Canon camera users will have to have been dead not to have noticed how the Canon 5D Mk2 has lit up the photo community. It’s a stunning piece of kit and a superb attempt at a first generation of new hybrid video DSLR’s. It wasn’t long befoe the video capability of this camera became it’s most talked about feature. The fact that it also shoots 21Mp full-frame stills seemed almost to fall by the wayside. Next came the video clips, with Vincent Laforet’s Reverie being undoubtedley the most famous. It couldn’t be long before a website followed and sure enough, in January 2009, a new website began to be talked about.
Called The Eoscars, this website specialises in finding quality footage shot on the Canon 5D Mk2 as complete short movies and showcases them all together in one place. we contacted Phil, the man behind The Eoscars, to find out more.
O.G – So how about a bit of a bio about you, your background etc. Are you a photographer / film maker / web designer?
Phil – I’m Brit in my late thirties who spends his time between London and New York City, although recently it is mostly stateside. I come from the photography rather than the cinematography camp (although was involved with several short films at College / University). Photography has always been a hobby for me rather than a profession. I have spent the last fifteen years working in the telecoms and internet sectors in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
O.G – What gave you the idea for the site and was it the Laforet video that was the catalyst?
Phil – I upgraded to a Canon 5D MkII at the end of November and became rapidly intrigued by the video functionality of this great piece of kit. I didn’t actually consider the video functionality when I ordered the camera. After I placed the order, I saw Reverie and it blew me away. Reverie has been praised and criticised on various fronts, but I still feel that it was great demo of what the camera can do in the hands of someone with a photography background.
Once the production version of the camera came out and the user generated clips started hitting the video hosting sites I found myself trawling through these to see what was possible with the camera and to get ideas for my own film making. The problem, which I quickly ran up against, was the large number of random test clips such as “my first low light shots”, “5D MkII color test”, “My cat licks its paws”, etc. appearing on the various video sites. I started looking for ways to bookmark the best videos and the result ended up being The EOScars.
O.G.- So how popular has the website been? After all, it’s still quite new.
Phil – The EOScars went live mid-January 2009 and has seen steady growth since then. Considering the site is not actively marketed (i.e. it primarily relies on word of mouth and search engine results), I’ve been pleased with the level of organic growth. The site had one of its strongest days recently with a little over 13,000 page views in 24 hours. These are still small numbers, but the growth and repeat visitor trends are really encouraging.
Around half of the films posted on the site are now either submitted by the film maker or are submitted by regular visitors to the site. The other half still comes from us trawling the web for new content.
O.G – What are the criteria for submitting to the site?
Phil – We are very happy to receive videos of any genre that someone has put effort into in both production and post-production.
The films are reviewed (I have a couple of friends that help out as well, particularly scanning for new content), and scored against several standard parameters including cinematography, editing, sound and concept. However, we are basically looking for movies where the filmmaker has put in the effort to make a complete movie with at least a minimal score in each of the parameters. We don’t need to like the content of the movie for it to get posted.
We don’t publish our own ratings, they just provide the hurdle to get onto the site. Once up on the site we encourage visitors to rate each of the videos they view which gives us a ranking of the best / most popular films. These rankings will be used to provide EOScar Awards in the future, but we are just making sure that the rating system is robust enough before we do this.
O.G – Do you have a favorite movie from The EOScars?
Phil – That’s a difficult one as there are some great pieces of work on the site. I can’t pin it down to one particular piece but in no particular order I really like the following:
Little Brothers by Joshua Brown
Voyage by Bob Davis
The work being produced by David Stephenson, Michael Fletcher and the Provo brothers.
O.G. – Long term plans for the site? Obviously, the Canon 5D Mk 2 will eventually cease to be the ‘talked about’ camera, do you have any ideas on developing the site further into other EOS areas?
Phil – Given the name of the site, I’m sure it will come as no surprise that the plan is to keep The EOScars firmly focused on video content generated by Canon EOS cameras. As Canon releases more EOS cameras with HD video functionality we’ll include the content produced, we love the 5d MkII, but we will be very happy to see content produced by the T1i / 500D. We have no plans at this point to include content produced on other cameras, such as Nikon’s offerings.
Recently we have begun to include more information about the films we are posting in a standard format so that visitors to the site can get a better understanding of the who, what’s and how’s of the videos being produced. The response to this has been good so far with a lot of positive feedback.
As mentioned already, we will be formalising EOScar Awards for the highest rated movies in future so keep an eye on the site.
O.G. – Have you heard from Canon and what they think of the site? It was the guys from Canon UK that told me about it over here!
Phil – There have been a few people that have contacted us that have been referred to The EOScars by Canon, we’ve also been contacted a number of times to ask us whether the site is owned by Canon. The site is obviously a good place for Canon to point customers at to see some great examples of what their cameras can do and so we’re very happy that they recommend us. You never know, maybe they’ll end up as one of the sponsors for the EOScar Awards!
See The Eoscars at www.theeoscars.com and vote on the Canon 5D movies
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
So what happened to the website now? It’s nowhere to be found! Not even other bloggers discussing where it went?
Hi Katie,
Don’t know what happened to Eoscars. I tried to contact them using the email I had, but no reply. Shame, as I think it had potential to be a great website