Amidst various video productions adopting 8K equipment, Canon has produced "Stand By You," an emotional drama set in Taiwan shot using the Company's proprietary 8K camera and rich lineup of EF Cinema lenses, which cover focal lengths from wide angle to telephoto. The short film features a sense of depth and detail only afforded by 8K equipment and effectively utilizes the aesthetic blurring of out-of-focus areas, a technique often used in film making.
Click the link below to see the short film for yourself:
URL: https://youtu.be/kZuvnbLjuS4 (Approximately 6 minutes)
After losing contact with her younger brother, a Japanese woman goes searching for him alone in Taiwan. Unable to speak the language, she is at wit's end when a local man offers to help. The romantic drama follows their heartwarming entanglement across such locations as the streets of Jiufen and the markets of Taipei.
The film's climactic scene takes place at an overlook with a picturesque view of the streets of Jiufen. The skin textures of the people standing in the foreground have been faithfully reproduced while sunlight can be seen filtering through the clouds in the background. Utilizing the high dynamic range of Canon's 8K camera, natural-looking images have been captured without blown out highlights or crushed shadows, even in scenes with stark differences in light and dark areas.
Takagaki has been involved in film making for over 20 years. Recently, he has been focusing on productions that make use of such leading-edge technology as 4K, 8K and HDR. He joined TBS TEX Co., Ltd. in 2018 where he works on programs primarily using 8K and other new technologies as well as, of course, producing programs in Full HD.
Noriko YuasaAfter graduating from university, Yuasa entered a TV drama production company. She has been working freelance since 2013 and her film "Girl Wavering" has won 17 awards at film festivals both in Japan and overseas. In 2018, her proposal for an original feature film won the highest award at the MPA/DHU/TIFFCOM Pitching Contest. She has worked extensively in the TV drama and movie industries.
Takagaki:
I've had the chance to use Canon's 8K camera a number of times before, and I have always noticed its high dynamic range and faithful color reproduction. This time we were producing a short film, so it was different to shooting something like a documentary or sporting event. I challenged myself to create something that effectively utilizes the background blurring characteristics of EF Cinema lenses.
Yuasa:
After being approached for this production, I had a chance to look at content shot using Canon's 8K camera, and I was taken aback by the expressive power. It was almost as if they could recreate the atmosphere, temperature and humidity of a scene. My imagination swelled with ideas for this short film as I thought about ways I could harness that expressive power.
Yuasa (right) at the shooting of the film's climax
Yuasa:
While of course Canon's 8K cameras and lenses make ultra-high-resolution image capture possible, I also feel you can achieve terrific visual expression through their dramatic rendering. I think the ability to capture both light and dark areas—even when there is a stark difference in those values—as well as the detail afforded by 8K and the sense of depth and three-dimensionality are all superbly expressed. I have gotten a real sense of the enormous potential of shooting movies in 8K.
Takagaki:
Canon's 8K camera has a compact camera head that is easy to rotate, so we were able to work with a high degree of maneuverability, even when shooting in tight spaces like the labyrinthine back alleys and markets we used as our locations. Additionally, because Canon's 8K camera can record RAW footage, editing is simple and I think you can produce works that take full advantage of the overwhelming resolution of 8K video, with its detail and realistic reproduction of texture and atmosphere.
Takagaki checks the images during shooting
Takagaki:
Utilizing the high level of detail afforded by Canon's 8K camera, I would like to take on the challenge of creating something that really pushes the possibility of 8K video to the limit.
Yuasa:
When shooting this production, I truly felt that using Canon's 8K camera and lenses to effectively utilize the extensive blurring of out-of-focus areas allowed us to make the subjects stand out more. I would definitely like to use them again to produce a feature-length drama or film.
Canon 8K Technologies
"Stand By You" will be screened on Canon 8K displays as a reference exhibit at the Canon booth at Beijing International Radio, TV & Film Exhibition 2019 (BIRTV) from August 21 to 24, 2019, in Beijing.
