I did have input in the pre-production process in terms of what was used to capture the visuals. As I mentioned previously Jamie and myself have been part of trio that have created videos together for years. We have been using Canon DSLR's for that entire period. Namely the Canon 550D:
It is a great camera. It shoots full HD 1080p footage at up to 25fps. For years it has been amazing to use and worked wonders for us but we have all felt the need for an upgrade. There are quite a few features and functions that are present now and that the 550D are lacking.
Firstly there is no real slow motion function in the camera as in the EU setup you can only record at a maximum of 50fps and that's in 720p. That's not very high really and the resolution is sub par. Also the image is very recognisably DSLR. That may sound pretty strange but when you compare DSLR footage to something from say the Arri Alexa or even a film camera and you will see a monumental difference. Now obviously DSLR's are about £2,000 as apposed to £25,000 for a decent film camera. But there are some serious advancements in modern compact cameras now still in the region of £2,500 that bring the image really close to that of even the most high end cameras on the market.
I have been looking for quite a while now at the different options available to us and after a lot of weighing up the pro's and con's it seems as though the best option for our style of shooting in the Sony A7S:
This camera has spectacular low-light capabilities with it's native ISO being an astounding 3200. This makes it perfect for our guerrilla filmmaking with very limited lighting, relying heavily on natural light. It also has some pretty nifty slow motion specs and also a full frame sensor. This coupled with some beautiful codecs and colour profiles make the images this camera is capable of capturing easily rival cameras of £20,000+.
The one feature that lets down the A7S is that it's codecs aren't film standard and there is no internal 4K capture available. Both of these points can be addressed through inclusion of an external recorder. For this project Jamie chose to go with the Atamos Ninja Blade recorder:
Source: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images1000x1000/atomos_atomnja004_ninja_blade_5_hdmi_1033457.jpg
This recorder allows the camera to shoot in a full HD 1080p Pro Res codec as apposed to the cameras default AVCHD codec. The Pro Res codec has more detail and colour information/depth which is great when it comes time to grade the footage and also performs a little better overall due to not as much compression taking place when recording. This coupled with the A7S is a killer combo and Jamie rented both of these pieces out of a local camera store for the weekend he used to shoot the piece. I think the step up in visual fidelity is huge and makes for a very cinematic feel over the whole piece.
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