Here at the Canon Boot Camp, we’ve been “recovering” from our first annual Canon Boot Camp screening event which took place last week. It was so much fun! Thanks to Amy Kawadler of Canon USA, we were able to host a premiere at the posh Canon Hollywood Professional Technology and Support Center on Sunset Boulevard.

The night started with guests rolling in, despite the rain and traffic (thank you!), and feasting on scrumptious nibbles from Fabiolus. Amy then welcomed the crowd and explained that we wouldn’t have been there that night if it wasn’t for a little camera called the 5D Mark II. She introduced us to her wonderful staff, including Tim Smith, Mason Higa and Thomas Rose. Next, Fletcher Murray, President of The Association and Chief Instructor of The Canon Boot Camp, took the stage to kick off the screening of the 8 short films completely shot by Canon Boot Camp participants.

The short films included: The Nun Who Lied, The Sonnet, Just a Second, Escape, Hooker, Killer, Big Dave, and The Rose.

The event was also the World Premiere of The Rose, which is a short film shot in collaboration with creovision, a Czech production company who brought us to Prague to teach two 2-day workshops with 38 students. In 2 shoot days, I am amazed with what we accomplished. Being on location at the historic Prague train station and filming on an old train car made the experience even better. Markus Krug, who helped make the Prague Canon Boot Camp possible, was with us at the Premiere event, which was live streamed to the participants in Europe.

Now we’re motivated more than ever to keep producing thrilling, heartfelt, funny, and emotional short films at Canon Boot Camp workshops so that next year we can once again showcase the work of our amazing participants. Look out for the 2013 Canon Boot Camp dates, and join us, won’t you?

Thank you to Canon, our actors, sponsors, and everyone who helped make this possible!

(This report comes in from Tom Myrdahl, who’s on assignment with the Boeing Company in Seattle. Tom Myrdahl, our 5D Guru and Canon Boot Camp crew member, had been communicating with Frank Buck, Manager of Boeing Seattle’s Creative Services and one of their top Producers Dean Jones. Tom’s been telling them about “the Look” of the 5D.   Coincidentally, a project of importance ended up on Dean’s plate that Dean felt it was the chance to try out the commercial look that the 5D could offer. So Tom was off to Seattle.  Here’s how the Canon HDSLR is doing at Boeing, which up til now has been an “all Nikon” company. Tom went up to Seattle to advise them on what and how much support equipment to get.)

Frank Buck and Dean Jones were excited about the project as were two of Boeing’s best cameramen, Jim Lally and Tom Wallace. Within a few weeks the new 5D Mark III arrived.  The Compact Flash cards, HDMI cables, and other items arrived just in time for all of us to get on a plane and head off on a three week trip to St.Louis, Washington DC, and Huntington Beach California. All of us saw the quality of the 5D. The contrast and colors are more film-like.  Lighting like you would for film delivers a great look.

(above – Jim Lally and Tom Myrdahl on location)

(above – Dean Jones with the 5D in the Space Lab.)

All involved saw that this camera is not an ENG camera but must be treated as if shooting a commercial. The depth of field issues clearly demanded care and precision on focus …this demands precise camera movement and commercial style lighting techniques…which were more easily done with daylight balanced  LED Panel lights by Zabo, and HMI Jokers…all went well.

(above – the adjustable Kelvin temperature Zabolight on set at Boeing)

These last three weeks may indeed change the way Boeing Seattle shoot their hi-end videos from now on.

(Good work, Tom.  We’ve been working on Boeing for nearly two years now.  Happy to hear it went well. – Editor)

Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro X

If you' ve been wondering  

Graduate Feedback on Recent Canon Boot Camps

Several years ago we started the Canon Boot Camp as a way to impart practical Canon 5D & 7D instruction to Los Angeles filmmakers. Since then The Association has traveled as far as Prague, Czech Republic, to deliver training to hundreds of DSLR Filmmakers of all levels of experience.

We’re already the longest running DSLR training boot camp of it’s kind. But that’s not enough. We constantly work to improve the instruction so that each participant gets the skills they need. But what are those skills exactly? More importantly, what skills do GRADUATES actually feel they obtained after shooting in the field again?

A recent survey of several classes revealed the top three most valuable skills graduates feel they got from attending the Canon Boot Camp (hint: the list doesn’t include crisp apple strudel):

1. Camera Operation
2. Lighting
3. Application of what was learned by shooting with the camera (2nd day of the Boot Camp)

Here’s some specifics for each category:

Camera Operation

• Setting up the camera
• Going thru the steps, to register the “C1″ so that I’m ready to shoot.
• how to set the Menu settings
• off loading video
• Controls
• Learning how to operate the Canon 5D for optimal video results in only one day.

Lighting

• Talking about lighting and white balancing
• Histogram reading. I will never go without reading the histogram again
• Lighting Techniques
• Different types of light, angles, & intensity.
• White Balance

Practical Shooting Experience

• Shoot 2nd Day (Pro Level II)
• Actually having to shoot the second day.
• Live shooting
• Getting in there and applying what you learned was great. I learned about different types of gear, shot type, lighting, patience, etc.

To read more about what graduates are saying, visit our blog page dedicated to input from our students. Better yet, come join us at our next Canon Boot Camp and experience for yourself! We can get you up and running with your Canon in just two days – we’ve done it for hundreds of other DSLR Filmmakers, we can help you add the video edge to your repertoire.

Of course, if you’re reading this before November 8th, 2012, join us at Canon USA for the World Premiere of The Rose, the DSLR short film created by our Prague Boot Camp, along with several other DSLR short films also created by Boot Camp Students. Many graduates will be in attendance and would be happy to share their experience in person.

Our Canon Boot Camp HDSLR workshops are an intense 2-day session that include shooting scenes for our short films. We’ve been prepping them to go on the web, but felt that it didn’t do justice to the amount of time and hard work our Canon Boot Camp participants put in. We made a call to the Canon Hollywood Professional Technology and Support Center and they agreed to host a screening event on November 8 for all of our previous films shot during the Canon Boot Camp. Please RSVP to be put on the guest list!

The event will feature the world premiere of “The Rose”, which was filmed as part of the Prague Canon Boot Camp in March 2012.

“The Rose” brings the historic Prague Train Station to life and plays a major role in this love story. We will also be featuring six other short films shot by Canon Boot Camp students. Expect comedy, drama, and thrillers.

We are also taking this opportunity to make this night a filmmakers’ mixer where passionate storytellers can meet and mingle. Canon will have some cameras and gear available for you to test. We will also have a sponsors’ table where we will display various accessories, gear, and rigs from our lovely sponsors: Marshall Electronics, Alzo, Zabolights, Manfrotto, CamCaddie, JuicedLink, and more! We’ll be creating “the dream package” out of our sponsors’ equipment, come see it for yourself!

Join us Thursday November 8 for refreshments and light snacks and enjoy the short films that the Canon Boot Camp participants have worked so hard to create. Our post-production team of experts will also be present to answer questions. Please RSVP to be put on the guest list! We will also be raffling numerous prizes such as a $200 gift certificate, $100, and other bling. Have I given you enough reasons to join us? See you soon!

I have been a Filmmaker for 5 years (Short Films/Docs/Music videos) and had just purchased a Canon 5D Mark III and needed help with it. I travel all the time and The Association (Through highly capable and professional Celine) was able to schedule me on a one on one private class with Fletcher Murray their main instructor for day one and a week later the normal scheduled day for day two. They did not dissapoint. Mr. Murray is a filmmaker with decades of experience and a natural teacher his explanations were clear, informative and delivered promptly and good naturedly.Suddenly the 5D was no longer a stranger, but a trusted friend. On Day two we all applied our recently acquired technical knowledge filming a narrative short film with professional Actors and a bunch of “camera operators” (Students with their cameras) 4 Locations including mounting the camera on a car and and old Cemetery set…Throughout I and the rest were treated kindly, patiently and most importantly PROFESSIONALLY. I highly recommend this bootcamp for those like me who are new at DSLR filming or old hands in need of refreshing their shooting skills.

Our August Pro Level Two HDSLR workshop’s filmmakers got to shoot a short film that Hollywood loves to produce – sexy killers at each others throats.

The original title “Marriage?” is changed to “Killer”.

It’s the story of a husband telling a hired killer that he can’t stand another day listening to his over-talkative wife.   The hired killer takes the job not realizing that the husband is a police officer tired of seeing killers getting away with murder.

The police officer’s wife loves to punish the evil men in the world.  She likes to tantalize them until they drop their guard.  Then, she kills him.

It’s not a family picture but we sure had a great time shooting it.  Tarantulas, silk stockings, guns and knives.  That’s a great day of shooting.

Oh yes, we also teach you how to use your HDSLR, new DSLR lighting techniques and sound recording.

Hope to see you at our Pro Level Two shoots.  It’s scary how much fun they are.

DSLR Lighting Techniques and Existing Light

Most D.P.’s will agree that lighting makes the shot.  But lighting evolves with the filmmaking tools we use.  We’ve come a long way from the  “Paramount (butterfly) lighting” that was popular for the female stars in the black and white days.  A butterfly shaped shadow appeared under the nose.

Today a woman’s closeup lit with a butterfly lighting set up would shock the audience, even though we saw plenty of that in “The Artist“, which portrayed the silent era in pictures, and won the Oscar.

The HDSLR, specifically the Canon 5D MK III, the camera is so sensitive to light that it has opened a broad palette of lighting setups…often using soft daylight from a window or just everyday lamps.

For a “moonlight” shot, we had a shiny board outside the window, reflecting sunlight through a blue gel. With the Canon 5D Mark III we could shoot at a high ISO, which gave us a deep depth of focus so that the woman’s profile stayed in focus as the jib arm lifted up into the ceiling of this “dream” sequence.

New LED lights bring a easy solution to situations where you need a soft, skylight fill.   The ones with adjustable color temperature like the Zabolight give you a spectrum of color at your fingertips.  No more pesky gels to deal with…except one.  You may need to add a minus green to take the excessive amount of green spike you’ll see in almost all LED.

And so we focus a larger part of the Canon Boot Camp Pro Level Two workshop on lighting with different fixtures in different lighting setups.  This is so you can exploit the power these Canon HDSLRs give you to shoot virtually anywhere there is light.

In the new Pro Level Two classes, students practice solving different lighting challenges and explore new lighting fixtures you’ve never used at higher ISO’s.  The Pro Level Two class is a great workshop to sharpen your filmmaking and lighting skills.

Hope we see you there. It sheds a whole new light on things.

Has anyone ever told you that you should shoot flat and underexposed? If you have time in post-production to do color grading, shooting flat and underexposed is not such a bad idea. Doing so would allow you to retain as much detail as possible in your image. Being underexposed allows you to avoid letting your whites blow out, meaning that it would be overexposed and detail would be completely lost. Shooting flat would retain the blacks because overly saturated colors would result in the blacks being crushed. Once the blacks are crushed and the whites are blown out, there is no going back. The details would be lost and the option to control them in post would be lost as well. Stylistically, some lean toward a blown out look or a crushed look, but many DPs choose to create the look in the editing room.

To achieve a flat look in your Canon HDSLR, play with the Picture Style where you have the option of shooting Neutral instead of Faithful for a less saturated image. You can also download “flat looks” such as CineStyle (here is a blog with more info about this look).

A Cinestyle Look

To shoot underexposed, the Canon HDSLRs have a built-in light meter that shows you whether or not you are properly exposed according to the sensor. In Manual Mode, lightly tap your shutter button to see the exposure bar along the bottom of the frame. For a proper exposure, set the bar to the middle, for an underexposed exposure, scroll your big wheel to the left to move two clicks to the left so it is slightly underexposed.

This technique isn’t a must, but many DPs, such as Shane Hurlbut and Eric Schmidt, have said that they do this to have more control in post production. So, grab your camera and do some test shots with flatter looks and a slightly underexposed setting to see if it suits your workflow. If you are shooting something with little to no time to edit, this may not be for you.

Here is Eric Schmidt at our Canon Boot Camp talking about histograms and the importance of not letting whites blow out.

What’s your favorite toy as an HDSLR Filmmaker? Is it a shoulder rig, a remote focus puller, a slider, or perhaps, you’ve already discovered the Guinness Rig? The man who dubbed it “The Guinness Rig” has an affinity for drinking Guinness. Imagine the day he was hired to film the Edinburg Fringe Festival when his producer told him to have a Guinness. He said “Sure, if you don’t mind the shots being shaky”. Little did he know that he was about to make the discovery of his life. With his camera mounted on his shoulder rig, he let go of the handle to grab a pint, yet his rig effortlessly balanced on his shoulder. Perhaps it was the support pole attached to belt that was doing all the work.

Line Producer Cathleen is getting ready for a cold one.

This innovative system allowed him to shoot with one hand and drink with the other, thus creating the beloved Guinness Rig. The rig is manufactured by DVTec and is actually called the DVTec MultiRig. We got ours over at EVS where Cody did a demo that made our jaws drop. Since then, our Canon Boot Camp students have had a lot of fun taking it for joyrides.

Stunt Coordinator Garrett gives the rig a major workout

The man who coined the infamous nickname for the rig, Fletcher Murray, is none other than the President of The Association and Chief Instructor of the Canon Boot Camp where he continues to spread the joy of the Guinness Rig.