This new documentary has proven that it’s time to step up my game. I need new equipment.

There’s not enough cash to cover all of it so I’ve been thinking hard about what I really need. I’m becoming something of a professional window shopper now. Here are a few of the things I’m drooling over.

Clapboard for Slating

I really need to be slating my documentary. We’ve shot a lot already and I’ve started editing it together … and I really wish we’d been slating. I’m kicking myself over here for not doing it.

For the unfamiliar, slating is when you use the clapboard to mark the take. Sometimes goes by other names. But here’s a montage from Inglorious Basterds so you get the gist.

Slating will help me figure out the clips I want to use while editing so much faster. I need a clapboard. Srsly.

I found one online for about $30, which uses dry erase markers. So I’m adding that to my wish list. Since it’s the cheapest thing on my wish list, it might be the first thing I actually buy.

Clapboard from B&H for $30.

New DSLR

This’ll probably sound cliché but I definitely need a new camera.

I bought my DSLR eons ago. It’s horribly outdated. It doesn’t do video. It’s a little sad. So I have three cameras trying to do the job that, perhaps, one new DSLR could handle. It’s very frustrating, time-consuming, and — I’ll admit it — a little embarrassing. It’s so outdated.

Since I’ve smartened up and started hiring crews that know way more than I do about cinematography, I have been patiently waiting for the right time and reason to buy a new camera. It seemed unnecessary then because I’d rather hire the guy who has his own camera and knows how to use it really, really well.

But now I have ideas on a few new, short docs I’d like to make. So I feel the need for a new DSLR. There are these opportunities to shoot that don’t require a lot of pre-planning with a crew. I just need to be on site with a camera so I can capture things as they unfold. I’d also like to shoot behind-the-scenes stuff on this bigger doc so we can share the progress along the way. Goodness, the list of ways I’d use a new camera is a long one so let me stop there.

I’ve been doing loads of research on the right camera. One that’ll meet my needs, mind you. What do y’all think of the Canon 5D Mark III? It makes me drool.

Canon 5D Mark III

Laptop

While we’re dreaming, we might as well talk about the possibility of having a better laptop. For years I’ve been borrowing laptops from family members — most of them are outdated PCs that finally die on me at the worst time. (Sorry, mom.) I use the borrowed laptops for internet access, blogging, and writing proposals because that’s about all they can handle.

It’d be SO GREAT to have a MacBook Pro to use in the field. I could download footage immediately to look for things that need correcting (lighting, angles, audio, etc.). I could do the administrative work of organizing the clips so that they’re easier to find later. I could start editing video on-site when possible, instead of having to wait ’til I get home to look at what’s been shot.

Ohmygoodness. It’d streamline my process and help me move much faster as a filmmaker. WANT.

MacBook Pro via Apple

Keep Wishing

I like to keep my business pretty lean because it makes things simple. But sometimes you need equipment to make your work faster, better, and easier. It’s like replacing a hammer with an air gun. Once you’ve used an air gun, a hammer seems like a silly choice on a big job.

Also this: if you don’t ask, you typically don’t get what you want. These are things I want and need to be a better filmmaker. But since the cash isn’t there right now, I’ll keep wishing and waiting and saving.

It will be mine. Oh, yes. It will be mine.