Reel World: The most amazing tattoo shop commercial ever?

Wow ~ I'm not exactly sure what this is for but I am digging it.

Shot on the Red + 7d by Erik Ferguson:

Oslo city - Bride tatoo from Erik Ferguson on Vimeo.

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Reel World: Brad Kremer shoots Hayaku with the 5d

For anyone who knows us and our work, knows we LOVE timelapses. Something about the challenge and showing time pass appeals to me.

This video was shared to us via Vimeo and I figured I'd share it in case you haven't seen it.

Shot all on the 5d by Brad Kremer...

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Reel World: A Raining Day by Daniel Peters

One thing I personally really enjoy about shooting with DSLR's is taking everyday activities and adding a little "epic" to them. That's why I am featuring this next film. It takes place on a day when it's tough to get much shooting done. It's raining outside and was probably not the greatest day to feel inspired to shoot as the weather could have easily squashed Daniel's creative aspirations. Instead, he picked up his camera and documented his dogs and developed a nice little storyline of how they were depressed and sleepy and dreaming of when the weather was nice outside.
Enjoy.

A Raining Day from Daniel Peters on Vimeo.

Follow Daniel on Twitter!

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Reel World: Director Kyle Day Shoots Feature Film Entirely on 7D

Quick Note: This trailer hasn't been color corrected yet.

Director Kyle Day just directed an action/revenge feature that was shot entirely on the 7D.

"We did it for an insanely low amount of money so given our shooting schedule, our DP, Andrew Barrera,utilized the 7D in a very "run-and-gun" mentality with little to no lighting most of the time. The story is a classic female revenge plot that we wanted to be a homage to many of the 80s movies that myself and the writer grew up on." - Kyle Day

Insanely low budget films that are super high quality mean one thing: Creativity is no longer constrained in filmmaking by the need for a huge amount of up front capital. In my book, that means people are now afforded the opportunity to take a lot more risk creatively without suffering the devastating financial repercussions. Anything that allows more creativity in filmmaking: I'm all for it.
For more information on this film go to www.CherryBombFilm.com

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Reel World: Ryan Hunts- Woven Spring Premiere

Woven Spring is a visual sketch of the colorful enchantment of springtime. This film was shot in the Texas hill country and on Padre Island using the Canon 7D and L series prime lenses.
We are honored to premiere this film here. For more info visit www.ryanhunts.com

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Reel World: Nissan Commercial Shot on 5D MKII

So this is pretty awesome. This Nissan commercial was shot with the Canon 5D MKII R/C cars and a helicopter. Make sure you check out the Making of Video.
Watch it here
Thanks to @GaryNevittJr for finding this one.

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Reel World: John Mayer Has a Canon 5D and a Vimeo Account

So apparently John Mayer has a Canon 5d MKII and a Vimeo account. Thoughts?

"A Life In The Day" from John Mayer on Vimeo.

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Reel World: New York+Tilt Shift

I really enjoy the effect of tilt-shift. I think I really enjoy it for some of the reasons I enjoy
timelapses so much. It takes an everyday activity and makes it look different. Surreal. I like to try to see things from a different perspective and that's why I really loved this short.

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Reel World: First 7D Footage with Motion Capture

No it wasn't Avatar.
However, I had the pleasure of meeting the super talented Eduard Schneider
while in Chicago for The Zacuto Shootout. He sent me,what I believe to be, the first motion-capture footage shot with the 7D.

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Reel World: Canon 5D Used to Shoot 2010 WRC in Jordan

This is a very cool short film by Amr Toukhy from Visual Laundry. Keep an eye out, in partcular, for an awesome and super crisp slow-mo shot mid-way thru.


Go here For some Behind the Scene Photos
Also checkout visuallaundry.com

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Reel World: Awesome Music Video Shot on Canon DSLR's

Jesse Dana was the Director of Photography on this awesome music video shot on Canon DSLR's.

http://www.jessedana.com/

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Reel World: Ryan Hunts and Woven Nuevo Leon

Woven Nuevo Leon- Shot with the 7D from Ryan Hunts on Vimeo.

A remarkable filmmaker from Austin, Texas, Ryan Hunts, decided to do a visual sketch of Northern Mexico's ancient wonders. This piece was wonderfully paced and beautifully graded. I first heard of him when Chad Nickle of Wild Orchid Studios  sung his praises. I love getting the inside scoop on amazing filmmakers before the general public. I have been privy to see some of his other work and I have to tell you all, this is definitely a rising star to watch this year. I am sure his contributions to independent filmmaking will be astounding. Stay tuned... you heard it here first.
check him out out here RYAN HUNTS

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Reel World: Brian DeFrees + Canon 7D

The thing that I really love about this piece is that it takes something I absolutely loathe,taking a car to get serviced, and makes it fun. This was also the first thing he shot on the Canon 7D, so stay tuned. I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot more.

Service from Brian DeFrees on Vimeo.

Who is Brian DeFrees?

I am a cinematographer who shoots and edits commercial and corporate videos for an Advertising Agency in Upstate NY.

Did you have any problems you had to over come when shooting this?

This was the first thing I shot on the Canon 7D.It was hard to choose the correct exposure when shooting the scenes with the flying sparks. I felt I coudn't get a setting where the sparks were orange enough without darkening the rest of the image.

What was your favorite thing or things about the Canon 7D?

The Sharpness of the image straight of the camera is amazing. Coming from an HVX200 with a Cinema lens adapter to the 7D is an amazing transition as a filmmaker. Easier rig to use and focus, especially in tight situations like the ones in this video. And image quality is superb!

How about the glidetrack? Which version do you have? How do you like it?

I have the Glidetrack SD range 1 Meter version. It's a great piece of equipment. The Glidetrack is a compact, bring-anywhere piece of equipment that makes it easy to add a cinematic look to your films.

Do you have any plans for shooting with the Canon 7D in the future?

I plan on shooting all of my future films with the 7D: Music Videos, Wedding Videos, Commercials and more short films are in the works.

For more info on Brian DeFrees

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Reel World: "Terminal O" Music Video Shot on Canon 7D by Impakt Studios

Here's a cool music video shot on the Canon 7D . It was directed by Chris and Blaq from Impakt Studios out of Chicago. Definitely keep your eye on these guys they have some amazing projects in store for 2010.

Omen "Terminal O" Music Video Directed Impakt Studio's Chris & Blaq from IMPAKT STUDIO/Chris & Blaq on Vimeo.

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Reel World: The man, the myth, the legend. David Robin

I first met David Robin at WEVA and got to spend a bit more time with him at Re:Frame San Francisco. Not only is he one of the nicest guys I've met but he has tons of advice that he's willing to give. This man is truly an inspiration to all of us.

20 years of experience and he has a list of accolades that can make anyones jaw drop.

david robin | films has won 27 Creative Excellence Awards from WEVA int. More than any other Event Filmmaker in the world.

Named one of the "Top 25 Hottest & Most Influential Event Videographers in the World" by Event DV Magazine for the fourth year in a row.

Inducted into the WEVA Hall Of Fame in 2005.

Recipient of the Bob LeBar Vision Award.

Published in WEV Magazine, Event DV Magazine and Videography Magazine.

Featured on TNT's "Wedding Day". A Mark Burnett Production.

David Robin has successfully done what not many can. Not only does he have a studio that produces award winning wedding films but he is creating inspirational commercial work. Oh, and did I mention he's been doing this for 20 years and has been able to maintain a fresh approach?

wedding demo | 2009 from David Robin on Vimeo.



mycollegei from David Robin on Vimeo.

David and I caught up for a little Q &A about his career in filming weddings and commercial work:

How did you get started in your filmmaking career? Did you start with weddings, documentaries, etc?

Started shooting weddings in 1984. Was in retail, and sold a portable VHS vcr and camera to a client, who then suggested I shoot his wedding with it. After the wedding, exhausted and reeling, I decided that next time round I was going to charge to shoot one!

What challenges, if any, did you face when you decided to cross over into a new genre?

Corporate work came easily. My main source of business came from my event clients who were already comfortable with me, and had some kind of corporate project. The challenge was to become good at it. That took years!

What is it about your background in your initial field that helps you bring something special to the table with your newer field and vice verse?

Both mediums were so different, and required very different skill sets. Events were run and gun guerilla warfare, and corporate videos were planned, well thought out productions.

However that seems to have changed today, as we now shoot events with dslrs and 35mm lenses. Now we really have to plan out our shots, and put in far more thought to create a wedding film. Much like our corporate work.

So the lines have blurred.

Have you ever experienced any adverse reactions as a result of the negative connotations with "wedding videos?"

I have always strived to elevate the event filmmaking industry. I have spent many years educating clients, and my peers, and at the same time creating work that hopefully garners some respect. In the beginning I was treated with very little respect shooting events, but years later I have been awarded some credibility.

Hopefully i am perceived as a filmmaker now, and not a wedding videographer!

david robin | films can be found at:

www.davidrobinfilms.com 

blog.davidrobinfilms.com 

www.facebook.com/davidrobinfilms 

twitter.com/davidrobin 

www.vimeo.com/user639009 

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Reel World: Follow up Patrick Murphy-Racey

Some of you may remember the SEC Championship game I featured on here that was shot by Patrick Murphy-Racey. Well I opened my email this morning and was pleasantly surprised to hear back from him. Here's an excerpt:
"Hey Jon,
No one sent more people to my Vimeo page after I shot the SEC HD video than your site... Because of all the activity there (almost 10K views) I ended up getting a call from Patrick Moreau at Stillmotion out of Canada. I got hired on to shoot the NFC Championship game in New Orleans along with three other shooters. Here is what they put on the NFL Network's website:
Vikings-Saints Remix
I can't take any credit for the awesome Steadicam work and different approach that they brought into the project, as I only really shot game action with long glass as I did at the SEC. But I had a blast being pretty much the only guy there shooting game action with DSLR video on the 1DM4 and 7D's... Fun, fun, fun...
thanks, great site you have, keep up the good work!!!!
pm-r :) "
Another cool article about Patrick Murphy-Racey

Now that just made my day. It was very nice of him to write back to me and let me know that.
It was also very,very cool of him to make the behind the scenes video to explain how he shot the SEC game. I love the community of filmmakers and photographers helping each other
out. If I played even a minute role in helping him get that job, that makes me feel really good.
Obviously, he is extremely talented, hardworking, and all around nice  guy. That alone
will get you everywhere you need or want in life. Sometimes it's just good to get a reminder
of that.

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Reel World: Bridging the Gap Between Filmmakers and Photographers

One thing I really love about filmmakers using DSLR's especially
in the wedding field where photographers and "video people"
( as they have called us) have had a long and notoriously bad
relationship. DSLR's, despite the controversy the "f" word (fusion),
has brought,have actually brought the two fields closer.We understand
them better. Heck we are using the same equipment. So, I thought
I would share how Bryan Coward, creative director of Tampa Wonderworks Inc.,

is using DSLR's like the Canon 5D MKII  
creatively to bridge the gap between photographers
and filmmakers.

Spotlight - Audrey Snow Photography from Tampa Wonderworks Film and Video on Vimeo.

"This is a spotlight video we shot of our favorite South Florida photographer team Audrey Snow and Michael Owen . The film was shot on the Canon 5D MKII and scored by a fantastic local muscian
 Jim Morey ."- Bryan Coward

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Reel World:DP Christopher Gallo shooting "Portable Life" on Canon 7D

As a Director of Photography Christopher Gallo's work has taken him to more than 70 countries and five continents. He has worked with such talent as Steven Speilberg, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Gallo's work has been exhibited at the most prestigious film festivals (Cannes, Venice and SXSW) and his documentary "JUKEBOX" was archived in the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame". He currently resides in Venice, CA. and is working on his first feature narrative film with two Canon 7D bodies and Nikon lenses. The film is entitled "Portable Life" and will shoot in Europe,South Africa,Bali,Morocco, Turkey and the States. Plus he's funny as hell.

Final Version 7D Film out from RAWworks on Vimeo.


"I had used the 5d as a b camera on a documentary with my HVX and a Letus and it looked great. When I heard about the 24p on the 7D I started considering it as the b camera for the feature film. The reasons were: it does Pal, it's a 5 man crew, we travel constantly, allows for great stealthy B-roll shots, convenient car mounting and interior vehicle shots as well as the most important reasons....the ability to shoot in low light at a 1200-1600 asa and the ability to shoot with my old school Nikon primes. But the more I shot with it the more I realized that for the budget of this film, what camera in this price range(under 10k), is going to give you these images. The best I could compare it with is the ex-3 which sacrifices the lowlight capability,and low profile but more then anything the ability to shoot with my Nikon Primes.That glass looks stunning. So I started to push to be the first ones in the pool, and the test was on. I contacted Neil Smith and Jeremy Ian Thomas from Rawworks to do the workflow edit and color correct, and David Hays from E-film to do a film out, because the films financing comes out of the Belgium grant system and contractually they have to finish on film. Looked like super 16 and never took away from the story.
We saw the results at efilm and sent them to Holland for a screening for the producers and director and now I am on day 3 of 43 freezing my ass off doing night exteriors in Belgium with 2 canon 7d's. I guess they thought the results were good too. Do these cameras have limitations? Of course they do, all cameras do. The focus is an issue, the smoothness of hand held can be an issue or the shake on a long lens. You need to nail the exposure so you dont get grain while posting, but overall its pretty amazing what is happening and this is just the beginning. I am sure an uncompressed full frame 24,60 or faster will be out next year. Its a game changer." 
- Christopher Gallo
Director of Photography 
http://gallodp.com
http://www.vimeo.com/gallodp



Jeremy Ian Thomas
Creative Director 
RAWworks

www.hdirawworks.com

hdirawworks.blogspot.com

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Reel World: Why I Chose the Canon 7D to Shoot My First Feature.

by Filip Tegstedt

My name is Filip Tegstedt, I'm an indie filmmaker about to make my debut as a writer/director/producer. Next year, I'm shooting a little psychological horror film in Sweden called MARIANNE.

This here is my first blog about the project on www.canonfilmmakers.com and I'll try to keep the camera in focus.

First though, I do need to go into a little bit about this project if I may – what it is and who I am, so you'll see where I'm coming from.

My background is in screenwriting, or at least that's where I have my film school education. I started scribbling on this horror idea in 2003, but other projects and life has kept it dormant until February 2009 when I suddenly found a way to get the ball rolling. I've been working non stop full time on the project since then, and yes – being a writer, director AND producer on a feature film IS a lot of hats. I wish I didn't have to, but finding a producer willing to let an unknown make a feature debut in Sweden with a horror film is virtually impossible because of the way the industry here works.

Sometimes, you just gotta go out and shoot, man.

Now, because this film will be shot during summer in the northlands of Sweden, we won't need to use extra lighting on the exteriors, even outside the city. Even at night. This far north during summer, it doesn't really get dark – at least not for more than an hour or two, tops.

That saves us a lot of bother with hauling lamps and power supply. We can just bring the sound and camera equipment and that's it. Oh yeah, and the actors.
The budget on this film is low – actually, it's microbudget. I can maybe get 100,000-150,000 USD, if I take a loan with my summer house as collateral. Yeah I know, bad idea, right? Well it's an investment in my career as a film maker and we all need to make sacrifices.

So shooting on film is out of the question, obviously we're going digital. I've only ever shot on video anyway and this is not a good time to switch.
For a long time, the idea was to rent a RED ONE. I even looked into buying a used one and renting whatever equipment for it we needed. It might have worked, but in the end I decided to go with the Canon 7D instead. Here's why:

First of all, when we shot the pilot for this in May 2009, my good friend and technical advisor Soroush Shahrokni (find his stuff here: http://www.vimeo.com/user746382) had been raving about the Panasonic GH1 for several months already. I'm not a photographer, like I said my background is in writing, and so DSLR cameras are a completely new world to me. But after a couple of talks with him, and since Panasonic hadn't released the camera here yet and wouldn't until after we were finished shooting, I called them up and asked if we could borrow a GH1 to shoot the pilot, if we put their logo in the credits.

They agreed (Thanks again, Panasonic!) and I got my first taste of DSLR filming.
After that, we decided to start looking into alternatives to the RED. The RED is obviously a great camera, but sometimes you're better off owning your equiptment because the better you know it, the better images you will have. Just renting a great camera without knowing how to fully operate it might be a bad idea sometimes. You know?

I really did like the GH1, some of it's features I like better than the 7D. But the major problem with it was that you can't hook up an external HD monitor to it. A lot of the stuff we're shooting are with steadicam, and I also have a co-director who's way more experienced with photography than I am, so we need to be a few people who can see what's going on.

I also looked at the 5D, which I'm told would give me better picture, but I want to shoot this in 1080p 24fps. Also, because I bought the camera in the US to save money, but live in Europe, I needed to have one that could switch easily between PAL and NTSC. In case I need to shoot something in PAL, or in case I'd ever wish to upgrade and sell the camera, I can't be stuck with something that's only NTSC.

Then there was Nikon's new cameras that they were displaying at the Stockholm Film Festival in November, but since I need something that shoots full HD, they were out of the question unfortunately.

So the Canon 7D won.

I got it with three lenses: 16-35mm f/2.8L II, 50mm f/1.2L II and 85mm f/1.2L II.

It cost me a pretty penny, but was still cheaper than renting a RED for three weeks would have been. Plus, now I own a camera.

I've also ordered a Fader ND from Lightcraft, and I'm looking into some other equipment as well. Possibly a glide track or a Fig Rig, I'm not sure yet.
I'm still not the one actually holding the camera when we'll be on set – it's just not what I'm good at. I've got other people to do that for me who are much more experienced and knowing – but I did go out the other day and made a very, very quick test to see what it could do. You can check out the result here: http://www.vimeo.com/8326362 , but keep in mind that it's very raw. It's not run through After Effects, I didn't even white balance properly. Also, my current bandwidth prevented me from uploading a bigger file, and you'll see that on the compression.

Still, raw footage is a good measurement on what you can do with a great camera if you're a novice photographer. It can absolutely be better than this, but it can't get worse. That's saying something.

Oh and special thanks goes out to Kid Arctica of www.kidarctica.com for letting me use her music for the video. Check out her website, she does an amazing cover of Street Spirit by Radiohead.

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Reel World: Charles Son Talks Canon 7D and the City of Black & White Documentary

I caught up with Charles Son the co-director of an amazing short film, shot on the Canon 7D, about Mat Kearney’s last show of the City of Black & White tour. It’s really exciting to see what he and Ryan McNeil were able to do with this piece. The Reel World series is all about the practical application of DSLR’s as a filmmaking tool.

It’s one thing to go out and shoot cool beauty shots for fun,but this series is an attempt to highlight filmmakers in the field using these cameras in real world settings.

City of Black & White — Canon 7D documentary from Charles Son on Vimeo.

“Everything I've learned has come from watching movies and shooting them myself. Going to college for video production didn't help me much, other than meeting like-minded people with whom I still work today.  I think I had already learned the basics in high school, studying Scorsese and making movies with my parents' camcorder.  Since I graduated three years ago, I've been working in Hollywood at a great production / editorial company called Pictures in a Row.  So many great minds there, who have taught me a lot.I do a lot of editing as well as shooting, and it's great to do both.  If you think like an editor when you shoot, you're not going to be kicking yourself in the edit bay.

The job just kind of fell into my lap at the last minute. My co-director Ryan McNeill got a phone call from Mat's record label the night before the show to ask if we could fill in for another shooter.  We figured it'd be a quick little fluff piece, but we didn't realize how charismatic and insightful Mat would be on camera.

I had just bought the 7D a couple weeks before and I was dying to use it for more than just tests.  And since this was going to be at night with dimly lit rooms and exteriors, it was a no-brainer to use the 7D and test out its low-light capabilities in a real situation.

Simply put, the 7D kicked major ass.It more than exceeded my expectations.I couldn't believe the latitude it gave me and how well it worked in low light.I don't think we would've been able to do this shoot without it.  It's great to have so much control over the depth of field.  When I watched the raw footage, I was amazed at how "big" it made everything feel... there's a larger-than-life quality you get, where you can almost feel the size of the sensor in the images, as opposed to smaller chip cameras.And using interchangeable lenses, like a tilt-shift, is definitely a blast.

I love the Zacuto Rapid Fire.  It's so small you might not think it'll help that much, but it really does.  It's extremely easy to customize to your body.  And it's light enough that when I wasn't shooting I could leave it attached and carry it around by the 7D's neck strap.  I definitely want to try out a bigger rig at some point with a counterweight that goes over the shoulder to make it feel even more like a film camera.After the shoot, my back-ordered Z-Finder finally arrived and it too is glorious.

Ryan and I really need to thank Mat for being such a great subject to document! It was his idea to climb up on the roof for the main interview, and a lot of people have said that the roof shots are the most beautiful.He actually kept a lookout on the security guards there, and found the right time to sneak up the ladder.Maybe he should be a location scout...

Since most people don't know that DSLRs shoot video now, it's pretty entertaining to me when ordinary people start posing for you like it's a picture at events like these. If I tell them I'm actually shooting video, many will get self-conscious and don't want to be on video. And there have been a couple times when people looked so happy to be in a picture, that I pretend to snap one before walking away!("Oh that was a good one!Great smile!")I'm sure that's going to change quickly as these cameras get more popular.

Although the 7D is great in low light, the noise can be distracting in really high ISO shots.  Our colorist, Adam Sakellarides, used a great noise reduction program by Neat Video on a lot of shots.  It's a great program, extremely easy to use, and it helped immensely.  We did keep the noise in the black-and-white shots because it felt right.
And some noise can be very beautiful. However, you can definitely see the junk from the H.264 codec in a few shots... that blocky pattern that looks terrible and you can't do anything about.  If only Canon could give us uncompressed video...

These video DSLRs are such a huge step toward the democratization of filmmaking. I equate it to the release of the Panasonic DVX-100 with its 24p video. Anyone can now have professional tools and techniques at their disposal at an affordable price.  It's very exciting times. But we all need to watch out for the next generation, since there are 8-year-olds running around now with 7Ds and editing in Final Cut Pro on their new iMacs! ” – Charles Son
Check out Charles Son on Vimeo.

I couldn't agree more. I think we are living in exciting times as filmmakers.It's more about the person behind the camera
and having talent but this is a perfect example of someone gifted going out, and getting amazing results with the Canon 7D.

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