Today’s War in High Definition from a Canon 5D Mark II
The opening scene in the video below was shot by photojournalist Danfung Dennis who was embedded with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Company in southern Afghanistan this summer.
This is relevant to me because i have family and friends that currently serve or have previously served in my country’s armed forces, and this is a real and current view into what is actually happening over there. It’s also remarkable because the video was shot by a single person using Canon’s new EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR that records high definition video. Which means scenes that used to be reproduced by armies of filmmakers for the movies can now be captured — actually documented — as they happen with cinematic quality and detail never before possible on today’s battlefield.
This preview is a rough cut from the first act of the Frontline documentary Obama’s War.
[Seen on Gizmodo via Lightstalkers]
In the shot starting at 4:00 you can see the shadow of the photojournalist and the steadycam rig used to balance the digital SLR which is much smaller than the size of typical camcorders and lenses capable of capturing this quality.