Pixiq

Over the weekend, Paramount Pictures purchased an independent movie called "Like Crazy" for $4 million dollars. Not such big news by itself, but the significance is that this movie was shot on a Canon HDSLR - specifically the Canon EOS 7D. Now that's big news!

The news came to me thru a friend at Hollywood-DI - a company that provides screening and digital finishing services for studios and independent filmmakers worldwide.

Here's a part of the press release (you can read the whole thing if you want on my blog)

Los Angeles based film production company, Super Crispy Entertainment worked closely with Hollywood-DI to shoot and finish Drake Doremus’s beautiful love story, LIKE CRAZY. The feature film was screened in the ‘U.S. Dramatic Competition’ at the Sundance Film Festival, 2011 and subsequently sold to Paramount for $4 million. The production utilized a custom modified 7D HDSLR camera in combination with Hollywood-DI’s ‘collaborative post’ approach allowing the filmmakers to deliver a high production-value movie.

Los Angeles, CA — January 25th 2011: Hollywood-DI congratulates director Drake Doremus and producers Jonathan Schwartz and Andrea Sperling on selling their feature film LIKE CRAZY to Paramount for $4 million. One of 16 finalists in the US Dramatic Competition at Sundance Film Festival 2011, LIKE CRAZY is a complex exploration of the fragility of first love, chronicling the tumultuous romance between Jacob (Anton Yelchin), an American college student, and Anna (Felicity Jones), a British citizen studying in Los Angeles. When Anna must return to the UK upon graduation, she makes the fateful decision to remain with Jacob and overstay her student visa. Consequently barred from the country, Anna finds she and Jacob forced to negotiate their commitment from afar.

Directed by Drake Doremus, and written by Doremus and Ben York Jones, LIKE CRAZY also stars Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley, Alex Kingston, Oliver Muirhead, Finola Hughes, Chris Messina, Ben York Jones and Jamie Thomas King. John Guleserian photographed the feature on a custom modified 7D HDSLR camera. Complete workflow design was provided by Hollywood-DI along with a full range of post-production services.

When setting out to make LIKE CRAZY, director Drake Doremus was determined to find a camera that would allow him the freedom and flexibility to capture his film the way he wanted. “I wrote ‘Like Crazy’ as a sensitive love story that would be character-driven. We had a young cast and I wanted the actors to be able to improvise and go with the flow of the take without having to stop the cameras every two minutes. With the 7D we ran lots of takes for 10 minutes without stopping the camera – at appropriate moments I was able to step into the scene and give the actors subtle direction and let them continue to perform. It was amazing to be able to let the camera roll knowing that we weren’t burning through our budget. The actors loved the opportunity to stay in the moment and experiment with different approaches.”

Doremus was also looking for a way to work with his actors in a manner that would allow them to be as relaxed and unguarded as possible. “The small size and form factor of the 7D was a big plus in the filming of ‘Like Crazy.’ Our DP, John was able to get the camera into many tight situations that would have been impossible with a larger, more conventional set-up. After a while the actors forgot about the camera and small lights and were able to focus on their characters and performance. The sense of intimacy and closeness I was able to develop with the actors and crew was an added bonus for a director like me who likes to improvise with the actors on set. We shot for 24 days with a lot of ‘run and gun’ and quick set-ups but didn’t have any problems with the cameras.”