Paul Zadie

I’m as much of a camera nut as the next filmmaker, and I am ecstatic about the giant leaps that camera technology has been making of late. Like so many others, I’m on the Amazon.com waiting list for two Canon 7D bodies, and they just can’t get here fast enough. But I have been noticing a trend in the independent film community lately. It seems that the most important thing to filmmakers theses days is the latest, greatest camera. Even worse, we speculate and obsess over the latest camera features and specs. The accessibility of high quality tools and the democratization of production is enabling filmmakers to do what was only a dream just a few years ago.

What is that dream for most filmmakers? Telling stories. Story is the reason that I got into this business. What is storytelling? Story is a combination of entertaining, informing and most importantly, manipulating and evoking an emotional response from an audience. Storytelling (the filmmaker’s dream) is not depth of field, sensor size, cameras, editing software, faster computers, microphones, codecs, camera stabilizers, or anything else. These are just the tools that we use to create our art . Surely, Salvador Dali didn’t sit around with other painters for days on end and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the latest canvas and brushes. Photographers are even bigger gear heads than filmmakers(debatable, but bear with me), but their discussions always come back to the photo. I have never seen a comment thread on Flickr that focuses exclusively on the camera that a photo was shot with. The critique usually runs much deeper than that. So, why is it that filmmakers endlessly discuss, debate, and lust after these items that are nothing more than our paint brushes and canvas? The tools are important, we use them to guide our audience, but what we make with these tools is infinitely more important than the tools themselves. What defines you as a director, editor, writer, cinematographer? Is it your camera, NLE, writing software? No. It’s your story.

There is a fantastic short film on Vimeo called “Perya” that’s getting a lot of attention the past few days. But I think it is getting the wrong kind of attention. This film has been blogged about over and over, and the only thing that anyone cares about is the Canon 7D that it was shot with! Yes, the images are stunning, but there is a substantial story there as well. It is a really great short documentary. Not because of the shallow depth of field or the 24P frame rate, but because of the story.

After viewing Perya the second time with a technical eye, I scrolled down the page to leave a comment. As I read the long list of comments I found myself having another emotional response. I was shocked that not a single comment on that page complimented the filmmakers on the story or the subject matter. Why isn’t anyone talking about that?

A recent post on ProLost, Stu Maschwitz coined the term Bokake for the all too common, slick, yet devoid of story, camera tests like Reverie. Perya is unfairly being treated like Bokake, but it is so much more. Perya is not a good film because it was lensed with a Canon 7D. Look a little bid deeper. Are filmmakers blinded by technology? If so, I think we need to make a conscious effort to try and focus on story, structure, character, tension, drama, lighting, action, dialog, location, pacing, performance, composition, and all of the other important things that make a good film.

If your dream has alway been to own a 7D or a Scarlet, more power to you. If your dream is to make a movie, you should start paying attention to the things that are hidden by the technology blinders that I think we have all been wearing lately.

“Perya” – a Canon 7D Short from Bob Nicolas on Vimeo.

“Perya” – a short doc entirely shot with the new canon 7D camera. 108024p/premiere pro CS3

If you are involved in post-production, or in filmmaking in general, you should lend an ear to That Post Show. Host John Flowers invited me and Scott Simmons on this week’s show to talk about some post-production goodness. John, Scott, and I have a great discussion about the current state of the NLE software landscape. We talk about some of the projects we use Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro for, and why we choose one program over another based on the needs of a particular project. We all take turns airing some of our major grievances with some of the software and hardware that we use. It’s a good show, so give it a listen.

A couple of months ago I was the DP for a music video for singer Raquel Martinez. The video for the song Heaven In My Heart was directed and edited by David Bermejo.

I shot this with a Canon XH-A1, Redrock M2 adapter, and some Canon FD lenses. The most commonly used lens was a 50mm f/1.4. The 28mm was used in a couple of shots, but very minimally. This was mainly because we shot with a small crew and just didn’t have the time to change lenses.

Lighting for the indoor scene was done with a small Arri kit. Exterior lighting was done using a shiny board where needed. We also had a dolly rolling on PVC for the moves. All pretty basic.

Check out the video in HD on Vimeo, or see it below.

Music Video: Heaven In My Heart from Paul Zadie on Vimeo.

This is my video camera all dressed up. It is constantly evolving, but for now it consists of a Canon XH-A1, the Brevis 35 Flip adapter, a Redrock Micro follow focus, speed crank, carbon fiber rod support system, Cavision handgrips, shoulder pad, matte box, French flag, 7″ LCD monitor, and a selection of fast Canon FD lenses.

Below is a sample clip from a short film that I am currently shooting. This project is being shot over the course of a few weekends. After last weekend’s shoot, I decided to show the director, Sam Rossi, and producer, Chris Naylor, what kind of potential these shots have by giving them a sample shot.

Initially, Sam was looking for a dolly back to reveal the characters around the table for this shot, but using a table-top dolly (skate board) didn’t give us enough table to complete the move. So I executed the move with the Steadicam Merlin. I think the Merlin performs better with the smaller cameras like my HV20, but is doing just fine with over 5 pounds of load. That could just be my laziness talking, but getting the Merlin tuned and balanced with a heavier camera takes a little bit more time initially. Audio was coming in to this camera, so a Sennheiser wireless receiver added to the weight. I found it nearly impossible to get the Merlin balanced with the receiver mounted in the hot-shoe. So I attached it to the back of the camera with Velcro to keep the center of gravity low. That helped immensely.

The look Sam wanted for this scene was dark and sinister with the background of the room falling off into black. The scene was lit with a single 500w Lowel Omni light hung from a ceiling fan over the table. We reflected the same light for some of the other shots in the scene like close-ups and two-shots. The lighting scheme couldn’t get any more simple than this. The background is visible in the footage as it was shot, but a little bit of post fixed that.

To really give the sample clip the look it deserved, I took it in to Apple Color and gave it a quick look using a modification of the Bleach Bypass preset. That’s it. I sent it to Sam and Chris and they are pleased. Here are some photos from the set.We have another couple of days of shooting exteriors coming up this weekend. More later.

[vimeo 852016]