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BMCC Shoot


Will Montgomery

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Had an interesting experience with 2 Canon Mount Black Magic Cinema Cameras and one Pocket Cinema Camera.

 

It was a classic "talking head" shoot in NY with about 12 interviews lined up. Shot about 30 minutes on each subject over two days. Only had two hard drives for the BMCC's so couldn't shoot RAW. I have to say that I was a little scared not having a "remaining space" indicator on the camera itself. Not sure I would go through that again unless they fix that.

 

  • 3 camera shoot, BMCC A & B with Pocket Cinema Camera as b-roll & fill
  • Shot in the film look mode (but not raw).
  • Kept the cameras plugged in to AC so batteries not an issue
  • Used on board mic for later syncing to Zoom H4N that captured audio (sync in post worked flawlessly even with the horrible audio off the built-in mics)
  • Canon L Glass lenses

 

Rental was very inexpensive from LensProsToGo. Had them send the cameras and lighting gear to the hotel I was staying at in NYC to avoid me hauling it to/from the airport. Great service from this company and very convenient for shoots not in my hometown (Dallas).

 

The pocket cinema camera has great potential as long as you are a color correcting genius. Happy that the trend in production is going back to using professional colorists as these tools really benefit from them.

 

Glad I gave them a try via rental first, as I was ready to buy one of the MFT versions. Now that I worked with them I think I'll wait a little until a few more basic features (like disk space) are worked out. Hope to rent a Sony F55 on the next shoot...or go back to 16mm!

 

"Film Look" original shot:

post-7911-0-67186500-1383061604_thumb.png

 

Color Corrected in Post:

post-7911-0-78323000-1383061730_thumb.png

 

 

 

"Film Look" original shot:

post-7911-0-75330200-1383061719_thumb.png

 

Color Corrected in Post:

post-7911-0-69568300-1383061617_thumb.png

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I did a feature on the cinema, and a short on the pocket. So far no dropped frames so long as one is using approved cards and properly formatting them after dumping.

Biggest issue is building them up to something workable is still a bit of a kludge but that's because parts aren't yet on the market. Lensing, on the cinema, can be a pain due to it's odd sensor size. This isn't an issue with the pocket as it's a S16mm sensor size.

 

Their built in screens are kind of crap; but that's easily solvable. V mount batteries for both save the day.

Have a lot of storage. It's a lot of data ( think the feature shot something like 800+gb/day in raw).

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No frame dropping or crashing. Used recommended drives so that may have made the difference. These cameras are basically boxes with sensors. You can absolutely get great results, and if I owned one to work with it more I'd probably love it, but walking into a production with two of them for the first time it was a little tricky. The main issue for me was no remaining time indicator on the display. When shooting talking heads that's important.

 

Going straight to ProRes was nice. Couldn't do raw due to drive space limitations. Too much footage to deal with.

 

I'm actually renting from LensProsToGo.com again next week for the AMAs and having them drop ship the gear to the hotel. Great way to avoid lugging equipment through the airport. This time doing Canon C100's.

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  • 2 months later...

I did a feature on the cinema, and a short on the pocket. So far no dropped frames so long as one is using approved cards and properly formatting them after dumping.

Biggest issue is building them up to something workable is still a bit of a kludge but that's because parts aren't yet on the market. Lensing, on the cinema, can be a pain due to it's odd sensor size. This isn't an issue with the pocket as it's a S16mm sensor size.

 

Their built in screens are kind of crap; but that's easily solvable. V mount batteries for both save the day.

Have a lot of storage. It's a lot of data ( think the feature shot something like 800+gb/day in raw).

Do you have any BTS of the shooting?

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