Blizzard Short Shot with Canon 7D Deserves to Win Oscar, Says Ebert
“Man in a Blizzard” is a short film shot by Jamie Stuart during the recent NYC blizzard that film critic Roger Ebert believes to be deserving of an Oscar.
This film deserves to win the Academy Award for best live-action short subject. (1) Because of its wonderful quality. (2) Because of its role as homage. It is directly inspired by Dziga Vertov’s 1929 silent classic “Man With a Movie Camera.” (3) Because it represents an almost unbelievable technical proficiency.
Ebert also asked Stuart to describe how it was created, and received the following response:
I started shooting around 1pm for about 30 minutes outside. Went out for another 15 minutes around 3pm. Meanwhile, I intermittently grabbed shots through my apartment window. (Lunch occurred around 2:30. Dinner was around 7:30. Can’t remember what I ate. Maybe pasta.) Then, the main nighttime shoot began at 9pm and lasted until about 10:30 […]
Because the 7D shoots H.264, which is a web format and not meant for editing, I made selects from the footage and converted the selects into ProRes 422. I started it that night, but it takes a while to do. Went to bed my normal time around 1:30 am. Got up my normal time around 10am. Finished converting the footage. Then, I edited until I finished around 5pm. (I took a regular lunch break at around 2:30 — chicken noodle and Saltines.)
The final shot, where the camera pulls back from the window, was done around 1pm.
I uploaded the video just after 5pm, after I finished burning a Quicktime, and sent the link around.
If you’re wondering about the “Man with a Movie Camera” film that Ebert mentions, here it is:
What are your thoughts on this short? Does it deserve an Oscar?
