Greg Yaitanes, the Director of medical drama ‘House’, starring Hugh Laurie (pictured), has revealed on Twitter that the final programme in the current season – which airs in the US on 17 May – was shot using the Canon 5D Mark II. Yaitanes wrote on Twitter ‘I’ll answer any questions you have about the Canon 5D that we shot the finale on. Yes, a stills camera that shoots amazing HD. Go!’, and the questions he received yielded the following information:
- They captured to 16GB CF cards, which stored about 22 minutes at 24 fps
- They chose the 5D over the 7D because it has a bigger sensor
- They used all the Canon prime lenses, plus the 24-70 and the 70-200 zoom
- They found that images were richer, and the shallow focus pulled the actors’ faces into the foreground, though focusing was harder than with cine-style lenses
- By going for a hand-held feel or using a small tripod, they were able to shoot in much tighter spaces
‘House” DoP Shane Hurlbut has already shown the capabilities of the 5D Mark II in his short film ‘The Last 3 Minutes’.
If you’re wondering about the signiicance of this development, here’s a quick ‘House’ fact for you to chew on, courtesy of Wikipedia:
“In 2008 ‘House’ was distributed in a total of 66 countries. With an audience of over 81.8 million worldwide, it was the most watched television show on the globe and far surpassed the viewership figures of the leading TV dramas the previous two years.”
