We like very much the TV show “House”. I have seen a quite old news from May 2010, telling us that the whole season was filmed with a Canon 5D MarkII. Wow, interesting….
A Canon 5D Mark II has become the first video-capable DSLR to film a whole episode of a US primetime series. Greg Yaitanes, director of FOX broadcasting company’s medical drama series ‘House’, used the camera, a selection of Canon’s prime lenses and, the 24-70mm and 70-200mm lenses to shoot its season finale. Speaking via Twitter, he said that this was to achieve a shallow depth of field and a ‘richer look’. He also said he ‘feels it’s the future’.
You can find also a Twitter-interview of Greg Yaitanes, the director of the show.
What is the difference in how it looks on a TV screen compared to a regular camera?
Greg Yaitanes: richer. shallow focus pulls the actors faces to forground [sic]
How many frames per second and why a Canon 5D Mark II?
GY: 24p and wanted it for ease of use in tight spaces.
Ok, seriously. Can you tell us something about the lenses you used?
GY: all the canon primes and the 24-70 and the 70-200 zoom
Did you have to change any of your working practices to fit in with differences between the 5D and a typical setup?
GY: some. focus was hard with these lenses but more “cine-style” lenses are being made as we speak.
Were you using CF cards for storage or some sort of mass storage mod? seems like you would need a lot of cards :)
GY: some 18gb or something like that card. gave us 22 min of footage.
How was the quality as compared 2 the traditional camera used in shooting?
GY: i loved it and feel it’s the future. cameras that can give you these looks
How did you manage to stabilize the camera in tight spaces? Any special kind of brackets?
GY: no. mostly gave it a hand held feel. or on a small tripod
I was very focused (!) on the “normal” usage of my 5D MarkII in the last months (enough to do technically ;), but this was definitely a good reminder that I can also do some videos.