manusapo_us

I am one of the "lucky" owner of the new Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. Most of the time Blackmagic impressed us with new products and annoyed us with unbearable delays. This time I wanted to compare the BMPC with the Pocket Cinema Camera. A good way to find out if the 2270 € are spent wisely or you can stick with the 780 € of the BMPCC...

First of all, I must state that I am not an evangelist of any direction you might go for your own work. I just want to share my experience as an artist and a user ( friendly ? ). 
I have been a loyal customer to Apple's products since 1989. Yeah ! Such a long time. I enjoyed the classic Mac, with it's Black and White thumbnail screen. I had LC II, III, 475... Centric, Quadra... ( ring a Bell ? ), The famous 660AV with in/out video plugs !!! I bought, the beige, the bondy blue, the silver, and the latest Mac Pro Mid 2010 !!!
As you know, lately I shot an independent movie called "the Eye of Silence". This film workflow required the latest connections to support 2.5k Blackmagic Raw files. The aging firewire 800 plugs were simply too slow to support that. I invested into a Drobo 5D Thunderbolt tower that would hold up 15Tb of Hard drives. 5x3tb from Seagate. My Mac Pro with old graphic card and USB 2 ports ( even with an orico USB3 card ) was not up to the task to keep the pace. And must I add, that USB3 is not a Pro connection. Apple announced then a New Mac Pro. But I was facing two major issues.

1 - It is not available yet. 
2 - It will be super expensive. 
3 - I will have to buy extra chassis for PCie cards

Ok it makes three issues !

So what to do ? Definitely not switch to the PC world. (I am a convinced FinalCut Pro X user and a Mac OS geek). And surely not buy an iMac which does not allow me to install multiple cards. ( like the Blackmagic Decklink mini ).

The "Other" solution came out this summer. My Editor JB, built a custom made "Hackintosh". What the hell was that ? It looks like a PC. You buy spare parts like a PC. You get used to the world of multiple brands : Arctic, Gygabite, Corsair... And discover that you actually buy "Play-dough" to lower the temperature of your brand new i7 CPU. 
With the help of geeky websites like tonymacX86, this unattractive PC becomes a real Apple product rip off. And a damn good one !
So here I was fetching on Amazon for the best Hackintosh I could build. 
for less than 1500 €, I could make a 32Gb Ram, 256GB SSD, Dual thunderbolt, GTX680, USB3, 3.5 Ghz (overclocked to 4.5 ) i7 3770k HackMac. GeekBench rates it between an iMac and a Mac Pro. ( overall it feels faster. )
Of course it takes more than 48 hours to find the right settings. There 's a few glitches during this building phase (multibeast). But then again, While you passed the fear of making it, this machine, with no taste and refined input like a genuine Mac, works seamlessly.
I have now a reliable product that allows me to Post product my movie in very decent conditions. Because at the end of the day, you buy the tool that gets the job done ! 

Sorry for keeping this blog silent for so long but I had a good reason. I co-wrote and directed my first independent movie. "The eye of silence" in Beijing. This production allowed me to gather experience that I will not hesitate to share with you guys in the next few weeks. Key elements that makes this movie totally unusual are  :



- A very low budget ( sub 100k€ )
- 35 days of shoot on location in Beijing without any permission.
- 10 crew members
- Shot entirely with a Blackmagic Cinema Camera in Raw 2.5k. ( Converted to ProRes 4444 )
- A real anamorphic image ( achieved with a Panasonic AG-LA7200 converter )
- Using mostly a Ready Rig. 
- Edited with Final Cut Pro X on a Hackintosh with a Drobo 5D Thunderbolt connection.

I used all the modern tools available to make it happens. None of this would have been possible without BMCC China, and the knowledge from various websites that I need to publicly thank for their valuable insights : eoshd.com, cinema5D.com, philipbloom.net, planet5d.com, nofilmschool.com. And of course my faithful crew members. We are the next generation of directing. We do not ask permission to make movie. We just do it !
More infos to come next...

Last September, Tom Shanahan, actor, tv host, and producer for Chinese television, asked me to direct a pilot for a Travel show / comedy called "Show me China" and shot in the Yunnan province. This incredible journey forced me to travel with a light and versatile equipment. I had to do everything by myself : frame / sound / light and running after Tom all day long. I was also my first real life field experience with the new Blackmagic Cinema Camera. So I feel right now like sharing my thoughts ( and a trailer ) on a week and a half shoot ( very different from a simple test with no stress ). Remember this statement is real in February 2013, some of my thoughts won't be accurate tomorrow...( maybe ).

Voilà ! I hope all those experience sharing helped you with your own projects. Feel free to comment... ( politely ; ) )
Emmanuel

It all started like a fun camera test and ended up into a challenging short movie with not so much equipments. A few light pads and an antique American Taxi. The ride to Fame is an homage to old Cinema Chinese star, Ruan Lingyu, an extreme conditions low light performance for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera in raw. ( And a reason to bless NeatVideo as a plug in for post ). This anamorphic test proves once again that cinema is not a money, but a wish issue. So get your camera and get outta here on the street for Guerrilla shoot !

No blabla, just images I promise. But first, here are my early impressions on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. Most of you guys are wondering is it worth all the buzz ? Is the sensor size too small ? Is the rolling shutter too bad ? Do I buy EF or MFT ? What's all the fuss about ? Well, I don't know if any video can really ease your mind before you actually get your hands on it. As far as I'm concerned, let me tell you one thing. It is the best Camera I've ever owned. It's not only about the raw, the 13 stops or any other key features. It is just the first camera to fully embrace post production naturally. Now you can Shoot / Edit / color correct as you breathe !

This precious took her time to arrive from Australia, but it is finally here and I must say the wait was worth it. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is the new best thing you can buy under 5000 $. PhotoCineRent, my usual dealer kept his word and fought to get it. It is just out of the box so I only got time to shoot the dog with it, but I promise I will come with more detailed tests Asap. I feel very lucky being one of the first European to get my hands on it, so I will pay this luck back with some intensive tests. Especially "raw" footage, and Anamorphic ( and not RAW as Philip Bloom would nail it ;) ). I would also like to take that opportunity to thank my dear old 5D Mark II who just retired from a faithful three years of intensive work...

After a year squatting many festivals, "The Post", my first short movie shot with a 5D Mark II, is finally out on the web so more people get to enjoy it. This is the first Facebook based Thriller. And the budget was nearly zero. ( aside from a lot of Post-it notes we had to write on ). As I am leaving the DSLR world for some more Blackmagic life, This short film is a nice way to remember when making movie was just easy !

Magic Lantern 2.3 ( Paypal donation ) is an HDSLR hack for Canon cameras. It's a software layer over the usual camera functionalities. Stabilized 2.3 version is out, and it is a bless for your 5D MII ( and also 60D, 600D, 550D...). It gives any user a real video camera menu ( audio levels, color histograms ) and most of all new features like higher bitrate, Scope CropMarks, HDRI etc... It's a nice way to extend your 5D's service in the field. I just got back from a "real life" shoot with it and I must say this hack was a bless ! I much appreciated the exposure clipping on the image, the percentage picker which gives you an accurate keylight spotter and the aspect ratio locker via HDMI when you push the record button ( those who got fatter just by pressing rec will thank ML ). Also some may like the silence of the locked mirror during the whole shoot. Downsides are the lack of focus magnifier via HDMI, and the obnoxious re-install manipulation every time you grab a new CF Card. But let's face it ! Magic Lantern is a total no brainer for professional Directors searching for a better user experience.

It is official now ! The Blackmagic cinema camera release is delayed. But the Australian company is making the wait less painful by releasing  Davinci Resolve light 9 ( Beta ) for free download. This upgrade is major. GUI lifting makes the move more appealing. And summer is a great moment to train yourself before the next big thing...