Patrick Moreau
The Canon 5D Mark II
and the Wedding Filmmaker
e first saw the Canon 5D Mark II (aka MK II) in the lunch room files into a much more workable format for color grading (if you drop a
W at Canon’s Mississauga, Ontario, office. It was so new that the
now-legendary Vincent Laforet clip was just about to appear
online and start a worldwide buzz. I can remember how amazed I was, the
simple 3-way color corrector on the native files, you’ll have to render).
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
camera in my hand for mere minutes, as I stared with an open jaw at the The shoot itself was quite exciting; several moments into it, we all just
bokeh I was able to get from a pair of salt and pepper shakers. This sat and looked in amazement at what the LCD on the MK II was capable
camera, it seemed, would transform the way we see our films. of. To be able to go from a 16-35mm f2.8 lens (while Slick was dancing
Fast-forward several months to the first time we were able to take the atop a half-constructed building) to a 45mm tilt-and-shift lens (while he
camera out of the lunch room. Our team was in Jamaica for a wedding right was grinding on a bridge) really made us feel like we were controlling
before New Year’s when we came upon a very interesting local artist who exactly what we wanted to shoot and how we wanted the result to look. We
went by the moniker Slick. Our intention was to shoot a little piece for our can get so used to the fixed lens on something like a Canon A1; it
wedding clients, Tiffani and Ryan, that we could show at their wedding. So becomes easy to forget that there is so much more versatility out there
we suggested that Slick sing live for us, and we would tie that into what when you move to interchangeable lenses. Not only can you choose a focal
we were putting together for the wedding. His eyes instantly lit up, and he length, but the look of the image also changes with each lens. Properties
put out a beat right there on the beach. Things snowballed from there; the such as the bokeh, color reproduction, and distortion are unique to each
plan then became to shoot an impromptu music video for him, which lens and are all variables we can utilize to tell our stories better.
seemed like the perfect test for the MK II. While we were amazed by the MK II, our first shoot wasn’t without its
The footage we got was roughly half shot with the MK II. Being that we are problems. Shooting the majority of the video handheld meant that we had
so accustomed to the aesthetic of 24p, our first challenge was to find a way a fair number of shots plagued by the rolling shutter (aka jello) effect
to convert the MK II’s 30p footage. The byproduct of that conversion process attendant to CMOS sensors. Video cameras with CCD sensors have a
(which we ended up doing in Compressor) was that we were able to get our global shutter and, thus, do not suffer from this jello effect. With a CDC’s
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hot fusion
global shutter, the entire which block 1 to 2 stops of
frame begins gathering light, respectively, and are
light and is exposed at not nearly enough for this
the same time. With a CMOS type of application. If you
sensor’s rolling shutter, pick up an ND 3.0 filter,
different portions of the you’re looking at a loss of 10
frame are exposed at dif- stops of light, which will do
ferent times, essentially much more for you in very
“rolling” through the frame. bright conditions.
This isn’t a physical shutter Getting an assortment of
but rather an electronic one filters for each lens you
(whereas a film camera uses have can be a little daunting,
a physical shutter) that is so I suggest looking at a
making different parts of