There’s plenty of debate flying around at the moment on which camera is best for outstanding pictures. Here at Hurricane if it’s a corporate film, live event or web streaming we will use the best tool for the job but I have to say I’ve been blown away by the results we’re getting from Canons 5D mk2 and 7D.
We’ve shot lots recently on DSLRs including the Canon 5D mk 2 and the 7D, covering everything from green screen to corporate interviews and a sales film. Working with really good primes on the camera gives us massive apertures of f1.8 and a related depth of field thats fantastic to look at. To be honest I would say the days of the bolt on 35mm adapter are numbered, working alongside our LETUS 35mm on location recently I realised how much light you lose through the adapter and just how fiddly it is to shoot with. We’re going to be shooting on DSLR more and more I would say.
My tips for shooting video with any DSLRs are
1. Make sure you’ve got the latest firmware
2. Look at compensating for poor handling with some grip kit, we’re checking out this great little rig called the Handy 35
3. Get a lens adapter and make use of all those old Nikon primes you’ve got.
4. Splash out on a beachtech audio box or dust off the clapper board to record sound seperatly
5. An HD monitor is a must – we’re using a lovely one from JAG 35
6. Read all the best DSRL tips from Cinema 5D, the forum for DSLR film makers
7. Use an over sized tripod with the best fluid head you can afford.
Don’t risk your precious data
Now we are all in the brave new world of tapeless production it’s easier than ever to lose all your hard work so you need to be totally on top of data backup. On location we back up everything to an external hard disk and mirror this while still on location. These discs are carried back to base in two places in case something goes missing or gets stolen. When you get back to base we ingest the media to the edit suite and back this up too… we use time machine for this. Now it’s in fours places… bomb proof. We keep the location drive data for 12 months after the job then we have a long term archive where we keep all the old rushes off site .. and guess what – this is backed up to!
Hassle Free DSLR edit workflow with Final Cut Pro
Google “DSLR workflow” or “edit 5D” and you’ll find dozens of people with a solution to what do do with the pictures once you’ve done filming.. and they all say theirs is the best. I don’t know if ours is the best or not but it works well for us and is quick and easy to master.
1. Get yourself a copy of MPEG Streamclip (a great bit of kit you should have anyway).
2. Drag all the media from the camera card onto a folder somewhere on your hard drive.
3. Drag all these clips into MPEG streamclip
4. Export a .mov – we use DVCPRO HD at 1080p res. Make sure you dont interlace it and keep audio uncompressed.
The clips will all be made into one long .mov – keep it somewhere safe and drag it straight into Final Cut – match the sequence settings to the clip … et voila! One easy to use timeline that won’t need rendering.
Happy editing!