Idiotwithatripod-224x124Filmmaker Jamie Stuart hauled out his Canon 7D (and winter parka) during the blizzard that recently slammed the U.S. East coast to film Idiot with a Tripod, a short film depicting New York City getting blanketed in powder. So named in homage to Dziga Vertov's 1929 silent film Man With a Movie Camera, the clip garnered the following praise from Roger Ebert: "this film deserves to win the Academy Award for best live-action short subject." Oscar or not, it's nice to see a clip that's in no way sophomoric go viral. Check it out:


Here's Stuart with the technical details via an e-mail to Ebert:

I shot with my Canon 7D and edited it with Final Cut Pro. Early on, I was able to vary things a little more — I used macro diopters for the close-ups during the day shots, my portable slider for the dolly shots and also, a 75-300 zoom for the rooftop shots. I was more limited at night because of the weather conditions, so I stuck with my 24mm, 50mm and 85mm — all of which are manual Nikon lenses. Which meant that in the middle of that maelstrom I was changing lenses, wiping off the lenses and manually focusing/adjusting each shot.

The 7D is known to have great weatherproofing, and that certainly came in handy on this shoot, which was the rare DSLR production wherein overheating wasn't a problem.

Because Idiot with a Tripod is a homage to Man With a Movie Camera, here's the latter film in full:

Kudos to Jamie for getting some great shots and turning around the clip so quickly. What'd you think?

[via Filmmaker Magazine, Mashable]