What the…

Robin Schmidt (also know as El Skid), recently posted a video and blog post showing off his “Beastmaster” rig. The rig is designed around two cameras. One 5D and a 7D. While this setup seems utterly absurd, there is logic and reason to the madness. Robin explains in his blog post:

“The kind of stuff we’re shooting involves some pretty crazy stunts, like walking down a busy high street wearing a bacon bikini etc. etc. and we really don’t want to hang around too long. Having the two cameras going at the same time means we don’t need to stick around for any longer than we need to. He does a lot of talking to camera and there’s usually a lot of cross-cutting.”

Robin goes on to share how he used the 5D as his main camera with the Canon 24-70mm L zoom lens, and the 7D with the Tokina 11-16mm for a wide B cam.

Why?

I have to admit at first I was questioning why one would go to such crazy ends to achieve this type of shoot. But I began to see some great uses for such a setup. A lot of people would probably just use the RED One and shoot it wide at 4K and crop the finally video to create several differently framed shots. But then you are loosing sharpness when you zoom in, and you don’t get the fun ascetics of a super wide lens. Some might ask me:  ”Ok then Caleb, why not just shoot with two different cameras with difference operators?” Well that is just it, not only would you need two people to operate, but they would be at different angles. What is so great about having the cameras right next to each other is the perspective. Since the talent was acting/speaking to camera, they didn’t have to cue him to look at different cameras. Brilliant.

Its obvious this sort of rig is not practical for many shoots, but it worked well for Robin. Be sure to check out his video describing the setup and his blog post.

Stop talking and make a film…

I had the great pleasure of speaking with director Ken Simpson and DP Alex Dacev, two filmmakers from Canada. In the podcast we discuss filmmaking, using the 5D for narrative film, tools, post production, and tips on starting in filmmaking.

Click here for the audio only version.

Films:

Links:

• View Point Film Challenge
• Alex Jordan Producer

Production Stills:

I have recently been following the SCENEBLOCK gang, and have really enjoyed their work and projects. Recently they shared a great little DIY project to improve the quality of the tiny built in mics on Canon DSLRs. I am definitely going to give this a shot and would like to see how well it performs in several different sound environments.

Check out this video showing some results of the muff being attached, then check out the guide.

Link to Guide: DIY 5D Mark II Windmuff

(Via SCENE BLOCK)