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
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
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 
