NEW YORK—NorthSouth Productions is an independent television production company that produces shows such as “Say Yes to the Dress” on TLC and “Impractical Jokers” on TruTV, along with several new series coming soon.
As we’ve grown, we’ve found ourselves in great need of high-quality digital cinema cameras that would be easy to integrate into our production and post-production workflow. In evaluating cameras, we needed to meet the network requirements of 50Mbps/4:2:2 or higher. Additionally, we wanted to have a camera that produces rich color and quality, but also contains practical, built-in features such as time code input, XLR inputs and solid recording codecs.
The C300’s compact size makes it ideal for reality television production.READY TO GO
After careful evaluation, we purchased three EF-mount Canon EOS C300 Cinema Cameras. We appreciated that Canon didn’t try to push products on us by virtue of a spec sheet; numbers can only tell so much of the story. Canon invested the time and energy in making sure the cameras actually worked how we needed them to, from shoot to ingest to edit to delivery.
What delighted us about the Canon C300 was that it was a digital cinema camera ready to shoot right out of the box; no lens adapters needed, just pop it on the front and go. The flexibility of using countless Canon lenses from L-series to Cine Primes gives our productions the ability to count on the C300 body as our “go-to” camera.
A COLOR-RICH WORKHORSE
We’ve been using the C300 on projects for three years now, and found them to be dependable, flexible cameras that create a great color palette for our shows. These cameras have been packed, shipped, built out on rigs, used in harsh conditions, re-packed, shipped, etc., and we have never had to send them in for service. We have had zero corrupt footage out of the thousands of clips recorded per camera.
“Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta” uses the cameras for interviews and stylized B-roll. All of our most recent pilots and new series have been shot on C300s and we will be using them for all handheld scenes and interviews in an upcoming new show. The compact size and modular body make them ideal for the demands of reality programming, where you need to be as unobtrusive as possible.
Our field and post team love the Canon Log Cinema Locked recording; it has changed the way we look at onlining/color correcting. Our editors get to “color grade” as opposed to just “correct” footage. It has also allowed us to shoot in high contrast environments while still providing plenty of detail for our editors to craft into a rich and beautiful product.
Our decision to go with the EOS C300 has helped NorthSouth put more shows on the air, and brought a new and improved look to our programming. I absolutely love this camera, and wish that we had three more.
Daniel Callis is technical director at NorthSouth Productions. He may be contacted atdanielcallis@northsouth.tv.
For additional information, please visitwww.usa.canon.comor call 631-330-5000.
