The latest Transformers movie to crawl out of the Hollywood cookie-cutter machine had a budget of $200 million. The above 2.5 minute short film was created by Amateur Russian filmmaker Alexander Semenov using a Canon 550D (with a 18-55mm kit lens and 50mm 1.8) and a Nikon D5000 (with a 18-55mm kit lens). In other words, the gear used was entry-level quality with kit lenses.
The footage was captured in two hours of shooting, and a month was spent editing the film. It’s amazing what a couple kids can create with a couple sub-$1000 DSLRs. We’re going to be seeing much more of this kind of thing as HD video recording because a necessary feature on new cameras.
“Leave Me” is an award-winning short film (~3 minutes) by Daros Films that revolves around a broken Canon DSLR. It’s amazing how much you can communicate in three short minutes. Oh… and you might want to have some Kleenex at hand.
Filmmaker Kevin Shahinian of Pacific Pictures has a knack for unconventional wedding videos. In the past, he’s turned one wedding flick into a thriller, starring the newlyweds.
Key to his films is the idea that the stories are somehow universal; the plot extends beyond the individual love story that he is documenting. Though he is covering the personal stories of a single wedding party, he crafts a storyline that even strangers can appreciate.
For his most recent film, “City of Lakes,” he’s masterminded a fantastic conceptual short film by fusing live footage from a wedding and a scripted love story he created.
Though the film runs just under 30 minutes, it’s definitely worth a watch.
As an added plus, all the filming was done exclusively with Canon DSLRs, the 5D Mark II and the 7D, outfitted with L-series lenses.
The hybrid feature film was shot over the course of nine days, on location at Udaipur, India. Shahinian said that he was working with a skeleton crew that he usually works with to shoot live wedding events. Shahinian wrote on his Vimeo production page:
…it would become an unprecedented attempt to combine a fully scripted, produced film with Melissa & Samir’s real, live wedding into one, seamless film…“CITY OF LAKES” is as much a documentary about what it means to return to the birthplace of one’s ancestors, as it is an exploration of the Hindu faith, and the rituals of a Hindu marriage.
The resulting film is a colorful cultural portrait, a beautiful love story, and an engaging wedding video with a touch of Bollywood-style lightheartedness.
Two weeks ago we featured the short film “The Last 3 Minutes” by cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, which showcased the potential of the Canon 5D Mark II for filmmaking.
Hurlbut’s team also created a behind the scenes look at how the amazing short was filmed, and gives a great glimpse into the unique blend of effort and creativity it requires.
If you haven’t watched “The Last 3 Minutes” yet, here’s a link to our original post.
The Last 3 Minutes is a beautiful short film by cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, the cinematographer of Terminator Salvation. It was shot using the Canon 5D Mark II, and was sponsored by Canon to show off the latest firmware that enables 24p (frames per second) recording, giving it a “movie quality”. Filming spanned 17 locations across 4 1/2 days, and a wide assortment of Canon prime L lenses were used.
The present day portion of the film in the beginning was shot at 24p, while the flashbacks were filmed at 30p and converted to 24p in order to produce a dreamlike quality. You can read more about how the film was made on Hurlbut’s blog.
Pentax recently asked a couple production companies to shoot short films demonstrating the HD filming capabilities of the Pentax’s flagship K-7. After the recent flurry of short films shot with Canon and Nikon DSLRs, it seems Pentax would like to remind us all that they’re still in the game. The two films were recently released, and are titled “Uncle Jack” (embedded above) and “The Rider“.
I actually liked “Uncle Jack” enough to want to share it with all of you. Some of the low-light scenes seem to demonstrate some color and noise issues, but the story is pretty creative and does a good job of showing off this camera’s potential.
