I first heard about this a little over a month ago, but last night, the season finale of House aired...and it was shot entirely on a digital SLR camera - the Canon 5D Mark II. It's almost hard to fathom, but a high profile, internationally recognized television show has actually accomplished something that would have been unimaginable even a year ago. As recently as ten years ago, digital cameras were still new and gimmicky, big clunky boxes with 0.75" view screens that would capture your memories in 1.2 megapixel glory and cost you almost $1,000 to purchase. My first digital camera was a sleek little Casio Exilim that shot at 3.2 megapixels and cost me almost $700. I am now onto my fifth consumer grade digital camera in an era where you can find a 14 megapixel camera for under $100.
The thing that excites me most about this episode of House (find more details on the equipment, lenses, memory, etc. here) is that Pat recently picked up the Canon EOS 7D, a sister camera that shares many of the same capabilities of the 5D (including stunning HD video). We are looking forward to playing around with it in the very near future and have hatched a series of shorts to play around with before we settle into our next "official" production. We are in fact, hoping to shoot something this week, so there should be something new for you to see before too long.
Anyway, it's a pretty exciting development in our world of no-budget film making, and one that I am looking forward to diving into head first in the very near future. In the meantime, here is a preview to last night's Season Six finale of House. It was a breath taking accomplishment and I found myself truly appreciating a show that I have always passively enjoyed. Well done to everyone on the House team.
Sneak Peak - House Season 6 Finale
That's amazing. I had no idea they used a consumer-grade camera to film it. I guess it was probably necessary in some of those really small sets in retrospect.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Fantastic ep of House :).
We were talking about the possibilities of this not too long ago and Ed, our former cinematographer said it would never happen. Cameras just weren't good enough. Now, less than a year later, it has happened. I'm excited to start toying around with the 7D for sure. We don't have all the lenses, but we have enough for a decent start...
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