House MD shot with DLSR last night

sonnyboo

sonnyboo

http://www.gearlog.com/2010/05/house_finale_shot_on_a_dslr.php

Just watched the episode and I was floored. I'm a big fan of the show already and they shoot 35mm with Panavision cameras and lenses. In full HD glory, I could not tell this was any different. Of course, they have big time color correction at a post house to help the look of their show, but it was 100% shot with the Canon 5D with Canon lenses. WOW. Impressive to see it used in broadcast like this.

Anyone else see this?
 
sonnyboo said:
http://www.gearlog.com/2010/05/house_finale_shot_on_a_dslr.php

Just watched the episode and I was floored. I'm a big fan of the show already and they shoot 35mm with Panavision cameras and lenses. In full HD glory, I could not tell this was any different. Of course, they have big time color correction at a post house to help the look of their show, but it was 100% shot with the Canon 5D with Canon lenses. WOW. Impressive to see it used in broadcast like this.

Anyone else see this?
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lol, i was JUST abt to start this thread. I just heard abt it. I havent seen it yet but im going to right now.

Just when id finally decided to go with the 7D instead of the MKII, this happens. Now they need to shoot the finale of something else with the 7D. lol.


EDIT: Just finished watching it. Pretty impressive tht it was used on a big time show like this. Looked good. I wonder if Canon made a deal with them or wat? Just wondering how this came to be.
 
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Saw the episode and was enamored of the interiors, especially the bathroom scene at the end (this is a show I've long admired for its photography...always something interesting and new in every episode). I was absolutely floored to learn of the equipment today.

"So I really was drawn to the DV aesthetic which was beyond a cinematic look, it just gave a new level of being able to pull the actors out of the background and pull them in right to your face and give an intimacy that I hadn’t seen in digital or film." -Greg Yaitanes, Executive Producer of House and director of the season finale (interview here)

I think something that's coming to fruition here, something I've been trying to articulate for the last three years, is the genesis of a new aesthetic...something beyond "the film look." I think we're discovering something innate to DV and utilizing it to manifest its own inherent beauty, apart from what heretofore has made moving images beautiful.
 
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I thought it was a pretty great episode. I never would have guessed it was shot any differently than normal, but it was a beautiful ep. Really intense, too.

If they ended the series on that ep it wouldn't bother me one bit. (also for character development reasons, it just feels like they are going back and forth with the same stories and they are making too few actual medical mystery episodes)

But yeah, those DSLRs are something else.
 
Yeah, they did the entire season with that camera. Apparently, the reasoning behind it was practical. They wanted to be able to film in much closer quarters efficiently, and the 5d Mark II was the answer.
 
why would they use a dslr? is it a price thing?

sorry should've read on, "They wanted to be able to film in much closer quarters efficiently, and the 5d Mark II was the answer."

cheers :)
 
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HOUSE is the highest rated drama on broadcast TV right now, so I don't think it had anything to do with money. They shoot with the highest end Panavision 35mm film cameras.

This was a choice, an interesting creative one. Shooting with the DSLR camera is one thing, but they have a top notch colorist and DIT so the quality control on this and what they achieve with the images is way above what a consumer has access to.

It was still unbelievably impressive what they did with a consumer camera with stock lenses.
 
I highly recommend reading the interview from Peter Bloom with Greg Yaitanes, Executive Producer of House and director of the season finale.

http://philipbloom.net/other-stuff/case-studies/greg-yaitanes-house-interview-transcription/

It not only covers the whys, hows and particulars but goes deep into the new aesthetic of DV. He relates the difficulties of the decision (especially regarding focus pulling), how those difficulties were transcended to arrive at new beauty, and shares some terrific nuggets (including how Hugh Laruie suggested using a parade flagpole strap to hold a monopod.)

Very inspiring to anyone working with DV. I think I've read it 8 times and each time it makes my big toe stand up inside my boot.
 
...the genesis of a new aesthetic...something beyond "the film look." I think we're discovering something innate to DV and utilizing it to manifest its own inherent beauty, apart from what heretofore has made moving images beautiful.
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I think you're right. One thing I notice is DV captures the luminosity of eyes better than film in close ups. I get a similar look using a DVX rammed right up against someone's face. Parts of that episode looked like an impressionist painting.
 
Just got the BLU RAY of last season including the episode shot on the Canon 5D Mark II DSLR....

WOW. Simply wow. It really holds up well in 1080P full HD on my 42" monitor, looking at it close up. There is some artifacting and some other aberrations, but it is pretty damn good looking. They did a lot of post clean up, including a lot of correction of the CMOS rolling shutter jello effect, as they talk about on the commentary and in articles. Regardless, this is a stellar example of what a great team of cinematographers can do with simple lighting and a good eye no matter what the camera is.

According the HD VIDEO PRO magazine, the HOUSE MD camera team called on Red Rock Micro to bring some rigs and do on-site customization of setups for cameras and monitors and lens packages.

Keep in mind that they took the files and transferred them to HDCAM tapes and then treated and color timed this like they would a 35mm film shoot, so there is a lot of work done in post that the average joe with Final Cut and basic color correction will not have at their disposal, and they did it with file sizes and storage way beyond the prosumer level too.

There is a noticeable amount of sharpness loss when putting the DSLR episode right next to a 35mm shot one on the same Blu Ray disc, but it is not a HUGE amount.

This single episode of television could be the biggest example of how a DSLR still camera can be used to create cinematic images that do compete with 35mm originated material. They may not win, but they are definitely in the race together.
 
Thanks for the update, Sonny!

Might have to get my hands on that dvd for the commentary and to see what you said for myself. Im not a big fan of the show so ive never thought about buying the box sets. I do watch it, its entertaining enough but thats abt it.
 
Thanks for the summary, been wanting to watch this episode - though on something like blu-ray rather than hulu/netflix streaming quality.
 
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