Canon U.S.A. Crocodile Gennadiy Case Study

Canon EOS C300 Digital Cinema Cameras, EOS 5D Mark III Digital SLR Cameras, and an Array of EF Series Lenses Go Undercover to Tell the Story of Crocodile Gennadiy

Amid the civil unrest in eastern Ukraine, pastor Gennadiy Mokhnenko struggles to operate Pilgrim, his children's rehabilitation center for drug-addicted orphans rescued from the streets of the city of Mariupal. Director Steve Hoover, producer Danny Yourd, and DP John Pope have documented his efforts in their forthcoming film Crocodile Gennadiy, relying on highly mobile cameras and versatile lenses to not only capture cinematic, creative images but also to maintain a low profile in dangerous areas. The team achieved their goals by using a combination of two EOS C300 Digital Cinema cameras, one EOS 5D Mark III Digital SLR camera, and multiple EF-series lenses from Canon U.S.A., Inc.,

a leader in digital imaging solutions.

I'm pursuing this story because I find the subjects thoroughly compelling, Hoover confided. The characters are unforgettable and their lives hard to comprehend. I really want this film to be an experience, a tour through a dark, confusing world where there are no easy answers.

Capturing that world was a challenge,

Yourd explained. We did a lot of shooting at night, in available light for the most part, he said. The low-light sensitivity of the Canon EOS C300 camera is great. We were even able to get some incredible shots using not much more than moonlight.

The EOS C300 is lightweight,

it's designed as a cinematographic' camera, and it makes shooting on the fly easy, Pope added. We needed to move fast, given some of the situations we were in, so it was the perfect tool for the job. The ergonomics of the EOS C300 camera allowed us to shoot Crocodile Gennadiy non-stop all day, every day, and into the evening for 21 days. The EOS C300 also provides many convenient audio features, which made our lives much easier.

The Canon EOS C300 Cinema camera features two XLR inputs on its detachable LCD monitor unit/control panel for recording microphone or line audio independently to two linear PCM audio channels. The camera is also capable of recording via a mini stereo jack on the camera body.

Small documentary crews don't usually have the luxury of being able to concentrate on sound, but high-quality audio is something we take pride in, Yourd explained. The Canon EOS C300 camera was ideal for recording quality audio. We always had two tracks being fed into the camera's two XLR inputs from two separate sources:

a shotgun mic mounted on the camera and our recordist's lightweight wireless transmitter. He was also capturing audio on his own separate CF card recorder.

Doing it this way probably shaved a good month or two off of our logging,

loading, and organizing in post, which was a huge benefit.

Yourd also commented that combining their two EOS C300 cameras with an EOS 5D Mark III camera enabled the team to operate as a well-oiled machine.

The EOS 5D Mark III meant that there was always a camera with somebody, which was crucial to telling the story, he continued. Without that I think we would have missed things and it wouldn't have been the same documentary. This camera was used mostly for pick-ups, and for places where we needed to be totally

low-profile. When people see it they think it's just a still-photography camera and some even want their picture taken.

When we were out on the streets at night all three cameras could split off and roam, which helped us capture even more imagery, Pope added.

Crocodile Gennadiy's Glass

Although a documentary, Hoover,

Yourd, and Pope utilized creative techniques in capturing certain portions of Crocodile Gennadiy in order to convey dramatic dimensions of the subject's crusade to rescue the lost children of Mariupal. Accomplishing this often relied on the strategic use of Canon's wide variety of EF series lenses, including not only primes and zooms, but also macro and tilt-shift models. Both the Canon EOS C300 cinema camera and the EOS 5D Mark III Digital SLR can be used with any of the more than 103 interchangeable Canon EF series photographic lenses for a virtually unlimited range of creative choices.

We all come from a cinematic background, and we want Crocodile Gennadiy to be as visually striking as the story it tells, Pope informed. Lenses were a vital part of the tools we brought to the table to do this. We used all Canon EF glass.

Lenses used to shoot Crocodile Gennadiy included: the EF 35mm f/1.4L USM, EF 50mm f/1.2L USM, EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM, and EF 100mm f/2 USM prime lenses; the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM ultra wide-angle zoom, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM standard zoom, and EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM telephoto zoom; the TS-E 17mm f/4L, TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II, and TS-E 45mm f/2.8 tilt-shift lenses; and the EF 100mm f/2.8 macro USM lens.

As a producer, Canon's lenses are one less thing I have to worry about because I know they're going to get us incredible images and they're affordable, Yourd said. We never fully knew what situations we'd get into, but having this lens package enabled us to be prepared. Having all these lenses allowed us to just grab and go,' which was super helpful. We framed for a 2.39:1 aspect ratio and took a very cinematic approach with this film because it's so narrative-driven.

This is a complex character study and we wanted to lend everything to the story, whether it was the musical score or the composition of the shots.

Creative lensing helped us do that with everything from landscapes to some of the people we met. We'd experiment, and shoot through glass in front of the lens to distort the image. The two CF cards in the EOS C300 camera let us do that because of their recording capacity. We could shoot all day on the EOS C300

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