This write up will give you the steps and tips to shoot a documentary with a DSLR camera.

• Choose a DSLR camera, e.g. Nikon D3 100. Enhance its memory by a memory card. The lens should capable of depth-of-field effects. Have kit lenses ready.
• Juggle with styles. Deviate from the standard styles. nofilmschool.com is a good starting point.
• Audio recorder ( external ) is used to record sound . As a clap, it records sound on location. Audio and video are brought in sync later. As an alternative, one can have PluralEyes from singnularsoftware.com to sync automatically.
• Keep in mind the frame rates when audio is recorded separately. Or else there would be sync problems.
• Content is the king. A DSLR is used just to tell the story. The secret lies in identifying a proper theme.
• Light works beta provides the professional open source free editing suite. It is used to cut The Kings Speech and Mission Impossible. Apple’s priced editing suite is Final Cut Pro X.
• A laptop Samsung Series 9 or Apple Macbook Pro 15 in is a good help.
• Rotolight from rotolight.com is a circular LED ring lamp which gives even light with adjustable while balance.
• A camera stabilizer for light weight cams to help you take smooth planned shots. It could be Manfrotto 585 from mainfrotto in. You have to forget the tripod. When moving around, Audio Technica Pro 24 from provisualaudio.com.in can be run into H4n for superb audio, and can be fixed into the camera’s hot shoe.

Digital film cameras and DSLR ( digital single lens reflex ) are used by the film makers too. Arri, the German film camera major producing 35 mm cameras, will stop manufacturing film cameras. The films shot on digital cameras are experimental one and low budget films. Bengali and Marathi films are among those which are shot through digital cameras. Motion picture cameras in digital format record the footage on hard disk and film is later downloaded on the computer. Cameras like Arri Alexa, Canon 5 D ( DSLR ) are available or rent.

Digital cameras do not capture warm colours like red consistently. Sometimes, the same colour looks brighter. We have to work on these aspects in post-production.