Capturing Cowboy Life in Modern Montana

After spending a week script supervising for a commercial project in Montana, it will be strange to return to civilization, but I hope and believe I’m returning armed with some valuable information. The project, a hybrid of traditional scripted spots and doc-style webisodes presented many interesting challenges, not the least of which is the location: a set of ranches nestled in the Crazy Mountains that receive no cell phone service and are connected by a series of single lane often dirt track roads tracing their way through valleys and cow pastures. In the spring and summer, the lifestyle there is idyllic and spending a week off the grid in such a beautiful and awe-inspiring landscape is revitalizing. Obviously, moving a film crew through this remote and sometimes forbidding location is a logistical feat of the highest proportions, but all of it is made much easier by the use of the Canon 5D and 7D camera. 

While the Canon DSLR video capable cameras have been transformed by DPs and ACs alike from consumer cameras by the addition of countless grip, focus, and sound equipment and firmware upgrades into professional tools of the highest caliber, many still have their doubts. While I think that with the right lenses and focus pulling, the 5D can look as beautiful as film, after having watched my company pioneer the use of this camera for the past year and a half, I am positive that it is one of the best tools out there now available to documentary filmmakers. Small, inexpensive, and supported by a relatively small crew, this camera allows a director the freedom to get right in the middle of organic moments that cannot possibly be recreated. During this project, I observed at close hand how it can allow the director, the camera operator, and the AC to all get their hands on a body and totally cover an event as it occurs, without getting in each other’s way. This is the only way to shoot verite. Here is the big lesson of Montana for me: equip yourself with a light and mobile camera package, hire an operator and an AC that are eager to shoot, and pick up a camera yourself. This seems like an obvious statement when you are working on a project that relies heavily on verite and has a small budget, but as a filmmaker, you belong in the action.