Michelle and I worked together on some video projects in Indianapolis, where I was in charge of the A/V Department, and she recently emailed me and pointed me in your direction. Even though my training is mostly in enclosed environments vs. out-in-the-field shoots, I thought I might share a little with you from my experiences.

“Of course I’ll need lots of batteries and tapes!”
Very true! And remember, lots of batteries won’t do you any good if they aren’t charged (You’ll not regret getting that power inverter). The important thing with getting lots of footage is organization. Make sure every tape is accurately labeled and properly stored. Without a good labeling scheme, your post-production process could turn into a nightmere.

“I’m thinking about getting a used mic preamp with a headphone amp so Brian can hear what he’s getting and position the mic and tweak it’s input level accordingly.”
Excellent thought. I’ve learned the hard way that you can never be sure that a mic is picking up well unless you’re monitoring it with headphones. Don’t use it “in the dark” if you care the least bit what the sound quality will be.

“I’d also get a set of barndoors for controlling light spread and some gels for adjusting the light temperature for situations where I need to match my lights to daylight coming in windows.”
Great! I think the key to good lighting is learning how to control it. Light has to be diffused in some way before it reaches the subject or it will appear much too harsh. Sometimes this simply means pointing it up at a white ceiling to be defused before reaching your subject. You don’t want raccoon eyes or any kind of deep shadows unless you’re planning on doing a sci-fi movie or something like that. A reflector will help you a lot. Barndoors will help you a lot. Adjustable light temperature will help you a lot. Can you get some kind of screen to put in front of the light to diffuse it? We always used to use cheese cloth.

“I should probably get into the manual for DVD Studio Pro and figure this out as it could influence other decisions further upstream.”
I agree with you here. It always pays to think ahead. I’m actually an Adobe guy myself but this is no place for a Premiere/Final Cut argument.

I’m glad that you’re putting all this thought into the project before you actually arrive on the scene and find out that it’s too late to make changes. You won’t regret it later! One thing to remember: always be prepared for the worst — if something can go wrong, it probably will. “Commit your way unto the Lord and your thoughts will be established”. May God bless your project!