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Black Magic: Official $1,995 raw cinema camera topic, series 2
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  • The Visitor - A short film I was recently the Cinematographer and Editor on. BMCC, 24fps, Prores.

  • @Bozzie Nice looking stuff man. I read on the Vimeo page you had some problems cutting it down to make the festival but I think you might have been able to make it! It's always hard to kill your babies and I know there's not a lot of time in these things but I think you could have gotten the story you wanted in that time. Don't get me wrong, it looks great but I think you could have squeezed it in.

  • Thanks @vicharris. Possibly could've have squeezed it down to 3mins, but just felt that this particular story needed a little more time to breath. It was a tough call.

  • @CaptainHook thanks for the amazing LUT! Just donated also.

    @vicharris Yeah, i never shoot below 2.8. I also added a bit of sharpening in post.

  • So far I am feeling fairly confident with operating this camera, it has minimal controls and only four different menus of options to chose from. It's all fairly straight forward so I won't go into too much detail, only that if you know how to operate a DSLR, then you won't feel lost moving up to the Blackmagic Cinema Camera.

    http://bradleystearn.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/filming-with-blackmagic-design-cinema.html

  • He feels confident, but his image is IR-polluted (with brown/magenta tint) because he didn't know that you should always use IR cut filters on BM cameras.

  • Well to be fair we just figured this out really over at BMCuser and what IRNDs to use.

  • I've shot with BMCC for 3 months now and I have had no situation where I jumped up and said "this is IR polluted". Nothing I wasn't able to easily correct in post.

    It looks to me like he's underexposed and wb is off.

  • What is all this IR talk I hear? Can someone please inform me?

  •  
    @CaptainHook 's new LUTs for BM 4kFilm and Film - direct link

     

  • Here's a video I did recently with the BMCC:

    Although I now have the 4K version I'm not yet getting the results I want. The video above was done with Kinoflo lighting, RAW and Resolve. To me, these are the most natural skin tones I got to date with this combination.

  • Hey @andyharris Seems like you underexposed a little too much for this type of piece. Also the contrast ratio on the talent seems a little severe for it as well. I don't know, maybe there was a reason. Skintones do look good though!

    I don't see any type of rim or hair light as well. Next type I would try to add one. Even a small shitty LED would be better than nothing. Need some sort of separation for these talking head bits.

  • @vicharris Yes I did underexpose a fair bit, normally I open up to the point where I get the zebras at 90%

    Lately I've been stopping 2 under than level and it all seems to behave better in Resolve (the gain has to go right up). I reckon I should test with the zebras at 65%.

    Its a really tight office to work in, there's less than a metre between the chaps and the glass partition.

    You could be right, though I have a pile of Z96's that I rarely use and they could make rim lights. I have to do another job with this team, they are pretty good with cameras around, I think they'll be better next time. I was hoping to use the BMCC4K to help with shallower DOP, but the sensor just doesn't behave the same. I might pop into the 4K thread with some examples of weirdness at ISO800.

  • At the risk of sounding negative I feel some strange choices were made shooting that video. As someone already pointed out, the lighting seems somewhat dramatic and not at all congruent with an office setting. I was waiting for the secretary in high-heels to hand him an hdmi cable and bend over the laptop. Had the lighting been placed a little lower you would have that flashlight-below-the-chin halloween horror storytelling look. Also, the chrome bar in the background just to the left of the first subject is highly distracting and splits the frame in two. Almost worst is that it betrays the fact that the camera was not leveled properly. And the sliding shot of the two geeks speaking with their backs to us seems like an equally strange choice, like they're plotting a DDoS attack on a rival's website over Egg McMuffins. The lighting in that shot, which is closer to what I would expect from an office environment, ends up contrasting weirdly with the subsequent shot which feels like it was shot after midnight. Lastly, I can't figure out why you'd want to shoot this in RAW. Why give yourself so much extra work and incur the disk space penalty for a few talking heads? A camera like the GH2 excels in these settings. And you want to do the next one in 4K? Whoah!

  • @andyharris

    You just can't look at the zebras to get exposure there. Looking at the still above, the guy in red is kind of overexposed on the left side of his face. I'm sure this is what you were looking at, but then you have 4 to 1 or even more difference on his right side. You need to hit the skintones at 55 or a stop higher, then light the rest of your set around that if this is how you are going to shoot. This kind of video really needs a 2-1 or "maybe" 3-1 ratio on the faces. You didn't use a fill light either did you?

    Also sorry if we're sounding too harsh here but if you are going to shoot them again, I'd suggest not making it look like a horror movie, which it kinda does. Wrong tone for two dudes talking about network security, unless the whole video is kind of silly.

    But yeah, get those face ratios correct, add some sort of separation light and a fill. I also agree that raw is way overkill for this, unless you just want to practice.

    Do you have a monitor with false colors by chance?

  • @vicharris I've previous used a Colour Munki to profile both my displays. I've always thought that my iMac doesn't really change that much, so this morning I calibrated it again just to check - there was a very small change and a recommendation to reduce brightness.

    However I've just taken delivery of a NEC SpectraView monitor for my photographic work. So I copied the video file over and stopped it on a few frames to compare. The SpectraView came with certification and a huge manual on the history of colour etc.

    On the SpectraView I can see how your comments apply, especially about contrast ratio between the faces. On the iMac it looks just right (well to me, these things are subjective). On the SpectraView it feels like the saturation is too high, but again about right on the iMac --- they are side by side on the desk and calibrated by the same Munki.

    Your suggestion of going up a stop feels right, hopefully the BMCC is still in its 'linear' region.

    @spacewig Some of your analysis is about right, it was done in about 2 hours late in the afternoon, the sun was low in the sky for the early shots and it was dark very quickly after that. From memory the camera was level but didn't have a 90 degree angle to the chaps, its a busy programming office packed with desks. The reason for using the 4K is for the larger sensor - in this particular office I struggle with camera distance, mostly jammed against the far wall. I'm hoping that my 70-200 lens will take in a little more and help with DOF. On the RAW side disk space isn't causing me any worries. You have made me think about bringing my Sedna Hacked GH2 out of its retirement.

    Thanks Chaps ....

  • @andyharris Thanks for taking my comments in stride and not getting on the defensive here. Nice to have an open, real conversation for once.

    Try to do some tests on a subject with a much less contrast ratio on the face, even 2-1 and compare to other videos of this type. Unless you're trying to do something different or edgy, I'd stick to that for these things. I just did three commercials in one day, all green screen, for national broadcast (cable of course, haha) and I fucked myself and shot 3-1. I didn't believe my EVF and I didn't have my Ikan D5w since I fried it. Hated turning over the footage. They might not even see it or care but I thought it was way too much for American broadcast commercials of these types. I know I could fix it in 5 minutes in Resolve but it's out of my hands. I'm waiting on the call from the producer any day now. Cashed that check fast :)

  • Here's another example of just how much you can save stuff shot in ProRes. This was shot in the worst possible lighting conditions as you can see by the before image. 5 min in Resolve for a first pass. Not bad. SLR12mm MK2

    Screen Shot2 2014-04-04 at 4.54.19 PM copy.jpg
    720 x 409 - 340K
  • Here is a Book Trailer I did, with the BMCC, 24p, Prores.

  • @jasonthomas77

    Nice work. Who ever did the edit did nice work as well.

  • @jasonthomas77

    I like the edit. Looks great! But I cant help but wonder whether you are trolling or not...

  • Thanks @Brian202020. Editor was Damil Harrison. I'm not a trolling @ewstrobe2009, just new to the whole Bmcc thing. Guess I have to post more and make my presence known in the future. Thanks for the kind words.

  • Beta firmware leaked.

    http://drivers.softpedia.com/downloadTag/BlackMagic+Firmware+1.8

    Blackmagic Cinema Camera

    • Updated user interface
    • Adds autofocus support for compatible EF lenses
    • Improved debayering when shooting to ProRes or DNxHD
    • Improved focus peaking display
    • Improved ISO handling when shooting at ISO 1600
    • Improved general audio performance
    • Iris setting is retained when switching between camera recording and clip playback
  • The new firmware, version 1.8 is now official.

    http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/14