Feature Filmmaking with the Canon HV40

Welcome to the DOJO!

After I posted a couple of articles talking about my cool little Canon HV20 camera (now the Canon HV40), I started to receive a lot of emails from other indie and guerrilla filmmakers asking me about using it for feature length film productions. By “a lot” I mean 200+ emails over the past 6 months alone.

All of the filmmakers emailing me had seen the numerous music videos, shorts and test videos shot with the HV20/HV30/HV40 since the cameras debuted a few years back…and there are a lot of amazing examples of just how awesome the little cameras can perform even right out of the box.What was lacking, however, were very many examples of low budget features being shot with the cameras. I have to say that I had a heck of a time finding any decent examples of the Canon HV40 being used as the primary camera on a guerrilla or indie film — I knew of a number of them which had used it as a second unit or back-up camera, and a huge number of filmmakers who use the HV20/HV30 as a capturing deck for their higher end Canon XHA1s, but nothing came to mind for an entire feature shot with one of the little Canons.

That all changed in May of 2009 during a trip out to Dallas for the Texas Frightmare Weekend. While browsing the dealer room looking for cool indie horror films to add to my already ginormous collection, I ran into a an incredibly nice guy by the name of Abel Berry. Abel is an indie/guerrilla filmmaker from the Dallas area and he was at the show pimping his new horror flick, “Spoils.” Spoils is a revenge flick where a guy comes back from the dead as a particularly creepy killer clown, Spoils the clown to be exact, to enact his revenge on those who wronged him (and killed his hottie of a wife).

I took the Spoils DVD back to my hotel room that night, popped the thing into my laptop and had a good old time watching it. For an insanely low budget film (I think they mentioned it was under $500), Abel put together a pretty darn enjoyable little film with a lot of gore and a killer clown. When I headed back to the Frightmare the next day I made sure to stop by Abel’s table to tell him how much I enjoyed his flick. During the course of our conversation (and mentioned again at a panel Abel spoke on the next day) it came out that he had shot the film on the Canon HV20 (maybe the HV30…I’m old and my memory is horrible). Needless to say I was completely blown away because this was the first time I’d found a specific example of an indie filmmaker using one of the Canon VIXIAs as their main camera — and extremely well I have to say.

Now, I do have to say that Spoils isn’t a perfect film, but it is a lot of fun and, more important for indie and guerrilla filmmakers, it shows that with proper planning, some creative thinking and quite a bit of blood, shooting a feature length film with the sub-$1000 Canon HV40 can not only be done, but it can be done well.

Hats off to Abel Berry and the fine folks of B.S. Entertainment for making a cool horror film with an ultra cool camera.

That’s it for today. Until next time, Keep Shooting!

-Mat Nastos, the Film Sensei
http://www.FilmSensei.com

Related posts:

1. No Budget Filmmaker Profile: BS Entertainment – HV40 Feature Filmmaking
2. My Killer Canon HV20 Rig – now complete
3. Top 10 Essential Equipment for Indie Filmmakers: Part I – the Camera
4. Independent Filmmaking Tips: How To Write A Feature Length Screenplay
5. Hardware Review: Canon HV20 Camcorder Review

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