Eric Nakamura
Bryce Kanights
Matt Irving
Andy Jenkins
Mark Whiteley
Sean Cliver
PUMA SPOT - CANON 5D MARK II PASS
After reading this, I'm not sure if this post is about my Puma spot or the new Canon 5D Mark II.
I’m really happy that I got awarded this fun Puma job last month. It’s a set of single shot, in-camera promos for their new ultra-light ‘Lift’ shoe (Lift is an acronym for Lite Injected Foam Technology). This is actually three separate spots that I spliced together for my cut. The Puma versions are here, here and here.
From the beginning I was planning on shooting it all on a RED or PHANTOM or possibly Film. But as we got into pre production it started getting really complicated and post heavy to get what what I wanted in-camera with either of those. It started almost as a joke when I began doing research on the new Canon 5D Mark II and it’s video capabilities. But after a few days and consulting with Andy Mueller it actually seemed like this job was made to be shot with the 5D. First off, you can use your Canon lenses. Second you are shooting on Canon’s rad/super-sensitive low noise chip with a ridiculous iso, so I was able to light the set with a video projector and a few low power KenoFlos. Third, the work-flow on a Mac consists of copying the sim card to your hard drive and the files all just work with whatever you have, no drivers, no importing. The 1080 30P video may not emulate the look of film as well as 24P but if you don’t have dialogue or if you aren’t shooting something that needs to be seen in real time you can play it at 24 FPS without dropping any frames. Plus the compression is really nice and there is still a ton of tonal range and color information so you can push things around a lot in post without seeing much if any degradation.
So with the business of lighting and camera decisions out of the way I got to get to work on sorting out the actual shoot. On shoot day reality set in and I was just a little nervous about shooting with an unfamiliar camera, let alone an shooting video with an unfamiliar still camera. It didn’t help that everyone kept asking when we were going to set-up with the real camera. Thankfully, the client wasn’t there to see us sweat it out learning to follow focus without shaking the tiny 5D, which at 2.8 was probably the most challenging part of he shoot. Next time we’ll probably set it up with an Arri Follow Focus.
Camera schmamera, this post really just boils down to me being excited about this new age of filmmaking and information sharing and I can’t wait to see what people come up with this year.
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I really want that camera. I’m so happy it is under $3000.00. Even if I had tons of money, I don’t like the idea of going around with an $8000.00 camera.
Thanks for the post!!
Adam
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Cool! That camera sounds awesome. I’ve been shooting on a Panasonic DVX in 24p and dealing with tapes these days seems so archaic! Does anybody have experience shooting on the HMC150? From what I understand it’s the step between a DVX and an HVX, recording to flash memory? If I’m getting a new Panasonic should I just go with the HVX? Is it that much better?
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:38 pm
AWESOME! Just watched the spot and it is really well done! I’m about to post about it in my blog - http://bit.ly/Fh1Bx - and I’m the owner of planet5d.com - the 5d wiki. Will highlight this one for sure!
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I have a lot of problems importing long clips with the DVX in 24P and 24Pa - “cadence breaks”… I am looking into getting an HMC150 in a few weeks. I’ve checked into everything I can think of trying to find fault with it, and the biggest “fault” I’ve found so far is that it doesn’t shoot variable frame rates like a HVX.
With stick media rather than tape, the biggest chore is archiving.
March 4th, 2009 at 4:38 am
[...] discovered a Puma shoe commercial shot on a 5D mk ii. Jarred Eberhardt discusses the filming and choice of the 5D mk ii in the [...]
March 4th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Jarred, what are the steps you take to play the files at 24p without dropped frames?
April 4th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
This post was very interesting. I was just thinking about some of these things last week so it’s great to see other people thinking along the same lines.
February 4th, 2010 at 7:47 am
Great Info. I add this blog to my bookmarks.