Alex’s Reel 2010

Robert Rodriguez

It’s like TMZ for camera geeks! On Philip Bloom’s site, there are photos of Robert Rodriguez using two Canon 7D’s to shoot a music video. One camera rig is insanely tricked out with monitors, remote follow focus, and caused rampant speculation about what cable is what, and why they would use that. The DP on the shoot, Jimmy Lindsey, kindly checked in to shed some light on what was used.

The fan-on-the-spot wrote the following:

“I walked into the area where they were filming and immediately was drawn to the HDSLR rig they were using. I pulled up my cam and starting shooting some pictures of it (I was about 15 feet away and realized it was a Canon 7D – wireless follow focus, Panasonic monitor with hood, and Zacuto grips/rails) when a guy politely walked over to me and said “we are trying to keep a closed set” – there was no security, just 2 camera operators, a tethered production cart, makeup, 2 HPX 170s filming BTS, and a few grips. I said I was only interested in the rig, not the music artist being filmed (which I then realized was local favorite Bob Schneider).  The guy was cool and let me take a few more and I walked away. When I told my wife that one of her favorite musicians was filming a video, she ran up to the fence and started to watch and then said “hey, is that Robert Rodriguez?”… it was. At first I felt stupid for not realizing that it was him but the rig was huge and blocking most of his head. They were shooting with 2 7Ds  - the second only had a Zacuto Z-finder, and Robert took turns shooting on both.”

The full story is at: http://philipbloom.co.uk/2010/03/02/robert-rodriguez-shooting-music-video-on-2-canon-7ds/

He has been in prison for the last 35 years, an innocent man serving time for a crime he did not commit. He has no chance for parole under Arizona’s “Old Code” life statute. His story is heartbreaking and incredible as it unfolds layer by layer.

In 2009, filmmaker Lesley Hoyt-Croft learned about the Arizona Justice Project’s work on the Bill Macumber case. As she researched the story and found out more about this incredible real-life tragedy, she began putting the pieces together to make a documentary called “Life.”

I am honored to be working as the DP with Lesley on this project. We traveled to Douglas, Arizona to meet Bill in the prison complex there, and flew to Denver to interview his son and family. The film will premiere at this year’s Phoenix Film Festival and the effort to free Bill Macumber continues even today thanks largely to the Arizona Justice Project. Please visit freedom4bill.com and lend your name to the petition and come out to see the film in April.

The upcoming Criterion DVD  release of Steven Soderbergh’s “Che”  includes a discussion about the RED ONE camera, and how digital cinema affected the production of this film.

Call him crazy, but Soderbergh took the RED ONE camera’s digital promise on faith, and was the first to use the system in a true production environment, and a very rough one at that. “Che” was shot on location in the damp jungle and in extremely hot conditions. The camera was largely untested for real production at the time, which led to a host of challenges for his camera team.

Please share with your friends and let us know what you think! Aaron Seever joins the cast as Sergeant Tom.

We’re currently editing the next episode, with another just wrapped and starting post-production!

Here is an interesting visual representation of the sharpness of the Canon 7D VDLSR.  This chart was posted on RedUser.net by Jim Jannard himself.  No specifications of the shoot were disclosed.  This could have been shot wide open at F1.2 for all I know.  But even assuming someone strapped a $10 lens on the 7D when they shot this video, the detail and sharpness is pretty lacking.  I would have actually expected the 7D to hold up much better than this.

For comparrison, here are some sharpness test done by Cinevate using a Sony EX1 and a Brevis 35mm adapter.  This rig would cost about $5,000 more than the 7D setup, but the difference is profound.  The gap between the detail on these cameras is about the same as the difference between an HVX200 w/ 35mm adapter and a Canon HV20 w/ 35mm adapter.

I’ll try and find more charts that I can post and update this post with, but I think it is interesting to see the real video power of these video DSLRs after I posted my comparison chart last week.

Canon 5D Mk II, Canon 7D, Canon 1d Mk IV, Nikon D90, Nikon D3s, Panasonic GH1

Benefits:

-Image: The image quality from a Canon 5D Mk II is outstanding in a lot of ways. We are seeing a lot of videos pop up online that were filmed with the 5D Mk II that appear cinema like in their depth of feild and image clarity.

-Lenses: While most video cameras are built with a fixed lens, the VDSLRs have the advantage of utilizing the decades of solid engineering that has gone into Canon and Nikon lenses.

-Depth of Field: The DoF on most standard video cameras is non-existent. To achieve that beautiful film look, you have to strap on a 35mm DoF adapter like Brevis, Letus, or Redrock. There is a lot of room for error with these adapters, which are heavy, and cost at least $1,000 each. A purchase that is completely superfluous with a video DSLR.

-Stills: Stills with any video camera are terrible quality. There is no professional use for the still photos from my HVX200. With a VDSLR you not only get a quality video camera, but an amazing stills camera.

Downside:
-Image: The image quality looks stellar… on the web. When you throw that footage on a 58 inch plasma TV the flaws in the image are going to be far more noticeable, whereas I can plug my HVX200 into my LCD TV, and it looks just as good on the TV as it does on the web.

-Codec: h.264, Motion JPEG, and AVCHD are not good recording formats. They are delivery formats. These formats need to be transcoded into a format that standard NLE systems like FCP, Premiere, or Vegas can handle. This results in loss of quality.

-FPS: While some of the newer DSLRs are capable of shooting the film standard of 24fps, there are still many that are limited to 30fps and require converting to 24fps to replicate the film look.
-Audio: There are no XLR or even mini-XLR inputs on any of these VDSLRs. You must now buy a dedicated audio recorder, which adds an additional expense, and often times a new person to the team to handle a new piece of equipment.

-Ergonomics: Digital video cameras have been around for decades, which has allowed designers to perfect the ergonomics of holding a video camera for long periods of time. Holding a VDSLR for long periods of time can put strain on the shooter’s wrists, since without additional support structure there is only one way to hold a camera.

-Auto focus: We all know that as professionals auto focus is highly frowned upon, but there are some situations where it is a necessity. No VDSLR on the market today has auto focus capabilities.

In the end, the choice comes down to what works best for your situation. Do you need audio? Is your distribution destination the internet?

Let’s hear your opinion!