News

The new Postium OBM range of 4K monitors incorporate 12G-SDI input and loopout (x2), 3G/HD-SDI input and loopout (x2), HDMI 2.0 input, and SFP optical connectors. Available in 17” and 24” sizes, the monitors accept up to 3840x2160p60 (24, 25, 30, 50, 60p) and 4096x2160p60 (24, 25, 30, 50, 60p) signals. New Postium 4K monitors have a wide color gamut conforming to DCI-P3 and most of the ITU-R BT.2020 standard. They offer professional performance, including excellent quality black level as well as accurate color reproduction, which make these monitors ideal for live 4K productions, versatile monitoring and field applications. In addition, both the OBM-U170 and OBM-U240 models offer full professional monitoring feature set, incl. integrated 3D LUT, Waveform, Vector Scope, Color Space a Gamma Comparison functions.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that some of the ceremony videos, including the opening ceremony video for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, were created by Brazilian based O2 Filmes using DaVinci Resolve 12.5 Studio for editing and color grading, as well as Fusion 8 Studio for visual effects.

The 2016 Olympic Games opening sequence, which also included scenes shot on the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, paid homage to the Olympic athletes from around the world, as well as the Brazilian culture and heritage that has made it a world famous destination.

The 2016 Rio Olympics opening ceremony was directed by O2 Filmes founder and film director Fernando Meirelles (“City of God,” “The Constant Gardener”), film director colleagues Daniela Thomas (“Paris, je t'aime,” “Midnight”) and Andrucha Waddington (“House of Sand,” “Me, You, Them”) and scenographer Rosa Magalh?es.

“O2 Filmes is incredibly proud to be part of the 2016 Rio Olympics creative team and among the many who will help infuse the Brazilian emotion and originality into this landmark event,” states Paulo Barcellos, O2 Post general manager.

Working with a budget approximately 1/10th of the 2012 London Olympic Games, the team put emphasis on the opening ceremony’s creative content and human performance as opposed to the technical extravagance.

“The Olympics is one of the world’s most watched events, and the opening ceremony for each and every game has been nothing short of brilliant. Without a doubt, there is a new bar set in terms of outstanding visual performance with each Olympic Games ceremony, and Rio has followed suit with an opening ceremony that incorporated the visual mastery of our country’s legendary filmmakers and the spirit of the Brazilian people,” said Barcellos.

The 2016 Olympic Games opening ceremony video was shown on screens and kiosks throughout the Olympic stadium, as well as broadcasted on traditional TV. Some of the videos produced by O2 Filmes will also be on display at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. The team at O2 Filmes spent four months working on creating the video content. “It’s always about timing,” commented Barcellos. “Even though we started working four months ago, there were times in which we had to turn content around in a matter of days, and this is where the Blackmagic Design workflow really helped. Because the games were happening in Rio and Fernando was spending quite a bit of time there, we had split the editing and color grading work between the O2 Post Rio and S?o Paulo sites. The DaVinci Resolve Studio remote collaboration capabilities allowed us to remain connected and evolve the various videos and sequences.”

Barcellos elaborated on the connected workflow, “Much of the clip cleanup work was done in Fusion Studio and sent back to DaVinci Resolve Studio using Fusion Connect. This made it possible for us to work in the new changes much faster than if we had to manually export the individual clips to a comp app. Without this level of integration, it would have been difficult to make the deadlines.”

The ceremony videos directed by Meirelles were produced by O2 Filmes with post production services managed by O2 Post, an O2 Filmes subsidiary.

The 2016 Rio Olympic Games opened on August 5th and will run through August 21st in the stunning city of Rio de Janeiro and iconic Maracan? Stadium and Copacana Beach.

About O2 Filmes

O2 Filmes is the largest production and post production house in Brazil, known for creating a wide range of films, television shows and commercials aired around the world. Its massive 8,500 square meters of creative space, located in S?o Paulo, includes more than 70 Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio seats used for color grading and editing and Blackmagic Fusion for creating visual effects.

Press Photography

Product photos of the Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K, and all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that several Micro Cinema Cameras were used by 2nd Unit DP Sergei Kozlov to capture the opening sequence of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures’ (MGM) and Paramount Pictures’ epic action-adventure “Ben-Hur.”

In this epic story, Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) is a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother Messala (Toby Kebbell), an officer in the Roman army. Stripped of his title, separated from his family and the woman he loves (Nazanin Boniadi), Judah is forced into slavery. After years at sea, Judah returns to his homeland to seek revenge, but finds redemption. Based on Lew Wallace’s timeless novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, the film also stars Rodrigo Santoro and Morgan Freeman.

Timur Bekmambetov directed the film from a screenplay by Keith Clarke and John Ridley. Sean Daniel, Joni Levin, and Duncan Henderson served as producers, with Mark Burnett, Roma Downey, Keith Clarke, John Ridley, and Jason F. Brown serving as executive producers.

The opening action sequence of “Ben-Hur” begins with a wide CG shot of the future Circus Tiberius, the stadium where the chariot races take place. The scene then fades into a skeleton of the future Circus, eight years before it is built, with two riders on horseback. The two riders are Judah and Messala, racing their horses in a full strength competition around dangerous curves and pushing each other into the trees and rocks. The scene showcases the friendship between the two young and equally strong men and sets the stage for what is to come.

Because the two actors playing Judah and Messala were good at horseback riding, director Timur Bekmambetov used them for much of the opening sequence. According to Kozlov, Bekmambetov wanted to shoot as close as possible to their faces in order to capture the emotion and intensity as it plays out during the scene.

“That’s where the idea of using small cameras came from,” said Kozlov. “They needed to be small enough for the stunt person riding on a horse next to the actors to hold in his hands, or so we could mount it on small stabilizing stick and M?VI rig. The stunt person could then get great shots of the actors’ faces as they are riding.”

For these shots, the stunt rider held a M?VI rig with a Micro Cinema Camera and was supported by an Easyrig, while Kozlov operated the camera from the ground holding a MIMIC control system with a monitor in his hands to maintain the handheld style.

“For an even wilder style, we put a wider angle Rokinon 7.5mm MFT lens on the Micro Cinema Camera and gave it to the stunt rider, and he shot some useful footage with his stretched arm, just holding the camera by itself and pointing it at the actors’ faces. The Micro Cinema Camera is very light and compact, which is perfect for rigging and mounting in some unpredictable places,” said Kozlov.

In order to capture a variety of angles, Kozlov and his team also rigged the Micro Cinema Camera under and on the horse, hooking it on straps dangling underneath the horse as well as on the sides of the saddle.

Kozlov concluded, “In addition to challenging and new angles, Timur also wanted to capture these action shots with cinema quality, so I was trying to avoid that ‘video-y’ wide angle feeling. The opening sequence is a day scene, and we shot everything in bright sunlight. RAW was important to get maximum range and keep all highlights in the sky and clouds looking good. The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Cameras gave us the advantage of great dynamic range, RAW recording and of using better MFT lenses.”

Photo credit: Daniel McFadden
© 2016 Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Press Photography

Product photos of the Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K, and all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Sony introduced its latest NXCAM camcorder the HXR-NX5R, superseding popular NX5 and NX3 solutions, offering network functions and a greater shooting performance. Superb colour imagery and high sensitivity is possible thanks to the three 1/2.8-type Full HD Exmor CMOS sensors and 40x Clear Image Zoom function to double the optical zoom without losing image quality, in addition to multi-format recording to cater for wide range of shooting applications and environments such as live events, including weddings or corporate productions.

Delivering notable improvements in overall image quality, further upgrades made from the NX3 and NX5 also include a 3G-SDI terminal that supports Full HD 60p output. The HXR-NX5R also includes the industry’s first adjustable brightness LED video light to minimise the need for external lighting equipment. Plus, the cutting edge technology uses a digital signal processor (DSP), advanced noise reduction and remarkable detail reproduction to deliver images that are remarkably lifelike in texture and detail. A direct menu function and a responsive joystick have also been added for ease of use.

The HXR-NX5R provides content creators with new upgraded network functions including FTP an-d live streaming, with built in Wi-Fi, along with simultaneous backup recording through dual SD card slots for increased reliability and adaptability in challenging live event environments. A choice of advanced XAVC S 50Mbps or established AVCHD / DV recording formats is available to suit a range of workflows and client requirements, so content creators can tweak their production depending on image quality needed.

The HXR-NX5R features easy to use direct functions and a responsive joystick, making it easier to access key camera functions without entering the menu, whilst on the go, combined with a wide viewing angle and high contrast OLED viewfinder to monitor the image. New professional functions mean content creators can cut costs by minimising the need for extra accessories, for example the Multi-Interface Shoe supports a UWP-D series wireless microphone receiver without cables and a battery.

Sony also announced at BIRTV 2016 the release of its new compact multi function remote commander, introduced to help enhance and expand the possibilities of multi-camera shoots and provide increased creative options, remotely. The RM-30BP is the successor to the RM-1000BP, the industry’s first comprehensive, multifunctional remote commander.

Ideal for freelancers and small-budget productions, the lightweight remote can be handheld, placed on a table or attached to a tripod arm for operation. The RM-30BP can control most camera functions including:

• Lens control: one push auto / manual focus, iris and zoom control

• Camera control: recording / display functions, shutter speed, white balance - including six assignable buttons

• Playback and multi camera control (up to 3 cameras)

The new remote can also be connected to the new MCX-500 for multi camera control directly from the switcher, and is compatible with the new HXR-NX5R and PXW-FS7 v4.0, with plans to introduce compatibility for other Sony camcorders.

The new MCX-500 is an all-in-one switcher system ideal for live events or corporate productions, and designed to work alongside the NX5R and the RM-30BP for multi-camera operation. The MCX-500 sends PGM/PVW tally signals to each HXR-NX5R. This feature allows the operator to know which camera has been selected for live, allowing content creators the opportunity to undertake briefs that previously may have needed assistants or a larger team.

New version of Panasonic's Auto Tracking Software for integrated cameras adds the latest version of Facial Recognition functionality. This system is intended to detect and follow one target as in the case of recording a teacher giving a lecture (and is therefore not intended to track one target among multiple objects or multiple moving objects in a camera angle). This optional software requires a PC running Windows 7/8/10 operating system, and is also available for Google Chrome browsers. It is compatible with Panasonic AW-UE70, AW-HE40/HE65, AW-HE130, AW-RP50 (3.21 or higer), and AW-RP120 (2.31 or higher) models.