I’ve put together list of random basic accessories worth thinking about for your shoot day. Some of these are the most basic needs, and some are more optional, yet come in great use.
Tripod with pan head
A tripod with a pan head is essential for making your shots look neat, not static and not nauseating. You want a tripod that will be stable and portable. Some are happy filming static shots for their films, and in some cases, they are fine. However, at some point, you will want to pan.
The Manfrotto tripod is a popular choice; this particular one is compact for travelling and works perfectly with entry level DSLRs and any device up to 1.5kg.
Neutral Density Filter
As useful as they are in photography, they are also quite useful in filmmaking. Control your depth of field and scenes easily when natural light isn’t cooperating.
You can purchase a set of ND Filters such as the ones you see below, or you could spend a little more and buy filters that change strength as you rotate them.
Memory Card
Obviously, no shoot can go ahead without a platform to save footage on. Make sure you have a card with enough memory for the amount of footage you are shooting, and also remember back ups!
64/128gb is the best bet!
Headphones
If your audio quality is poor, you need to know about it. Various modern headphones have been built to flatten audio, so be careful.
These headphones, in particular, are designed specifically for sound professionals to monitor.
Reflector
Completely essential for managing light, these come into much use on shoot days, always make sure you have one somewhere accessible.
I’ve just found this 5-in-1 reflector that you will most probably be interested in.
Boom Pole
Used mainly for location shooting, a boom pole will allow you to follow your sound source by just mounting the microphone on.
This particular boom pole is portable, convenient and comfortable. What more do you want?
An external monitor
Because the three-inch camera screen is definitely not big enough for reviewing footage and all the rest of it. An external monitor isn’t the most essential, but most definitely helps.
These are basic things of cinema 2.0 but that will definitely make your shoot much easier to go through!
