HDSLRs continue to be picked up by major film crews and network TV shows, which is a great vote of confidence in the technology.
The latest is that a Canon 5D Mark II was used to film parts of network TV show American Idol, with a feature on Crystal Bowersox in her home town of Ohio. That’s all great of course but here is a reminder of why we love HDSLRs so much from the people who really need them and why they are not just a short-term stop-gap until larger cameras like the AF100 come out.
Here is a quote I picked up from a South African indie filmmaker.
“I came back from the Berlin film festival a few months ago having seen a bunch of films, mostly shorts made on the Canon 5D and 7D, next year there will be features in the sidebars and possibly in competition, I have no doubt about that.”
“For us ‘3rd world filmmakers’ the HDSLR revolution is big, it’s a new wave for us. We can take cheap small camera’s into the field with old Nikon lenses, use 2 or 3 person crews to make authentic beautiful gritty small films with non actors, on zero budgets that can compete on the world stage and project at festivals on HDCam if selected.”
“No expensive DI needed unless your film is acquired by a distributor… then you and your sales agent can scramble for cash. 35mm, 16mm is dead for us and I weep but you gotta do what you gotta do. RED is available but rentals costly and prohibitive and most often comes with a DP. HDSLR hybrids are by accident designed for us out here to get the filmmaker back behind the camera and rid the industry of the heirarchy and tyranny of the DP’s and crews that slow down the shoot (and increase expense).”
“Americans filmmakers (indie or Hollywood) will always be spoiled by a dizzying array of formats and camera’s. Tarantino will shoot film because he can afford to, we cannot. It’s that simple.”
