Panopticist: High-Def Backyard Shootout

August 13, 2008

High-Def Backyard Shootout

Posted by Andrew Hearst

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Amateurs are doing amazing things these days with consumer-grade high-def camcorders, especially Canon’s HV30 MiniDV unit (which retails for about $800) and its predecessor, the HV20. The impressive clip below is the work of a Memphis college student named Kyle Shields, who acquired a new audio library and wanted to test out some of the gunshot sounds. So he used his HV20 to film a short backyard shootout with a friend. The ominous music, the well-crafted audio track, the Saving Private Ryan-style green filter, and Shields’s talent with the camera combine to make this a very cool little experiment. I wish video technology had been this advanced when I was his age.

To watch this in actual high-def, go to the Vimeo page.

There’s a whole channel on Vimeo devoted to people’s experiments with Canon’s HV30 and HV20 camcorders. The selection is hit or miss, but some of it is quite good indeed.

[via my pal Jonathan Hayes.]

Tags: guns, technology, video, violence

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comments (3)

Jonathan Hayes

July 14, 2008

9:20 PM

One trick that many of the HV20 and 30 video makers are using to rather amazing effect is the use of a 35mm adapter - a set of lenses used to create a narrow depth of field in the image. The almost clinical look of traditional video comes from the fact that the whole image is in focus; using a Depth of Field adapter (DOF) gives things a real film look by blurring parts of the screen.

Kyle Shields is unusually talented, but he really shows you what a 19 year old kid can accomplish in ‘08…

Guthrie Thomas

July 15, 2008

12:51 AM

ok hi im guthrie from the video and no we are not (13) lol im 19 and so is he so… ya .. any way ty all for your comments on the video and i any of you have any ideas you would like to share feel free.. my e-mail .. deathwillnotdi@hotmail.com … please if you do please add a sub. or ill just mark as spam . once again ty all this realy made are day!! P.S. I realy can shoot iv been shooting for about 16 years going on 17 year… i love guns and im sorry if you thing thats bad …. ty

The Editorialiste

July 17, 2008

4:59 PM

We used these back in j-school as new media students — we were lucky enough, in fact, to have better equipment than the broadcast students (HD). It’s amazing to have that kind of quality at your fingertips.

I can’t tell you how many times I was amazed after exporting my raw footage into Final Cut Pro and watching it at HD hi-res…a camera like this can make a short about a bodega look expensive.

Cheers, The Editorialiste. http://editorialiste.blogspot.com/

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