Canon DSLR Used to Shoot NBC Stop-Motion Episode of “Community”

You may have heard that FOX used the Canon 5D MKII to film an episode of “House”. Now NBC is using a 7D for an upcoming Christmas episode of “Community”.

If you’ve never seen Community, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s got great writing and an excellent ensemble of stars including Chevy Chase, Alison Brie (from Mad Men), comedian Donald Glover and Joe McHale (from The Soup on E!).

On Thursday, Dec. 9th, they’re going old school and doing a Rudolph-esq claymation episode. I don’t know why it never occured to me, but that kind of stop motion animation must use still cameras. Well, check out these two behind-the-scenes videos and you’ll see a Canon DSLR and lens being used.

They’re using a Canon 7D with an EF-S lens that kind of looks like my 17-55mm. My first clue was at the :46 mark where you can clearly see it’s a Canon lens. At 2:35 you can clearly see the 7D emblem. I thought it was interesting at 2:08 that the viewfinder is taped off; probably to block extraneous light from hitting the sensor.

Here’s another video shot by a couple of the cast members where you can get a better look at the camera and lens.

I think it’s interesting that HD video capabilities are making DSLRs more common place in Hollywood; but here it’s being used for still photography.

UPDATE: The YouTube videos are no longer available. But I did find this video on the NBC Community site.

Time Lapse Photography

In my last post, I mentioned a relatively inexpensive program to produce slow motion DSLR videos.

Well, let’s speed things up a bit.

Andrew Reese took 1400 shots in 2.5 second intervals then converted each pair into black and white HDR shots for a total of about 700 images. Then he made this video at 12 frames per second:

Over at PetaPixel.com, I discovered more time-lapse videos taken with Canon DSLRs. The first is of San Francisco taken with a Canon 40D. Here’s the description from the PetaPixel site:

“Photographer Simon Christen shot the various clips using a Canon 40D (10-22mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm) around the San Francisco Bay Area over the course of a year. His camera was always in manual mode, and he adjusted the settings as the light changed due to things like fog and clouds.”

I’ll share one more from Tokyo shot with a Canon 7D by Stefan Werc. I love the shots from the moving train!

On the PetaPixel site, under related posts, you can find many more time-lapse videos. If you’re really into it, then you’ll also love these over at TimeScapes.org.

Personally, I think these time-lapse videos are works of art. Interestingly, though, some people who commented on the PetaPixel site, feel that they lack originality; that they’re just pretty pictures with no story. What do you think?