pro Lavalier Lapel Microphone Clip-on Directional
$34
4.5 stars on Amazon
* Uni-directional
* Includes two windscreens, two clips, extended mic wire length, velvet protection bag and Smart Conversion Adapter Cable for ultimate connection with all devices


Unidirectional Handheld Microphones

GLS Audio Vocal Microphone ES-58 & Mic Clip - Professional Series ES58
$30
4.4 stars on Amazon
* No on/off switch

Blu-Ray Authoring Software for Wedding Videos

Blu-ray Creator - Best Blu-ray Burning Software Free Download
Has a menu designer and supports almost every available video format, so it doesn't matter what video editor you use to export your completed videos.
Caveat: this appears to be a 

Adobe Encore CS6
Must be purchased with a creative cloud membership now (as part of Adobe Premiere) because the disc version of the software has not been available for over two years.
Many professional video editors use Encore as their go-to for DVD and Blu-Ray authoring, but it does have a learning curve if you're not familiar with Adobe applications.

Thankfully you can overcome this learning curve by watching a few Youtube videos to learn the interface:
Part 1 of 3: Blu-ray Authoring and Adobe Encore Basics - YouTube

Adobe Encore Basics 2: Creating Menus - Duration: 7:30
 

Sony DVD Architect Pro 6.0 (at B&H Photo Video)
Can author both DVDs and Blu-Rays
$150 
Doesn't appear to require any other software, as long as you can feed it your final edit exported from your video editor of choice.  This seems like it would be a comparable alternative to Adobe Encore.
"supports popular video and audio formats such as AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and AVCHD so you can make a DVD or Blu-ray disc that will play on almost any DVD/BD player or DVD/BD-capable computer."

DVD Architect - creating DVD Menus - YouTube

PowerProducer 6 | CyberLink
$80 (Ultra version that can author blu-rays).  On sale for $63.
A less expensive option that may not provide as many deep options as Sony's DVD Architect, but will get you burning discs at about half the price.  Supports many different common video formats:
AVI/ 3GPP (3g2, 3gp)/ VOB / FLV/ MOD/ MKV/ MPEG/ MPEG-2 Transport Stream(m2t, m2ts, mts, tod, tpd)/ MPEG-2 TV Recorded (trp, ts)/ MPEG-4 AVC (MOV)/ MPEG-4 Video (MP4)/ Video CD (DAT)/  VRO/ ASF/WMV/ Windows Media Center Recorded (dvr-ms, WTV)

* Can create video slideshows from your JPEG or RAW photos.

Tips for Blu-Ray authoring:

Use high-quality, reliable media. Getting the cheapest discs possible may actually cost you in the long run because their lifespan will be shorter and you'll have more discs that fail to burn, leaving you with a coaster.

Deciding on encoding format.  In your video editor, you can export either MPEG-2 for Blu-Ray or H.264 for Blu-Ray.  MPEG-2 can be used for videos that are one hour or less.  If your videos are longer, use the H.264 encoding options.

Authoring Blu-ray Discs | Videomaker.com

Keepsake CD and DVD Cases

Present your wedding DVDs to the client in style with keepsake cases that look much more thoughtful than regular, mere CD case.


10 Kraft CD Cases 2 Pocket Wedding Favor by FancyThatLoved
$9.25 for set of 10, ships from U.S.
Nice option to have available in a pinch.  Only holds one disc.
Set of 20 is $18.50 + $6.50 shipping = $1.25 each

Alder Wood DVD case (single disc) by WadeCreations - Etsy
$37 + $7 shipping, ships from the U.S.
The best price I've found for a wooden DVD case that can also have personalized engraving if desired.  Most of the other wood cases are $45-50.

Professional CD/DVD Case Videographer Packaging by eitsart on Etsy
$16.45 (including shipping) each from the U.S.  (Takes 1-2 weeks to produce.)
Nice option if wooden cases are too expensive.  Includes one ribbon. White ribbon looks nice against the dark fabric color.