The last year has seen an explosion of indie filmmaking on new hybrid cameras that bring HD (1080p) video to the digital SLR still camera. DSLRs have significantly larger image sensors than most pro-sumer video cameras and already work with a wide-range of lenses that bring the cinematic quality of shallow depth of field and low-light shooting to a growing number of HDSLR professional and aspiring filmmakers.
Vincent Laforet is photographer and commercial director out of LA who has produced some exciting work on Canon’s 7D and 5DmkII. Nocturne and Reverie were two early films that set off much of this early excitement.
A clear example of how much this community has grown in the last year is The Story Beyond the Still contest, hosted by Canon and Vimeo. Laforet was commissioned to shoot the first short film (2-4 minutes) entirely on HDSLR cameras telling the first chapter in a story that would then be continued over several months by other filmmakers. The Cabbie was Laforet’s prologue. The contest page below links to the winners and finalists of each of the following weeks.
For more information, here are a couple pages on getting into HDSLR filmmaking.