That Old Black Magic
Here at Res et Artes we are unashamed aficionados of the Blackmagic gamut of products. The term ‘product’ is used advisedly: the American company that we so admire has come up with far more then spanking good cameras over the last few years with a raft of hardware for colour editing, monitors, live streaming as well as the stupendously brilliant (and free in its simpler version) Davinci Resolve software for film editing.
For us, however it is the cameras that have proved such a delight over the last four years starting out with the BMPCC 6K known, a bit unrealistically as a pocket camera, adding a year or two later its younger but more sophisticated sibling BMPCC 6K Pro and more recently arming ourselves with the utterly delicious Ursa Mini Pro 12k (yes, 12K!).
It was love at first sight with the first Pocket Camera – shape of any compact DSLR or mirrorless camera but with just a bit less, well less compactness.
Paired with our DZO zoom lenses or Samyang primes and using Blackmagic RAW settings we end up with pristine clips which, once submitted to the very special magic of Davinci Resolve become the most gorgeous of images. In retrospect, though we should probably have waited a year: once the BMPCC 6K Pro was released, not many months later with its tilting screen and internal ND filters for just a few quid more the full potential of this fabulous camera became blatantly clear.
RAW….what the hell is it anyway?
Without RAW format in digital photography and film, life in the edit stage just wouldn’t be the same. RAW is an uncompressed file of a clip or a still image containing tons of information that allows you to bring out the details just as you/the editor chooses. Blackmagic have their own RAW format called, surprise, surprise BRAW. What makes this particularly awesome if you process your work in Davinci Resolve is that BRAW has been created to fit like a glove. In editing this simply means that your poor computer processor and GPU has a bit of the strain taken away as it tries to deal with the multi-gigabyte files.
Three Blackmagic cameras!?
No doubt a perfect storm of camera geekiness and an obsessive drive to build the best arsenal within our budget led inevitably to the BM trio. Yes, a two even three camera setup is needed on occasions, interview situations being an obvious example and it is just so easy to match styles across devices which share so many common qualities. The Ursa Mini Pro is truly the crème de la crème with its 12k images and used properly – yes, always attention to the basics of White Balance, ISO et al – is an absolute marvel. Not, however a run and gun camera – though other users may disgree – so here we rely on the 6K Pro at half the size but still with the fabulous Super 35 sensor. The original 6K comes in useful for additional B roll and as a backup in an emergency!
Although all the above may sound suspiciously gushing, we have nothing whatsoever to gain by lauding the products mentioned. They just happen to meet our needs so neatly as independent film-makers. Why look for anything else?
