This is a collection of footage that Hook has shot with a beta unit of the Blackmagic URSA (EF mount) over the last few weeks. Here are a few words from Hook about the footage…

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Disclaimer: I now work for Blackmagic Design but this video was produced the same way as my previous beta videos, and is definitely not some kind of ‘official’ demo video. Its just a collection of personal footage that I’ve shot while getting to know the camera recently. – Hook

I originally tried to upload an UHD Prores LT, but it failed at 88%. :( I will continue to try and replace the current file but even if not, I still recommend downloading the 1080 Prores LT version – the motion looks a little ‘funny’ on Vimeo.

This was all shot using ONLY the built in 10″ screen for composing/focus and most of the time it was just Danelle and I grabbing footage, I really wanted to see if this bigger camera could still be used like the much smaller BMD ones without a crew etc. The only exception to this being some music video footage, but that was also a tiny crew of 3 of us involving me as director/dop/gaffer with Johnathan Guest from Halcyon Digital being camera/lighting assist, as well as DIT and dolly grip!

The rest is friends doing us favours and getting footage while on holiday to celebrate our 10 year anniversary in Queenstown. Carrying around the URSA, lenses, and tripod on ski slopes was tiring and hard work and not much of a holiday! I also almost dropped the camera off the side of a friends mini speed boat while trying to hold it up to get footage going down the river. :P

HUGE thanks to:
Blackmagic Design
Jeremy and Julian McPike
Jim Pollard
Todd Columb and his freerunning friends
Jayden and Ange Keoghan
Sound The Ocean
Johnathan Guest
Chelsea and Michelle Barns
Tracey Bourgeois
and of course my much better half for the last 10 years – Danelle!

Edited and Graded in DaVinci Resolve 11

Mostly shot at 60fps Prores 422HQ in camera and conformed to 24fps

Lenses: Sigma 18-35/1.8 Art, Sigma 50/1.4 Art, Canon 70-200/2.8L II IS
Hoya ProNDs and Tiffen VariND+Hoya IR Cut
Schneider Hollywood Blackmagic 1/4 and Tiffen Soft FX 1

Music: “By Your Side” – used with permission from Alan Poettcker of “The Runaway Club”

Director: CaptainHook
DP: Alex Jenkins / CaptainHook
Producer/Props/Styling: A Couple Of Night Owls
Production Assist: Danelle Bourgeois
Gaffer: Alex Jenkins
AC: Manon Laffitte
Jib/Lighting and 2nd Camera Assist: Ben Grainger
Make-up / Wardrobe: Nella Louise Zisser and Hurricane Kids
Venue Lighting Assist: Joshua Strand
On Location Sound: Scott Seabright
Pixel Drape Op: Ryan of The Production Co.
Edit/Grade/FX: CaptainHook

Shot on BMCC EF. Graded in Davinci Resolve. Compositing/FX in Nuke.

Crime Storm…

Behind the scenes…

From Hook:

I have been out grabbing some footage and testing this little guy the last week or so and having a blast! I really can’t get over the image that’s coming from this tiny little package. Amazing. The stealth factor is also great as everyone assumes you’re on a typical “point and shoot” and don’t think twice so pay you no attention. I can see myself shooting casually with this more than my EF 2.5k model (which I plan to sell to get the MFT mount version) as it’s so portable and light-weight, I can take it just about anywhere with me. I couldn’t bring myself to rig up this camera as it kind of defeats the purpose to me.

The footage is mostly made up of our Canon L Primes via the Redrock Live Lens adapter so that I can control aperture on our lenses. Some shots are with the Panasonic/Lumix 12-35/2.8 (thanks to Gilbert for loaning me this and a couple of other active lenses to test with).

Lenses used in this clip are:
Canon 24/1.4L
Canon 35/1.4L
Canon 50/1.2L
Canon 100/2.8L
Panasonic/Lumix 12-35/2.8

Everything is either handheld, on a monopod, or on a Glidecam HD4000 (thanks to Si Moore). Majority is shot at ASA400 (did not shoot RAW) with a few of the night shots at ASA800, but even some of them are at 400. Most of the night shots are also at F1.4. The glidecam stuff by the beach was the Lumix 12-35 at around F16 (don’t have any ND’s that fit the filter thread). Otherwise the majority of the day shots are at F2.0 using Tiffen IRND’s to get appropriate exposure.

Shot in BMDFilm with my LUT applied, and only minor corrections beyond that. You can find my LUT here.

I can see this camera becoming VERY popular. Great stuff and congrats again to all the team at Blackmagic, plus a HUGE thank you to BMD for letting me take this guy for a test drive!!

Music by the amazing Lennon and Maisy

Colour grading done in Davinci Resolve. Originating footage from Red, Blackmagic Cinema Camera, and 5D MKii and MKiiis.

BMCC – Auckland City

This is various footage of my amazing girlfriend Danelle (the better half of “A Couple Of Night Owls”) and other people walking around Auckland over various days (in-between busy work schedules) since i first got my Blackmagic Cinema Camera. I shot at various times of the day to see how it would handle, including under the middle of the day “brutal” NZ sunlight. I really can’t believe how well the camera handled those situations – the dynamic range is amazing. I shot at spots we have taken stills at before on our 5Dmk3′s, and to put it bluntly the BMCC kicked it’s ass! It was able to retain so much more information in shadows/highlights compared to our stills, i really wasn’t expecting this even though there has been much talk about the dynamic range of the camera.

Blackmagic, I think you’ve done an amazing job with this camera. Yes, everyone is waiting for certain firmware updates and OLPF’s etc, but the core image/colour is just fantastic. There were no lights/reflectors/diffusers used in any of this footage and I really can’t wait to shoot some stuff with more ‘controlled’ lighting. There have been concerns about the ‘small’ sensor and getting shallow depth of field (I had them too), but what I’ve found is that not only does “deep DOF” look great from this camera, but shallow depth is completely possible and looks equally great. Getting “wide” shots in tight small rooms with some shallow depth may be trickier (you need fast/wide/good glass) but otherwise it’s no real concern.

This footage is a mixture of RAW and Prores (RAW until around 1:15, then prores until the end – BMDFilm used for both) and they definitely have a slightly different look. RAW is full of detail and colour, but I also love the prores and I think in some ways it looks more “filmic” than RAW (dare I say it!). Some of the footage was also shot before I had built my shoulder rig and I was only using the screen on the back of the camera, but most was using my shoulder rig and there’s a couple of (poorly executed) glidecam shots (I don’t recommend trying it without a vest!! Thanks again to the Atkins brothers for the glidecam vest and Si Moore for the HD4000).

Lenses used:
• Canon 14/2.8L
• Canon 35/1.4L

Tiffen WW ND1.2 / IRND1.5 4×4

Graded in Resolve, “assembled” in Premiere (hardly what I would consider an ‘edit’ :P )

Music (used with permission) by the amazing Ben King from the Grand Rapids‘ album “Faintheartedness” (which I also had the extreme pleasure of mixing!)

BMCC Goes to Bootcamp

My first test shooting Prores on the BMCC – My friend Tumehe runs a bootcamp here in Auckland, NZ so me and a couple of friends used it as an opportunity to test out the camera (it was their first time shooting on the BMCC and my first time shooting Prores with it – all my previous tests were shot RAW). I pushed the limits of exposure shooting this (both under and over) and learnt a lot in the process by seeing where I could take it later in grading.

Thanks to Mike Braid + Grant Findlay for hanging out and shooting with me, Ryan Baigent from Locus Creative for the Jib, the Atkins bros for the Glidecam Vest, Si Moore for the HD4000, and Mike Viskovich for the edit. Music (used with permission) by Tumehe.

Lenses used:
• Canon 14/2.8L
• Canon 35/1.4L
• Canon 50/1.2L
• Canon 100/2.8L

Tiffen WW ND1.2 / IRND1.5 4×4

Shot in 30fps, conformed to 25fps for a slight “slow motion” effect.

Graded in Resolve.

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Also, this is his BMCC rig so far…

The rig is actually pretty well balanced (thanks to the hyperdeck shuttle and switronix sitting on the back), Hook thinks he could improve it by getting the BMCC further back onto his shoulder. The only piece in this rig that isn’t his is the actual shoulder pad (shoot35), which he’s borrowing from Mike (cheers!). Hook tested Mike’s shape shoulder pad too, which allows the BMCC to sit more on the shoulder so he may go for that. Not sure yet.

Hook also used a redrock offset at the front to get the zacuto grips more central to my body, which makes operating much more comfortable for him (you can see his DP6 in that picture too).

Directed and Shot by: Mike Braid
Edited by: Johnny Barker
Graded by: Hook

Directed and Shot by: Mike Braid
Edited by: Johnny Barker
Graded by: Hook

Performed by: Stan Bicknell
Recorded by: Hook