Black Magic Cameras

Our primary camera operator is Corry although he prefers the title cinematographer (!) and actually he's right in that definition because it's not just about working with a camera. It's also about the lighting, the grading, choosing the right lens for the job and that involves not only the level of detail but the overall visual effect that the lens creates.

I will talk in detail about our video editing software experiences in a later post but I will mention now that when we started out, a number of us were fully certificated Apple Final Cut Pro users.We still occasionally use FCP but now it's a mixture of Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere.

Our bottom line has always been quality and in Corry (above) his outstanding skills are only matched by his passion for film, cameras, lenses and generally making everything look as good as it possibly can!

Corry’s notes on filming Ryan Inglis - Percussion Guitar Lessons 3 & 4.

We shot the new Percussion Guitar lessons with Ryan on a Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5k and Blackmagic Pocket Camera using EF mount lenses.

Corry used a thunderbolt cable connection out from the Blackmagic into his laptop, opening Blackmagic Design’s Ultrascope to get the camera settings perfect.

Next he shot a few quick tests then graded the footage on Davinci using a LUT he has designed. This was to make sure everyone on set was 100% satisfied with how the footage would look before filming. Maximum quality control.

The footage was then captured using Blackmagic's Media Express. Corry sat on his laptop marking out the individual takes and ‘pick ups’ as he went.

The Blackmagic’s 16mm sensor has caused some discussion online but for our studio setup the crop was ideal, allowing us a comfortable distance from Ryan and the audio equipment.

In our kit we have a 11-16mm lens (for wide angles on the Blackmagic) and 35mm and 50mm Karl Zeiss 'prime' lenses. The 35mm on the Blackmagic allowed Corry to capture Ryan’s guitar from a comfortable distance and close to his laptop, whilst at the same time getting the image sharp from the 35mm which is our primary 'go to' lens .

On the Pocket camera we put the 50mm which was used as the close up camera for detail shots. This was again ideal as the crop factor allowed us to get close ups on Ryan’s Guitar and as you can see from the picture, at not too far a distance from the video capture laptop.

 
You can see from the still pics (graded) from the footage, the skin tones are very natural.

Final details: we shot roughly around f./ 2.0 - 2.8, using film dynamic range on Apple ProRes (HQ).

What we particularly like about the Blackmagic cameras is the way the footage looks. It is beautiful but the quality is also matched by really good pricing.