Elephant shot on DV

iowafilm · May 6, 2004

I recently watched the movie Elephant, by Gus Van Zandt the same guy who did Good Will Hunting. Anyways this movie was shot on MiniDV, on what looks to be a small consumer camera. On the disk was the making of the movie. The camera guy had the camera on a pistol grip which seemed to be attached to an ultra wide angle lens. It made the shot look super steady. Can anyone tell me what this is and how can I get one.

Thanks

Matthew Beals · May 6, 2004

Hello there, the film Elephant was actually shot on 35mm film. What you were probably reacting to is the 4:3 aspect ratio that the film was shot in. The device your referring to is called a Steadicam which stabalizes the camera and enables the camera operator to walk through doors and run around without causing camera shake. It takes a strong back and a lot of practice to learn to balance the rig and achieve good results (especially a heavy 35mm camera).

But that film was probably my favorite this year! Great example of some truly poetic steadycam work, amazing use of ramping film speeds and gorgeously shallow depth of field. (the steadycam, long take aesthetic was also applied to his other film "Gerry," also a great flick.)

I haven't seen the making of though. Gotta buy the DVD but its a shame I'm so cheap.

Josh Hill · May 11, 2004

What you saw in the making of was the Arri PL Directors finder. It allows for 35mm camera lenses to be used to see exactly what the shot is going to look like. And in case you wanted to play around with them there's one for around 2 grand on ebay. They're not cheap and neither are the lenses. But the movie was definitely shot in 35mm.

Josh Hill

joshhill@hot.rr.com