Yesterday I saw a quick blurb on Philip Bloom’s blog about director Robert Rodriguez using 2 Canon 7D cameras, one in a full shoulder-mount setup with a 7″ Panasonic monitor as a viewfinder, for a music video. The post got more interesting as the DP for the project caught wind of the post and added the all important technical details of the camera setups.
There were a LOT of comments, but they all seemed to agree that the revolution is here and HDSLRs are viable alternatives to other more expensive digital cinema cameras.
Today, I saw a new video on Funny or Die featuring presidents Ford through Obama from Saturday Night Live. The ex-presidents visit Obama in a dream to convince him to pass the Consumer Protection law, and Reagan tells him to “grow a pair.” All politics aside, it was great to see all those SNL vets together again. The spot was directed by Ron Howard and also featured Jim Carrey as Ronald Reagan.
But the reason I’m writing this post is because of the behind the scenes video for this short. After the main video played, the behind the scenes video started and lo and behold, they were shooting Canon HDSLRs. I couldn’t tell if they were 5D or 7D cameras with all the rigging. NBC used 5Ds to shoot the intro for the current season of SNL. But this wasn’t produced by NBC, it was produced by Ron Howard. I would say that’s a pretty good endorsement.
The third video that plays is a dream sequence featuring Dana Carvey as president number 41, George H. W. Bush. It has a very shallow depth of field that goes in and out to enhance the dream effect. Before the HDSLRs, this effect would have required a pretty expensive setup.