More Magic Lantern - My first proper short documentary using 5dmkII
 

I've just uploaded my finished film edited from the footage I shot in the riots in western China two weeks ago together with shots from the city of Kashgar, took a week to edit! Its mostly 5dmkII mostly handheld, archive footage and a bit of Sony HDV. Thanks again to Tramm, this must be a first for Magic Lantern and Juicedlink.

Its live on the Guardian website Video: Urumqi's week of rage and fear | World news | guardian.co.uk
and in HD on Vimeo here One Week in Urumqi - Uighur ethnic unrest in western China on Vimeo

Great real world demonstration, Dan. Thanks for keeping us posted on your 5D experience.

Out of curiousity, are you using the config system to get you camera into a basic setting for mic and gear, or are you relying on menu system for basic set up ?

Chris,

I've been using the menu system mainly because I haven't got around to loading the config file onto all my memory cards. I will do this before my next big assignment though.

Dan

Are you running the 0.1.5 release or the beta with separate audio gains? One problem that I've encountered in the 0.1.6 beta is that the bringing up the ML menu while recording occasionally causes err70 (and loses the take). It appears to be caused by drawing the nice gray background on the menu (bmp_fill()). Why? I don't know yet, but it is a show stopper before the next release.

Tramm, this was all shot on 0.1.5 not the Beta. Still playing with the Beta but haven't seen the issues you describe.

Dan

Excellent work Dan
 

Good solid journalism, story telling and photography, a combination not often or easily achieved. Congratulations to you and Tania.
The Canon images are distinctive and look great, and I bet using the smaller camera made you less visible and less of a target on the street. This may also be the best sample of handheld video from the camera I've seen.
Well done.

Stunning photography. Great film.
How much was handheld? What did you use to support the camera when not handheld?

Dan,

Awesome footage and photos. And great reporting. It's riveting from start to end. The young woman in the hospital is especially compelling.

I especially like the perspective that you bring to the story. It doesn't present blame or easy answers. I have twice seen the start of what newspapers would later call "riots". (They were small squimishes - but sensationalism sells.) In both cases, all it took was one violent/drunk person in a crowd, and one aggressive cop. A very small number of people take action in the confusion, some cops overreact, and chaos comes quickly. Blaming "the crowd" or "the cops" as groups would have totally misrepresented the reality of the situation.

Your short documentary shows the results of the riots and the tragedy for people in all groups involved. I won't soon forget these images.

I watched this and really didn't care what devices were used for shooting. Excelent work, but the whole thing is very sad.

Thanks guys, glad you like my work, it really is a very sad situation.

Richard, Pretty much all the wide angle shots are handheld and a few of the wobblier long lens ones, the IS in the 70-200 f4L I was using does help with that though.

Dan

Thanks Dan
Very helpful to know that you can get such good quality in this kind of situation without having to carry a load of kit.