The camera is a basic production equipment used in any live-action film production. Even some animated movies would possibly use a camera to shoot some backgrounds, shoot actors for motion-capture work (copy their movements and reactions for their 3D animated models) or shoot miniatures to be incorporated in the animation.
A production can use a film camera that uses a film negative to shoot a scene, a digital cinema or an HD camera that uses a tape, hard drive or memory card to store footage or a 3D camera to shoot stereoscopic 3D footage.
Lighting equipment is essential in cinematography work for any movie. These production lights are typically seen in professional studio, indoor and outdoor shoots. Popular examples of lighting equipment widely used in movie productions include the HMI, 2K Fresnel, Kinoflo, Redheads, Blueheads and Dedolights.
Part of the maintenance of this equipment includes replacing the bulbs, ballasts and switches. Many of these lighting devices also have barn doors surrounding the bulb and lens so that the lighting crew can have better control in flooding or minimizing the light thrown onto the set.
Grip equipment include tripods, Steadicams, dollies, jibs and cranes used to carry and control the movement of the camera. Ideally, the larger ones also carry the camera operator. Light stands are also used to fit, carry and place lights in their intended positions and heights during the shoot. Tripods allow panning and tilting of the camera from an axis. Steadicams allow the operator to move more freely while filming. Dollies are used for tracking shots for frontal, back, side and diagonal movements. Jibs and cranes are used to shoot more freely in higher elevations.
After successfully filming all required shots in a movie, the production team turns over the footage to the post-production team. Post-production work requires powerful hardware and software resources. Popular video-editing applications used for both amateur and professional editing include Final Cut Pro, Avid and Adobe Premiere Pro. Meanwhile, the sound department typically uses ProTools HD, Adobe Audition or Sony Vegas for sound production work. Other post-production requirements include varying choices of color grading, special effects and musical scoring resources needed to finalize the movie project.