MELVILLE, N.Y., February 6, 2018 – Canon U.S.A. Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, returned as a Sustaining Sponsor to the 2018 Sundance Film Festival (January 18th–28th in Park City, Utah). Canon celebrated filmmakers working behind the camera with daily programming at the Canon Creative Studio, located at 592 Main Street.
At least 63 of the 239 films and projects that premiered as part of this year’s slate – over 26 percent — were shot using Canon equipment. Festival projects filmed using Canon cinema cameras include Generation Wealth, The Adulterers, The Sentence, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, Crime + Punishment, The Trade, The Price of Everything, This is Home, and Awavena.
“Each year, we return to the Sundance Film Festival to connect with the filmmaking community,” said Yuichi Ishizuka, president and COO, Canon U.S.A. “In Park City this year, we celebrated innovative projects from the minds of some of the world’s best filmmakers, as well as the bold new technology that help make these projects possible.”
Canon welcomed 2018 Sundance Film Festival attendees to the Canon Creative Studio (open January 19th–22nd, from 11am-7pm) for interactive displays of Canon equipment, live panel discussions, and a relaxing lounge stocked with coffee and snacks. Guests were invited to take a hands-on tour of Canon’s newest cinema camera, the EOS C200, and learn about Canon’s innovative Cinema RAW Light 4K video format. Guests also explored Canon’s flagship cinema camera, the EOS C700, as well as Canon’s line of Cinema, CINE-SERVO, COMPACT-SERVO, and EF lenses.
The Canon Creative Studio also hosted cinematographers, directors, editors, producers, and crew at the invite-only Raise Your Glass To Cinematography cocktail party, Canon’s sixth annual celebration toasting the filmmakers of the Festival.
In 2018, the Canon Creative Studio featured new programming called Magic Hours, co-hosted by IMDbPro (Friday, January 19th), the AFI Conservatory (Saturday, January 20th), and VER (Monday, January 22nd). Each evening event, which were held from 5-7pm, featured an opportunity to network with companies and organizations that share Canon’s mission to support filmmaking.
Canon also introduced a new media partnership with American Cinematographer, the world’s leading publication dedicated to motion imaging and the art and craft of professional cinematography; the monthly international journal, published by the American Society of Cinematographers, is now in its 99th year. The magazine’s editors were on-site at the festival, and several of its contributors moderated a series of six in-depth panel discussions at the Canon Creative Studio, discussing topics such as lens choice, documentary cinematography, and shooting cinematic VR.
The panels were streamed through Facebook Live via American Cinematographer’s feed, accessible to those who could not attend the Festival, giving professional and aspiring cinematographers alike the opportunity to engage with the panelists. American Cinematographer’s website, ascmag.com, also features a series of online interviews with Sundance cinematographers, along with additional articles exploring cinematography trends at the festival, all sponsored by Canon.
Photographer Michael Ori returned to shoot professional headshots of Creative Studio guests. Ori took his photographs with the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV camera. Canon provided guests with an 8” x 10” copy of their portrait, printed on-site with the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 Professional Inkjet Printer.
In the second year of Canon’s popular collaboration with IMDbPro, the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals, IMDbPro Members were able to instantly upload their newly snapped portraits to their profiles, which reach entertainment industry decision-makers and hundreds of millions of fans worldwide on IMDb, IMDbPro, and Amazon Video. The IMDbPro station was open January 19th-22nd, from 11am-5pm, and guests were also able to experience IMDbPro’s new iPhone® app, which empowers members with a convenient way to search the profiles of more than 4 million people, access the latest industry news, get contact and representation details for more than 300,000 industry professionals, and tap through to call or email directly.
On Monday, January 22nd, Canon presented a workshop called “Backpack Filmmaking with the EOS C200,” featuring the versatile and cinematic EOS C200 camera. Canon’s Loren Simons and cinematographer Shana Hagan (Generation Wealth, Inventing Tomorrow, Lenny) led attendees through an experiential session that demonstrates you can shoot cinéma vérité and lit, sit-down interviews with only what you can fit in a backpack. The workshop allowed filmmakers to get better acquainted with the EOS C200 camera’s Cinema RAW Light workflow — from capture through post.