Long Shot

The filmmakers behind Silent House create a one-take movie with Canon EOS 5D Mark IIs

By Clint Milby

Labels: Canon, 5D Mark II

This Article Features Photo Zoom

My problem wasn't the HD DSLR camera—it was finding solutions to the problems posed by the format itself. Once we did that, we were good to go.

—Igor Martinovic, cinematographer of Silent House

The differences between a mediocre manufacturer and a great one aren't just price, availability and customer service. High marks in those areas are the status quo if you want to stay in business. A great manufacturer gets out from behind the counter and goes to his customers wherever they are, whether on set or on location. A few companies are doing just that, including a company called Production Junction. While they help their customers, their customers give them data and ideas that, if implemented, help them design better products. This was never truer than during the production of Silent House.

Remaking La Casa Muda, a celebrated Uruguayan film that screened at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival was a daunting task for DP Igor Martinovic. It's not because he lacked experience—he was the cinematographer on the Oscar®-winning doc Man on Wire, as well as the second installment of the IFC trilogy Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1983. The challenge for Martinovic was to replicate what was clearly the most outstanding feature of La Casa Muda, which was the entire film being one continuous shot.

What Martinovic needed was a camera that was small enough to be ultramobile, allowing him to get into the front seat of a car, into the house and then through the labyrinth of rooms inside without stopping. This also meant the camera would have to be lightweight, but still deliver cinematic visuals. The only solution seemed to be the Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

But the most common challenge in shooting with the 5D Mark II is that the format is unconventional, and most DPs don't have any experience with it.

There were so many things that shouldn't have come together, that shouldn't have worked, but due in part to the manufacturers stepping in, it did work.

—Chris Edwards, Production Junction


Because Redrock Micro's accessories are designed with modification in mind, they became the perfect solutions for DP Igor Martinovic's unusual production needs.

Production Junction, What's Your Function?
Martinovic found Production Junction in New York's East Village through his friend, Michael Simmonds, who worked with the rental house while serving as DP on Paranormal Activity II. Martinovic immediately reached out to co-owners Dave McGrath and Chris Edwards, but little did he know that McGrath and Edwards were not just co-owners of a rental house, but also DPs—both having shot a number of features, television shows, commercials and music videos.

Production Junction started in 1999 as a way for McGrath and Edwards to supplement their income by renting out their own gear when not in use. What they didn't count on was that the business would take off. According to Edwards, the main reason for this success is because they spoil their customers rotten. For Production Junction to have survived in New York during the worst recession since the Great Depression is impressive, but it's no accident. Instead of operating like a regular rental house where clerks take orders and make deliveries, they become personally involved.

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