On December 14, 2008 we were fortunate enough to work with Stu Maschwitz, co-founder of the San Francisco- and Los Angeles-based visual effects company The Orphanage. Stu got ahold of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II 21.1MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera, a 21 megapixel beast that shoots 1080HD video at 30fps. Adam Phelps of Zero Gravity, and Stunt People members Pete Lee, Ed Kahana, Ray Carbonel, Dennis Ruel, Shaun Finney, and I got together with Stu to make an action video with it, and the image quality is absolutely incredible.

The Orphanage is known for its work for features such as The Host, Sin City, and Grindhouse. Stu’s also the author of The DV Rebel’s Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap, an amazing book on indie action filmmaking. Stu’s Blog is also loaded with great info about filmmaking.