The new season of NBC’s Saturday Night Live debuted with a new look for the opening title sequence as the entire opening montage was shot using the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the new EOS 7D digital SLR cameras. The concept behind the opening sequence was portraiture as the director and crew looked to capture “living” portraits of the city, the cast and the unique characters that make up the New York City nightlife.
The crew wanted to capture the city nightlife in as natural a look and setting as possible. This meant minimal additional lighting, and making those on-camera feel comfortable to act naturally. Their solution was the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR cameras, with their amazing low-light performance, small form factor, and amazing depth-of-field, which enabled the crew to shoot in predominantly ambient light without big lighting gear. The crew also found it easy to covertly shoot around the city without drawing a crowd.
The entire sequence was shot using a combination of Canon’s full-frame EOS 5D Mark II and the selectable frame rates of the EOS 7D Digital SLR cameras. Filming at night, the new stars of the hit TV show were shot in various New York City hotspots by a small crew discretely capturing the cast as they participated in select New York happenings. The entire segment was captured and edited in a week’s time, incorporating 30p footage from Canon’s 5D Mark II as well as 60p footage used for slow-motion segments shot with Canon’s EOS 7D Digital SLR camera.
“We have seen a shift in HD video capture toward a simpler and easier HDSLR workflow, and now with the EOS 7D shooting in standard NTSC and PAL frame rates, customers are realizing an even easier HD video workflow, using some of the largest HD video image sensors on the market at a fraction of the cost of competitive equipment,” stated Yuichi Ishizuka, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon U.S.A.
