Gavin Fisher on Shooting with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera: Advantages, Solutions and Tips

From the HD Pro Guide Magazine archive: this article first appeared in HD Pro Guide Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2013).

I just received my BMcc in january. Since then I have used it on a Music video, a Microsoft commercial, and an adult swim commercial.

Www.fisherfilmworks.com/media I chose the blackma Gic for these Projects for the dynamic range and the incredible amount of detail. PLus with two of the three Projects being run-and-gun style, I knew I could rig up the BMcc with ever ything I need ed while keeping it light enough to shoot handheld all day long. I shoot a Lot on the red epic and scarlet and while they are both considerably smaller and lighter than the red one, they are still quite clunky and heavy compared to the BMcc.

Benefits anD aDvantaGes I love shooting with this camera. Because I am also a colorist, I don’t like to create a look in camera. I prefer to keep things very flat and neutral so I have the most room to work in post. The BMCC is perfect for this. Because the camera is designed to shoot this way, it greatly reduces the complexity of the menus. It is so easy to shoot with this camera. It has all of the control you need, and none of the stuff you don’t.

This may sound funny but I love that they put a tiny internal mic on board. It’s always a good thing to have a scratch track, especially on music videos. Every time I shoot with a RED, I find myself scrambling for a microphone at the last minute. It’s funny because since the microphone input of the RED is a tiny little 1/8” plug, usually someone’s ear buds get used as a microphone. They get plugged in and just hang off the camera – such a ghetto component of a high-end camera. Kudos to BMD for adding this seemingly unimportant component to the camera. cHaLLenGes anD soLutions I kind of knew my challenges going in. While I was waiting (for months and months and months) for the camera to arrive, I learned everything I could about it. For me, the biggest things to deal with are, getting wide shots with the smaller sensor, and not having the ability to over crank for slow motion. The other issues that you expect from a digital camera (rolling shutter, noise, moiré, etc.) are on par or improved over the majority of other cameras out there, so those things are negligible. I was able to get my wides. I just had to get further away from the subject. I have shot plenty of stuff on 2/3” cameras and this chip is much bigger. The slow motion thing is a tough one. I always find myself wanting it. I have heard some chatter about BMD possibly being able to get the camera to do 48fps or even 60fps in ProRes mode, but nothing official yet. BMD if you are listening, this would be HUGE.

Tips and Best Practices

1. Power down the camera when changing the lens. The boot up time on this camera is so fast, there’s really no reason not to do this. If you don’t, sometimes the camera can get confused as to what f-stop the lens is on. The result is inaccurate readings and possibly the inability to open the lens all the way.

2. Get an anti-glare screen protector for an iPad or other tablet and cut to fit the BMCC. Not only will this protect the touchscreen from predators, it will provide easier viewing in bright light. And because it is designed for touchscreen use, it will not inhibit your ability to control the camera.

3. Do not trust the LCD. This camera has 13 stops of latitude. This means it can handle a much wider range of light than a DSLR. Depending on the situation, simply making the image look good on the LCD will either have you blowing out highlights or shooting too dark and introducing unnecessary noise. The camera has a little “iris” button. Pressing this button will set your iris to what it needs to be to allow the most light in, while protecting all of your highlights. From this point you can then decide what doesn’t need protecting. For instance, a tiny reflection from a shiny object may be fine to let blowout, while detail in the clouds would be something you want to protect. In almost all cases, the image you see on the LCD will either be really bright or really dark. You really have to trust the camera and just go for it.

www.fisherfilmworks.com Another factor for all three projects was turnaround time. None of these projects really had time or budget for a RAW workflow. Having the ability to shoot ProRes, while still keeping the dynamic range was a major plus. In the case of the Microsoft commercial, I had to hand off footage at the end of the day with no idea where it was going and how sophisticated the post process would be. So I shot in "video" mode which applies a LUT to the flat footage and basically makes it look great right from the camera.

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