Need Advice Guys

[Stoopid Dog]

Ok, so I always have dibble dabbled in this and that in my life, I've ran websites, messed around with music, done a lot of stuff in real life from rock climbing (not on a fake wall either) to Kayaking. But now I'm going to get myself into movie making.

I'm not doing short stories or a crappy written independent film with poorly done acting, thats not my style. My goal is to create a documentary on Hot Air Balloons. If you know me personally I have this thing with them, I have a facebook page that locally (Just within my city of 30,000 people) has 1,300 fans on it, which is actually good numbers, I have more fans then most businesses do on their pages.

The other day I got to see one land within 20 feet of my car in the middle of the road and it made my daughter excited as a mother fucker. It made me think about learning then teaching others about the whole story on hot air balloons. But I'm kinda ranting at this point.

What I need advice on is the following:

Whats a good video camcorder to record high def film that will look professional but won't break my budget or my life savings?

If I was to use music that is copyrighted by somebody how do I go about getting the correct permissions to use it if I decide to sell my documentary?

Whats a good video/audio editing software that ISN'T Microsoft related and is actually easy to use for a noobie like me?

Should I be plain and to the point or should I make it fun and add kind of a interactive aspect to the movie like doing Question and Answer segments and other stuff to keep people wanting to watch more and more of this film?

Should the narration be mono tone or should it have somebody with an exciting voice and somebody that could keep the people interested in it?


I have other questions but don't want to slam you fellows with a bunch of them. I could really use your help

[sTr]

Cameras/Hardware - Sony or Samsung always

You need to contact the owner of the music (usually the record label) for permission. A good tip is to look for music that is public domain, meaning anyone can use it for anything.

Video - Adobe software

Audio - Sony or Ableton (! think Ableton does both)

Always do as much to keep you audiences attention. A perfect example is this movie about Helvetica type face, it could have been interesting, instead it was a bunch of boring guys talking about a font.

^ read above ^

[Stoopid Dog]

Sweet, but STR how would I keep it interesting? I don't want to be cliche but I don't want to bore. I'm lost on that aspect.

[Ms Felony]

you could do your own music, might be a different style to what you listen/have done in the past but just mess about and see what you come up with.

you could add some minute details like how long a 200 mile trip would take or some other boring detail while talking about some of the better aspects.

incidentally you could totally mix it up and give a few hazardous details now and again.

[Stoopid Dog]

I've debated about putting negatives in the documentary.

[sTr]

negatives are always a positive....