Cinemablography@gmail.com
Cinemablography
  • Home
  • About
  • Journal
    • Pan's Labyrinth
    • A Simple Favor
    • Film Theory Issue 2 >
      • Christine
      • Nocturnal Animals
      • Elle
      • Paterson
      • The One I Love
      • A Separation
      • Hateful Eight
    • Film Theory Issue 1 >
      • Three Colors Trilogy
      • Big Trouble in Little China
      • Melancholia
      • Somewhere
      • The Thin Red Line/Zero Dark Thirty
    • Science Fiction Issue 2 >
      • Signs
      • Paprika
      • Snowpiercer
      • I Am Legend
      • Edge of Tomorrow
      • Never Let Me Go
      • Donnie Darko
    • Manic Pixie Dream Girl
    • Edison & Co.
    • Blobfest
    • The Master
    • Amour
    • Argo
    • Looper
    • Science Fiction >
      • Children of Men
      • District 9
      • Minority Report
      • Moon
      • WALL-E
      • The Prestige
      • The Fear of Disappearing
    • Banksy
    • ThisisItaly
    • Catfish
    • Hugo
    • Pixar
    • Batman
    • Kathryn Bigelow >
      • Opening Scene
      • Supermarket Scene
      • Round Table Discussion
  • Blog
  • Contributors
  • Videographic Essays
  • Our Work
    • Links
  • Contact

The New Blackmagic of Cinema

2/1/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Footage shot with the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K | http://tinyurl.com/jvqzq7d
by Kyle Kull
A few weeks ago I gave a profile of the camera company Red Digital Cinema Camera Company, which has recently been making an impact on the world of digital cinema. Today I would like to give another profile of an even younger camera company, Blackmagic Design.
Picturehttp://tinyurl.com/lgz3kxu
At first glance, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, their newest model, looks similar to the common DSLR camera, however slicker and more modern. The large display that is conveniently located on the back of the camera can be used to view the image you are currently recording, or the footage that you have previously recorded to the SSD port, as well as use the touchscreen display to adjust your camera settings. Other cameras, such as the Red and other digital production cameras, require an external display in order to view playback. As for quality, the Blackmagic can record the image at 13 stops, giving the final product a professional grade quality. This means that no matter the lighting of the environment in which you are recording, the Blackmagic will capture a dynamic range of colors and shades. This gives the filmmaker some freedom in his shooting, allowing him to maneuver around his environment without having to worry about checking his lighting quality or exposure. To add even more versatility to the camera operator, the camera weighs only 3.75 lbs, minimizing the usual bulky nature of a production camera.

A large component of why this camera has impressed digital filmmakers is the software that accompanies the camera. Included with the Blackmagic is the full version of DaVinci Resolve, a high-end color grading system popular with many professional studio colorists. Although you will need to do some research in order to produce a high quality colored image, this inclusion certainly gives the filmmaker an advantage. Furthermore, the camera supplies its operator with the ability to store the images on the camera's SSD in a variety of different formats (CinemaDNG RAW, ProRes, DNxHD). These expansive features to the camera are offers that most digital cameras on the market lack and could possibly lead to more all-inclusive machines in the future within digital filmmaking.

There have been some weaknesses to the camera, however. The most pressing issues are the necessity of file storage capabilities and the rolling shutter. Shooting in uncompressed RAW can cause the SSD card to fill up relatively quickly, which makes storage of the files significantly more important. If shooting with this camera, make sure that you have access to large amounts of storage. You can however shoot in ProRes or DNxHD, which are both compressed and can give you a greater amount of file space for your footage on each SSD card. The rolling shutter is also a negative feature. This is  most often seen in DSLR's, and can effect the quality of a moving image, particularly when something is moving up or down. This can cause the image to become distorted, as seen in the fan below. While these weaknesses in the camera can cause problems, the low price of the camera makes up for these somewhat avoidable irritants.
Picture
http://www.ptgrey.com/support/kb/data/1-1-5_1.jpg
As mentioned before, the price of the camera is low, costing only about $2,000, which is cheap for a production level camera such as this. You can also buy the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, which, as the name suggests, let's you shoot 4K feature films, rather than the 2.5K of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. This camera comes at $4,000.

The Blackmagic aims to provide filmmakers with an affordable camera with a professional level of quality to the image. While this digital camera derives much of its functionality from DSLR's and other less professional cameras, the software as well as the image quality maximizes its capabilities, making it one of the most competitive machines on the market. Because these camera's were only released in July 2013, there are no current scheduled films using Blackmagic, but keep your eyes open for news on the cameras, particularly from Indie filmmakers. Hopefully this can inspire other digital camera developers to continue to improve on their competitors already impressive products.

To check out some Blackmagic Cinema Camera footage, see the video below.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    42
    American Hustle
    Ang Lee
    Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
    Audition
    Blackmagic
    Brad Pitt
    Camera Profile
    Child Actors
    Christian Bale
    Cinemablography
    Coming Attractions
    Comments
    Consumers
    Culture
    David-o-russell
    Design
    Director
    Drive
    Entertainment
    E.T.
    Film
    Film Art
    Film Blog
    Film Blog
    Film Review
    Fourth Wall
    Genre
    Girls
    Henry Thomas
    Italy
    Italy Video
    Jackie Robinson
    Joseph Gordon-Levitt
    Kathryn Bigelow
    Lena Dunham
    Life Of Pi
    Lost Films
    Marc Webb
    Michel Gondry
    Mood Indigo
    Music Videos
    Nick Cave
    Nick Cave The Bad Seeds84d349b97c
    Nicolas Winding Refn
    Omar Sy
    Political
    Prometheus
    Pusher
    Ryan Gosling
    Sab
    Sci Fi
    Scifia50955b463
    Scific61d272476
    Score
    Short Films
    Soundtrack
    Students Abroad
    Theatrical Posters
    The Hunger Games
    The Place Beyond The Pines
    Tiny Furniture
    Trailer
    Valhalla Rising
    Video Of The Day
    Warren Ellis
    Women In Film
    Young Filmmakers
    Zooey Deschanel

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.