My name is Ian McCollum, and I run a web site called ForgottenWeapons.com, where I blog about unusual, experimental, prototype, and otherwise interesting firearms. I have been doing this for several years, and have gotten to the point where I have access to some very rare and very cool firearms - firearms about which there is little or no information about online. Some examples include a British .308 EM-2, and original German VG1-5, a Sedgley Glove Gun, a Webley-Fosbery automatic revolver, and many more. As you can see from those links, my video quality is not great.
I do a lot of video coverage of these (and other) firearms, and I would really like to be able to upgrade my equipment so that I can provide the best possible quality video. I hate getting access to these fascinating and sometimes one-of-a-kind guns and being handicapped by less than ideal equipment to share them with. My web site does provide me with some income, but not enough to finance the serious video production setup that these guns deserve - so I am hoping that you can help me keep knowledge of these guns alive and well on the internet.
What I Need
I am currently filming in 720p HD, with a consumer-level Canon camera (my early videos were in SD). I use an older version of Pinnacle Studio editing software, and a consumer-grade wireless microphone. What I would like to upgrade to is:
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Canon XA-20 camera. This allows the use of professional XLR audio gear, and has much better image quality and image stabilization than my current camera. ($2000)
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ATW-1821 dual wireless mic. By having two wireless microphones, this will allow me to have excellent audio for interviews with people like museum curators and collectors. ($1400)
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Rode NTG-2 shotgun mic. This will be a major improvement over my current camera's built-in mic, allowing me to get much better audio on windy outdoor shooting ranges and noisy indoor environments. ($600 with accessories)
GoPro Hero3+- first-person camera. First-person visuals showing how different guns look from the shooter's perspective will be a great addition to my videos, and will also allow additional angles from unsafe filming locations when firing. ($400)
- Aerial drone camera! The gear above is the baseline, but a DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ quadcopter would take things to a whole new level of awesome video look. This is a newly released remote control quadcopter equipped with a gyro-stabilized HD camera, allowing some amazing aerial shots (think about how neat this would be for filming a 2-gun match using vintage weapons). ($1200)
STRETCH GOAL!
The campaign will continue for a full 30 days, because that's how I initially set it up (not expecting the awesome response it has generated). If we can blow past the initial $7500 goal, I will use the addition money to get a good slow-motion camera (an Edgertronic). Priced at $5500, it is one of the very few high-speed cameras in a middle ground between the consumer-lever ones like what I have now and the many-tens-of-thousands-of-dollars super-professional ones. It will capture 500 fps at 1260 x 1080 HD, and 700 fps at 720P. That's not enough to watch bullets leave barrels, but will work great for really high-quality footage of firearms mechanisms in action. The Edgertronic maxes out at 17,700 frames per second at 192 x 96 resolution, and that IS fast enough to watch bullets being fired, albeit at low quality. Here is an example review of what this camera is capable of:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgSGB0hfUio
Your Benefit
Forgotten Weapons already sets a high standard for accuracy and interesting content - imagine combining that passion and dedication with a really serious set of of video equipment! Many of the guns you see on Forgotten Weapons are ones you will not see anywhere else, and the information I present is a step (or several steps) above the typical online video. I tell you about the development and history of the weapon, its pros and cons, how and when it was used (or what it developed into our out of), and the intimate details of how it works.
Frankly, there is nowhere else where you can find as much information about as wide a variety of firearms, and the only element missing is professional-quality video gear. In addition to using this gear for all my new videos, I will be able to go back and re-do many of my older low-def ones with awesome new versions in great HD quality.
My mission is to document these guns for posterity while they are still around, and while we still have people around who know about them. As collectors and veterans inevitably grow older and pass away, we lose precious information that is often not recorded anywhere. Through Forgotten Weapons, some of that information can be preserved indefinitely - and I need your help to do it with the production quality that the information deserves!
Money
Yeah, it's a lot of money - if it weren't, I would just pay for it all myself. However, the equipment I have listed out above was chosen without worrying about budget - it is a blue-sky goal. Should this funding drive fall short, there are plenty of incremental improvements that can still be made with partial funding that will improve my video quality. The very first step, for example, would be a shotgun microphone for my existing camera, which would significantly improve audio quality. The closer we can get to the final goal, the better the overall package will be!
Now, you may have noticed that the individual item costs that I listed above add up to less than the overall funding goal. That is because of the extra costs involved in this fundraiser - things like IndieGoGo's fees, cost of providing perks like shirts and DVDs, and taxes.
What if we exceed the funding goal? Well, I would love to have that happen! Just as the incremental nature of the audio/video gear in question allows me to make good use of less funding than I am hoping for, I will also be able to use extra money to get better versions of items or extra accessories that will bring other benefits (like a fluid head tripod, extra batteries for the camera, and so on.
One More Benefit
I have an upcoming project in the works that I can't say much about right now, but this new camera equipment will be a major help for it as well. I can't be certain that this project will work out yet so I can't make any promises about it - but if it does come through (and it will be really awesome!) everyone who has helped me with this fundraiser will get an extra perk as part of it...
Can't Donate Yourself?
There are lots of folks who learn something new from Forgotten Weapons every day, but aren't in a position to be able to afford to help out financially. If that's you, there are still ways you can help contribute - tell your friends! Share this campaign with your fellow arms enthusiasts - the more people who know about the project, the faster we can meet the funding goal are get this sweet gear ordered!
Thank you!
Ian McCollum
Forgotten Weapons
