Authors — Michael Murie
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DP’s Discuss The Canon C300
The Canon C300 had a coming out party in Boston last week where Larry Thorpe of Canon presented the camera at an evening event hosted by Rule Boston Camera. A large crowd turned out to hear Larry speak about the camera, and to play with the four demo units that were present. When the camera was first announced I asked some local DPs for their reaction to it, and I took advantage of this opportunity to get their reactions after seeing the camera in person: Jeremy Traub is a DP based in Boston who is very familiar with RED […]
by Michael Murie on Jan 9, 2012 -
DP David Kruta and the Red Epic
Dave Kruta grew up drawing and painting, but fell into cinematography in an unusual way. Working as a web designer, a job for a friend led to a video project. This eventually led to working as a DIT – he is a member of Local 600 DIT – but he says his passion is cinematography. He’s been doing more d.p. work this past year, perhaps helped by the fact that he bought his own Red Epic system earlier in the year. In this interview he talks about using the Epic and Alexa, the M and X versions of the Epic, […]
by Michael Murie on Dec 23, 2011 -
Jared Flesher on Doc Filmmaking with a DSLR: Part Two
In part 1 of this interview, filmmaker Jared Flesher talked about his latest project, Sourlands, and making the switch to a large sensor DSLR camera. In part 2, Jared talks about how he works as a one-man crew, other equipment he uses, finishing the project, and what future camera he might like to use: You were your own crew for this documentary? Part of my style of filmmaking is to be a one0-man film team. There are practical reasons for that. I’m working on a fairly limited budget, so if I don’t have to pay a sound man, or someone […]
by Michael Murie on Dec 17, 2011 -
Jared Flesher on Doc Filmmaking with a DSLR: Part One
Jared Flesher is a self-taught filmmaker. He shot his first feature-length documentary, The Farmer and The Horse on a Canon consumer camcorder, shooting and editing the entire movie himself. With the success of that movie under his belt, he moved on to his second documentary, Sourlands, which he just finished shooting and hopes to complete by June of 2012. For this movie he decided to make the switch to a larger sensor camera, and chose the Panasonic GH2. In the first part of this interview, Jared talks about why he made the movie, and his experience making the switch to […]
by Michael Murie on Dec 12, 2011 -
Is Shallow Depth-of-Field a Fad?
Most creative arts suffer from trends. Someone does something new or unusual, and suddenly dozens of others are imitating it; just look at Hollywood. Since the arrival of the Canon 5D Mark II, shallow depth-of-field has become almost a fetish. There’s certainly valid reasons to want to have shallow depth-of-field, as filmmaker Stu Maschwitz wrote on his blog: “With a 5D Mark II, its sensor double the size of a motion picture film frame, we can achieve cinematic focus at F4. We can get fetishistically shallow depth of field at F2.8. At F1.2, we can create abstract art in a […]
by Michael Murie on Dec 8, 2011 -
Jonathan Yi Talks About The Canon C300
Last week Jonathan Yi posted a video on the web: “Canon EOS C300 = Awesome”. The video, shot with a prototype of the new Canon C300, pokes fun at camera tests, while also demonstrating many of the capabilities of this camera. Though it was originally produced for Canon’s launch event, the video was not posted at that time because, as Jonathan said “Canon, not thrilled with my sense of humor, does not credit or condone this video.” Canon may have underestimated the charm of the video, or the interest in anything related to the C300; to date, the video has […]
by Michael Murie on Dec 5, 2011 -
The Software Camera
We’ve seen several revolutions in the world of camera design over the past ten years; HD video, solid state recording, DSLRs, and large sensor cameras, but one that is often overlooked is the arrival of the software camera. It used to be that when a camera was released its features were set in stone, and only the arrival of a new model – or a very rare recall – saw any changes in the capabilities of the camera. That has changed as the computer-like functionality of video cameras has expanded. As just one example, there were two amazing things about […]
by Michael Murie on Nov 28, 2011 -
Sony’s New HXC-D70 HD/SD Studio Camera
Studio cameras aren’t something I usually spend much time looking at, but I just sat in on a demo of Sony’s new HXC-D70 HD/SD System Camera, which has some interesting features. The HXC-D70 only started shipping three weeks ago, and Sony considers it their budget 2/3” sensor studio camera; it sells for about $20,000. While it might have many potential audiences, it’s plain that Sony intended this for studios and corporate environments who are currently shooting SD but plan to move to HD. This camera works happily in either mode, will work with older CCU-D50 camera control units, and it […]
by Michael Murie on Nov 18, 2011 -
Getting Started in 3D
I had the good fortune of attending a day-long workshop on 3D production this past weekend. It was notable because we had a chance to actually use the Panasonic AG-3DA1 camcorder and to view the results projected using Panasonic’s new home 3D projector, the PT-AE7000U. In the interests of full disclosure; I have previously written at some length about my suspicion and distrust of the whole 3D thing. I blame it on seeing Jaws 3D in 2D at a drive-in movie at a formative age. To me, 3D seems to be an effect that is useful now and again, but […]
by Michael Murie on Nov 17, 2011 -
Reaction To The Canon C300 And Red-Scarlet-X: Part Two
In my previous blog post I interviewed several directors of photography who are shooting material for web and television to get their reactions to the recent Canon and RED announcements. You might sum up their reactions as, “We wanted to like the Canon, but it’s too expensive!” To complete the picture, I talked to a couple of people who have worked on a number of indie films, and have worked extensively with cameras like the RED and Arri Alexa. Finishing Artist and VFX Supervisor Dermot Shane is based in Vancouver and routinely works with material from REDs, and Arri’s (both […]
by Michael Murie on Nov 14, 2011
