Yesterday I had a tech demo in regard to the Black Magic cinema camera, with our technician/lecturer. I had organised the tech demo as I will be using the Black Magic as part of my minor project when it comes to the physical production side of the work. Fortunately for me the Black Magic has a versatile lens adapter, meaning that you have access to a plethora of compatible lenses, from many different manufacturers. Opposed to shooting on say a Nikon or Canon DSLR where I would only be able to use brand-specific lenses, the Black Magic gives me much greater opportunities to achieve my goals within lens based perspective. Another bonus is the vast amount of lenses we now have access to, as we have combined our stores with photography. Now that I'm familiar with the Black Magic camera itself, I'll be aiming to test out the many different lenses and document my findings, before I actually go out to shoot what I need.
The first thing I learned from the tech demo was about the native ISO of different cameras. This was always something I had been unfamiliar with, but I had always grasped the concept of ISO in general. Native ISO is in regard to the ISO of a particular camera that allows it to perform to its maximum potential. For example, it is widely regarded by filmmakers that shooting on 200-400 ISO will get you the best results. Shooting on 200 ISO on a Canon DSLR (which we had done for previous short films) will get you very good results, because that is often the native ISO of DSLR cameras. The Black Magic on the other hand, has a native ISO of 800. To conclude, the concept of ISO remains the same, that the lower the number the lower the sensitivity resulting in a greater quality image. Yet despite this, it is important to know at which ISO the particular camera you are using will perform best at. This is the first very important thing that I learned today, which I will undoubtedly take with me into the Minor Project and projects beyond.
Below are two images to visually articulate the above discussion on the topic of ISO. The first image is at 200, and the second at 800. It is up for subjective debate which is the better image, but technically speaking they perfectly illustrate the importance of ISO.
ISO 200.
ISO 800.
The second thing I learned of great importance during the tech demo was grasping the concept of shutter speed on the Black Magic. The variety of ways you can shoot on different shutter speeds are made specifically for different platforms. An important thing I had learned prior, within the 16mm filmmaking module, was that you must take the shutter speed and half it to know what frames per second rate you are shooting at. In the case of the Black Magic, shooting at 48 frames per second would mean you are shooting at a shutter speed of 1/24. Shooting at 50 frames per second would mean you are shooting at 1/25. Shooting at 60 frames per second would mean you are shooting at a shutter speed of 1/30, and so on.
In the Black Magic tech demo the important thing was gaining an understanding of how those different things would affect which market you were shooting for. For example, shooting at 1/24 would be primarily for the short film market - online streams, people watching it on the internet, mobile devices, etc. Shooting at a shutter speed at 1/25 would primarily be for cinematic release, and shooting at 1/30 would be compatible with American broadcasting, which is undoubtedly out of the question for me but is important to know nonetheless. Understanding these concepts of shutter speed and where they're used is good for me going into a minor project that will be mostly presented online, so I will shoot at 48 frames per second. However, going into a major project after the new year it gives me something to think about, in terms of shooting at 50 frames per second for cinematic release.
Another aspect of the Black Magic which I was entirely unfamiliar with conceptually was the shutter angle. As I previously discussed, from working with film I had amassed a certain degree of knowledge around the technical aspects of Aperture and Shutter Speed. The shutter angle was something I had never encountered, however. To help us understand the concept of shutter angle in greater detail our lecturer illustrated some pie charts to show us how lower or higher shutter speed angles affect image. The standard recommended shutter angle for the black magic is 172.8 degrees. However, with the right amount of understanding on how changing this can change the feel and tone of an image you can begin to break rules to tell a story in different ways. Below is the illustration to help understand the importance of shutter angle.
The first chart shows a shutter angle of 180 degrees, which is roughly equivalent to the recommended shutter angle of 172.8. The next chart along is 25 degrees, and the third is fully exposed at 360 degrees. These charts show us what amount of the lens is exposed to light based upon the chosen shutter angle. The sentence below the charts summarises the concept of shutter speed. It reads 'picture will be more defined the less light'. From that we can gather that the middle chart, at an angle of 25 degrees, the less light will get in, making the image very defined and almost artificial. This style lends itself to objective and emotionless filmmaking that is often heavily stylised and visually driven; example: Only God Forgives. On the other end of the spectrum, if the shutter angle is fully open and therefore fully exposed at 360 degrees, making the image less defined creating motion blur. This is a common storytelling technique often used to highlight when a character or situation is out of control, or possibly on drugs or intoxicated; example: Shame.
Below are some key notes highlighting some of the areas of new things I learned about the Black Magic, on top of the things I have previously discussed in this post.
After the tech demo we were free to experiment and to play around with the camera. I had agreed to help out another student as they were conducting tests of their own for their own Minor Project. This was beneficial for both of us as we had the opportunity to share new-found knowledge and understanding of shooting on the Black Magic, and it was also another pair of hands when it came to setting up the redheads etc. On Friday I will be looking at the compatible lenses of the Black Magic, I will be documenting my findings so that I may start planning the practicality of my project.
A shot of sinister look and feel, using back-light.
Ethan at work framing his subject.
One of the few lighting set ups we had that day.
Another lighting set up with a coloured gel.
