SXSW 2017 has come and gone, and all we have to show for it is a mountain of emails, audio recordings, and interviews<\/strong> with some of the brightest filmmaking stars<\/strong> of the festival.<\/p>\n Of the over 100 films screened<\/strong> as part of SXSW Film Festival<\/a> that we reached out to (including everything from the big name premieres like Terrence Malick\u2019s Song to Song<\/em><\/a> and Edgar Wright\u2019s Baby Driver<\/em><\/a> to the narrative and documentary competitions and shorts programs), over 65\u00a0filmmakers<\/strong> gave feedback and insights into their cameras, lenses, and production workflows<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s explore some of the raw data<\/strong> (included at the bottom of the post) as we look at the most popular cameras of SXSW<\/strong>, the\u00a0filmmakers\u2019 decisions to use them, and their lenses and setups.<\/p>\n With our data coming from all levels of the industry, it’s no surprise that the Canon 5D would be one of the most popular choices<\/strong>. It was a favorite of student films, short films, and documentaries. Of those sampled, the MK III was the most popular<\/strong>, but a few used MK II and MK IV. Canon lenses were also a popular (and obvious) pairing.<\/p>\n The 5D is not included in our results, but many filmmakers mentioned it for some pick up shots<\/strong> or run-and-gun\u00a0sequences. Here’s what filmmaker\u00a0Miao Wang<\/a> had to say about filming on the Canon 5D MK III<\/strong> for her documentary film Maineland<\/em>.<\/p>\n MAINELAND<\/a><\/em> was filmed mostly on the\u00a0Canon\u00a05D\u00a0Mark III, with a small portion filmed on the Mark II. Filming began before the Mark III was released! We slowly built up our lens package. The majority of filming used the\u00a0Canon\u00a024-70mm,\u00a0Canon\u00a070-200mm, and Zeiss 85mm. DP Sean Price Williams uses an old East German ARRI\u00a0film rig. Since we started the project back in late 2011, we used Final Cut Pro 7 and stuck with it to the bitter end. I had a lot of computer issues and crashes in the last couple of years, but I was wary of switching at such a late stage multiple projects over to Adobe Premiere Pro \u2014 that would have been my preference in the last two years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Canon’s line of cinema cameras, the\u00a0C100, C300 and C500<\/strong>, had a very strong showing at SXSW this year. From our samples, the three combined together would easily be the festival favorite<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 which should be no\u00a0surprise to those familiar with the line’s\u00a0modular, portable, and adaptable family\u00a0of cameras, lenses, and accessories<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Filmmaker Adam Roffman and cinematographer Nathaniel Hansen<\/a>\u00a0were some of\u00a0many filmmakers to use the C300<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>along with some notably innovative production techniques, which you can read more about here<\/a>.<\/p>\n We shot THE COLLECTION<\/em><\/a> on a\u00a0Canon\u00a0C300. The one sort of DIY rig we did on the film was a tracking shot we did of a large group of printing blocks on the floor. We suspended some dolly track on two C-Stands and shot down at the blocks from above using the track. Attached pic of my cinematographer, Nathaniel Hansen, doing a test run with it during filming.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As\u00a0always, Canon was a big player in the indie filmmaker community. Of the filmmakers we polled, 30.8 percent of filmmakers used some form of Canon camera<\/strong>. Here are the final Canon numbers from our SXSW survey:<\/p>\n Similar to the Canon 5D, the Sony a7S was a popular choice for the many short and documentary filmmakers<\/strong> at SXSW for its compact size and versatility. Sony’s mirrorless 4k offering<\/strong>\u00a0was a hit with filmmakers looking to pack a punch on a budget. According to\u00a0Matthew Salleh<\/a>, director of\u00a0Barbecue<\/a><\/em>, working with the camera’s full-frame sensor<\/strong> was a major factor\u00a0in choosing the a7S:<\/p>\n We filmed on the Sony a7s. The a7s is a remarkable camera. It\u2019s small and versatile, and allows you to get into tight spaces. It\u2019s also not an intimidating camera to walk into a room with. Being a smaller DSLR, we were also able to bring two with us wherever we went \u2014 having a backup is nice when you\u2019re a thousand miles off the beaten track in Mongolia.<\/p>\n We wanted to produce big screen, cinematic images. We used an Atomos Shogun to capture the film in 4K. We also had a slew of Canon lenses that we took everywhere. The a7s\u2019s full frame sensor helped give a look that I find Super 35mm can\u2019t achieve \u2014 particularly a shallower depth of field for portraits filmed with a wider point of view. That need for a full frame censor knocks out almost every camera from consideration, including the Arris, FS7, C500 \u2014 none of them could achieve that full frame look I was after.<\/p>\n The greatest advantage the a7s offered us was the ability to shoot the film in natural light. We didn\u2019t have a single film light with us during production. There\u2019s nothing worse than a filmmaker taking over someone\u2019s house, putting up giant lights and shining them into people\u2019s eyes. There\u2019s nothing \u2018natural\u2019 about that. The natural light of an environment tells a story about how people live their lives, and I wanted to show that contrast between countries with changes in light. The a7s was the only camera that could do that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here’s Salleh’s camera setup<\/strong> (and beer of choice).<\/p>\n One of the more surprising cameras that\u00a0popped up on in our sample was the Sony PMW-EX3<\/strong>, which was the camera of choice for Director of Photography\u00a0Arturo Santamaria on his film The Work<\/em><\/a>, which took home the top prize in the Documentary Feature competition<\/strong>. Sony also had a strong showing\u00a0with its cinema cameras like the FS7<\/a> and FS5<\/a>.<\/p>\n After auditioning several cameras ranging from 4k to Prosumer, I decided that the Sony EX3 was our best bet at the time.\u00a0 Its biggest attribute was the use of two 32 GB card slots, which gave us approximately 4 hours of continuous filming. We used two Sony EX3s while in production.<\/p>\n I also wanted to shoot wide open so a Fujinon lens adaptor, which converts the camera\u2019s mount from \u00bd\u2019\u2019 to a 2\/3\u2019\u2019 was a major plus in helping me shoot from any corner in the room. The adaptor allowed me to use Fujinon glass zoom lenses (7.6mm-167mm) which gave me the 1.8 t-stop I needed to apply in order to capture the group\u2019s dynamic and discussion tempo.<\/p>\n Although I was very impressed with the camera\u2019s 3 Exmor CMOS sensor, its limited ISO settings compared to other cameras was a concern because we were shooting in low light. Due to the restrictions on what equipment was allowed in the prison and time limitations to pre-rig our lighting I decided to hang eight 3 foot china balls with 200 watt tungsten bulbs. We rigged a temporary metal cable grid that supported all of our lighting from above. This provided us with soft and even lighting that didn\u2019t need any adjustments during production.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sony tied Canon bodies in our survey, at\u00a030.8 percent<\/strong>. Here are the final Sony numbers from our SXSW survey:<\/p>\n After a strong showing at the 2017 Oscars<\/a>, it\u00a0should be of no surprise that the ARRI Alexa was a popular pick<\/strong> for many of the narrative spotlight and narrative features<\/strong> in competition at SXSW. The most popular lens paired with the powerful Alexa, as with the case of the filmmakers of Walking Out<\/em><\/a>, were Panavision, “both anamorphic lenses and Panavision spherical lenses.”<\/p>\n As is the case with many of the SXSW films trying new and innovative techniques<\/strong>, the filmmakers of Satan Said Dance<\/em><\/a> had to come up with new ways to work with the camera and make use of some interesting screen ratios<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Satan Said Dance<\/em><\/a> was shot on\u00a0ARRI\u00a0Alexa, no perks, but you may find it interesting that the screen ratio for the film is 1:1, square, and as far as editing goes, the film has no cause and effect structure, succession. The scenes can be put in alternative order and the story will work in any combination. There will be a mobile app premiere next week, ahead of the\u00a0SXSW\u00a0screenings, with more info and possibility to arrange your own version of the story.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Alexa Mini was just as popular as the ARRI Alexa<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 taken together, they came close to\u00a0the numbers of\u00a0the Canon cinema line and REDs<\/strong>\u00a0(more on that below). ARRI’s mini offering proved to be the more versatile and, obviously, compact option<\/strong> for some of the ambitious narrative shorts like filmmaker\u00a0Joe Talbot’s American Paradise<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n American Paradise<\/em>\u00a0was shot on the\u00a0ARRI Alexa\u00a0Mini\u00a0w Zeiss Master Anamorphic lenses. Anamorphics tend to warp around the edges (see Rick Alverson’s Entertainment<\/em><\/a>, which our DP also shot). And that look works well for many films, but given our movie was already pretty strange, we were worried our film might start to look like a funhouse. We were excited to find these Zeiss Masters, which remarkably produced no distortion. We were moving very fast on set (up to 4 company moves a day), so our G&E and art department did heroes work in a very short period of time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n According to our survey, 15.4 percent used ARRI cameras.\u00a0<\/strong>Here are the results from the SXSW poll.<\/p>\n RED once again had a strong across-the-board showing<\/strong>\u00a0with the higher-end and bigger production projects including\u00a0narrative features, documentaries, and music videos. The RED DRAGON<\/strong>\u00a0stood out in our sample for its dynamic range and high frame rate options<\/strong>. We chatted with director\u00a0Justin Harding about his narrative short film<\/a>, which screened in the Midnight Shorts program<\/strong>.<\/p>\n For our film “Kookie” we shot with two RED DRAGON\u00a0Cameras with a set of Canon Cinema Primes. We also used the DJI Inspire Drone with the DJI Zenmuse X5 Camera. For fluid movement we went with the Movi freefly. We also used a GoPro to capture a single shot from inside a cookie jar and a BlackMagic 4K production Camera for a visual effect element that were captured against green screen. The film was edited using Raw r3d files in FCPX and all effects were created in After Effects.<\/p>\n You can view a behind the scenes video of our shoot at the link below.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nCanon EOS 5D<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Behind](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/canon-5d.jpg\" "\\"Behind")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nCanon Cinema EOS \u2014\u00a0C100<\/a>\/C300<\/a>\/C500<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Behind](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/c300.jpg\" "\\"Behind")
\n<\/a>Image via B&H<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Behind](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/The-Collection-Dolly1.jpg\" "\\"Behind")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\nSony a7S<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Behind](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/sony-a7s.jpg\" "\\"Behind")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Behind](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/a7S-Gear.jpg\" "\\"Behind")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nSony PMW-EX3<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Behind](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sony-EX3.jpg\" "\\"Behind")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\nARRI Alexa<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Behind](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Arri-Alex.jpg\" "\\"Behind")
\n<\/a>Image via Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nARRI Alexa Mini<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Behind](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Alexa-Mini.jpg\" "\\"Behind")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\nRED DRAGON<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Behind](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/RED-Dragon.jpg\" "\\"Behind")
<\/a><\/p>\n