test footage

About a month ago, my lovely girlfriend asked me a simple question: "Why don't you own a video camera?"  This is a question I've asked myself many times over the years.  Being a filmmaker, I've always thought this was an essential items I should have in my arsenal.  But I've always just worked exclusively with cinematographers who have had their own kits, or rented equipment out.  As a result, I had handi-capped myself as a director, by ignoring a large part of what helps filmmakers improve and evolve.  Things like F-stop, ISO and Lenses were items I only had an elementary understanding of. I could get by well enough, but I wasn't a dedicated student of learning more about this side of the trade.

Well, that was all going to change.  In researching cameras, the Canon 7D quickly rose to the top of a very short list.  It was a dSLR, meaning, it has the body and look of a normal digital point-and-shoot camera.  Only, it shoots HD video as well.  These things are really taking off because they're semi-professional, yet very affordable.  They also shoot insane picture quality.  I already had experience with the Panasonic GH1, having worked with our friend Mike Halper on our two Fantastic Fest bumpers, and I couldn't have been more pleased with the end results of those two projects.  So the Canon 7D it was!

Within a few weeks of having this thing, my girlfriend and I quickly discovered our love for photography.  Every weekend we visited some new location to try and test the limits of the camera and capture shots that would normally, be way out of our realm of expertise.

Well, up until recently, the video was untested with it.  Sure, I went out the day I bought it and shot some outdoor stuff, but my hand was shaking so much, and it was such a grey day, that I was dismayed by what I got.  I knew I had my work cut out for me if I was going to produce something nicer.  Well, as it turns out, I didn't have that much work in store for me.  Shooting nice HD video was something that was about to prove much easier than I thought.  

Fast forward to Christmas in NY and I spend about 3 hours at a friend's house, shooting some test footage in his creepy basement (the same basement we used in our feature film Absence).  The set-up was this:  Kevin and I came up with a concept that we could direct fast and furious.  Kevin had some left-over latex lying around, and a bottle of fake blood he was itching to use to try and improve his special effects make-up skills with.  So I called up my roommate and fellow director friend, Brian James, Fitzpatrick, who also happened to be in NY working on a film and staying with his folks.  We then enlisted the help of James Lord, a brilliant photographer to be our DP for the afternoon.  And his awesome wife Ann, would be our damsel in distress.  Distress from what, you might ask?  Well, that was the role that Brian would be filling.  

So without further ado, I give you, "Laundry Day", the first bit of test footage we shot with the Canon 7D. We did this in about two hours.  Equipment was one zoom lens, a $100 tripod, and one light.  Fast, fun, and instructional, was the theme for the day.  Enjoy: