EOSHD is a blog by Andrew Reid, who is a filmmaker from England. Here Andrew explains what EOSHD is and about his filmmaking.
I found that the only way to be creative 24/7 on my own terms was to be self sufficient so I began publishing EOSHD. With the internet, self publishing is a massive opportunity for filmmakers.
EOSHD and the Shooter’s Guide series of books fund my own filmmaking projects so I do not have to rely on commercial work or studio funding.
EOSHD covers DSLR video and it is aimed at all filmmakers from the perspective of someone who is independent, with a mindset more like that of an artist or musician rather than that of a videographer at the beck and call of clients. There are plenty of blogs out there by commercial filmmakers, and some very good ones, but I want EOSHD to have a different perspective – that of an independent filmmaker who is self funded.
EOSHD articles have also been published at DPReview and in the printed press, such as Sound on Sound magazine.
One of the guiding principals of EOSHD is that nobody should be blocked from practicing their art and executing their talent as a cinematographer or filmmaker due to the cost of equipment. All the equipment I recommend on the blog has to be accessible for nearly everyone.
EOSHD is about getting the most out of the technology at a sub $2000 level. Becoming self reliant and self funding as a filmmaker, self publishing and marketing your films is challenging enough without the overheads of spending $20,000 on a professional video camera – and that is really what DSLRs are all about – professional quality images but far more accessible for artists.
I believe technology and art are intertwined. My own family were a mixture of technical, business and artistically minded people and this has had a great influence on me as a filmmaker and cinematographer. DSLRs make our creative images sing and creativity helps our DSLRs and lenses to tell a story.
Andrew Reid – my style as a filmmaker
My filmmaking is close to documentary style but with a cinematic language and culture built into it. I enjoy to travel light, with minimal gear and to explore a location on foot. Aside from the cinematic image quality and the high accessibility of DSLRs, what attracts me is the stealth factor and lightweight nature of these cameras as opposed to the imposing and relatively bulky professional video cameras from Arri, RED and Sony.
There are places and moods I’ve captured on DSLRs which would not have been possible with a standard video camera. I feel that in living and breathing real life locations outside of the controlled environment of a film set, people behave more naturally in front of the camera it you blend into the background like a tourist with a stills camera.
My style as a filmmaker involves:
- Low light and natural light
- Anamorphic lenses
- Careful use of sound track and ambient audio
I always go for natural light and I love shooting at night with the incredibly high ISOs DSLRs are capable of for the first time in the history of filmmaking.
I love shooting in anamorphic widescreen with anamorphic lenses. It gives a whole new feel to the images and is as much a part of cinema as 24 frames per second.
Rather than a traditional linear narrative, I like to go for the allegory rather than explicit meanings, so people can interpret my work in their own ways and think about it afterwards. My filmmaking is often related to real events and peoples’ lives in locations around the world and how I portray them with my cinematography.
Another guiding principal of myself as a filmmaker and of EOSHD is that filmmakers should have a voice and strong opinions. Pretty images are not enough. If you fail to move someone or fail to make them think, you have failed as a filmmaker.
