9. Garfield Scene Assignment: Camera Selection

My scene assignment is an adaptation of a Garfield comic strip. However, my vision of the world of Garfield is a far cry from the bright, inoffensive (some might say bland) cartoons produced by Jim Davis. Instead, I envision Jon Arbuckle not as the often-trod-upon owner of a sassy fat cat, but as the very height of loneliness, paranoia, and insanity. Why, in hundreds of panels, do we almost never see another human being in Garfield? Why does the strip deal with the same jokes over and over again, as if they are part of some strange ritual? Why is Jon interacting with a talking cat? As explored in several different ways by internet parodies and projects such as Garfield Minus Garfield, Jon could easily be construed as a psychotic man and Garfield as his hallucinatory personal demon. I wanted to explore this theme further in my project. Now, with this in mind, I knew I wanted the world to be utterly stark and serious, with hard lighting and tones of blue. I wanted the shots to reek of unease and barely hidden insanity. So: what to shoot this on?

I first had to ask myself what was required of the camera that was to shoot Garfield, based on both my vision of its tone and the shot list I created for the script. Essentially, I needed:

-       -The ability to crush the depth of field to produce a cinematic look

-        The ability to shoot in 60 fps for slow motion

-        The ability to capture a clean and crisp image

-        The ability to be mounted on a glidetrack, tripod, and even fig rig for handheld use

-        The ability to capture an image in relatively low light settings

These traits would help make my project both filmable and contribute to the tone. A crushed depth of field would produce a cinematic look associated with serious subject matter that contrasts with the Garfield comic strips. Slow motion was required for a shot where Jon Arbuckle first loses his temper and then recognizes his moment of anger. I wanted the highest quality of image resolution I could get, because I wanted his world to be fully realized and alarmingly close to home. I needed shots on a glidetrack for character dollies that highlighted the grotesque rituals of Jon’s life, and to capture the motivated movement of his footsteps. In addition, I needed still shots on a tripod and a following, tracking shot on the fig rig. Finally, I wanted control over the colors in low light to produce a cool-toned image in the darkness of an early morning room with a single window.

With these necessities in front of me, the choice was clear: DSLR. Furthermore, a 7D was my choice since it had the highest quality construction short of a 5D while retaining the capability to shoot in 60 fps. With Zeiss Prime lenses, all of the above requirements could be fulfilled adequately. And, besides – I had never shot with a DSLR before. Why not get my hands dirty with some equipment I was unfamiliar with? That prospect is always exciting, particularly when it coincides with the needs of a particular shoot.