News

The following lenses are currently supported for Blackmagic Studio Cameras and can be controlled with a supported LANC controller:

Panasonic Lumix G X Vario PZ 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Power O.I.S. Lens

Panasonic Lumix G X Vario PZ 45-175mm f/4.0-5.6 Zoom OIS Lens

Olympus 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 ED M.Zuiko EZ Micro 4/3 Lens

Olympus 14-42mm M.Zuiko f/3.5-5.6 Digital ED EZ Lens

Blackmagic Design released several updates, including HDLink 3.5.5 (adds compatibility with Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite and other minor performance improvements), Desktop Video 10.2.3 for DeckLink, H.264 Pro Recorder, Intensity, and UltraStudio product lines (Uncompressed 8, 10-bit YUV and M-JPEG to 4K capture presets in Adobe Premiere Pro CC, as well as general performance and stability improvements. Has support for Mac OS X 10.10.), UltraScope 1.8 Update (adds support for Pocket UltraScope on MacBook Pro laptops with Retina display and general performance enhancements, as well as support for Mac OS X 10.10), and DaVinci Resolve 11.1.1 (Provides minor performance enhancements including XML improvements for FCP X importing of color data, improved stability for corrupt .dng files as well as support for the new Panasonic VLUT 3D LUT format. Supports Mac OS X 10.10.).

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that O2 Post is installing 80 DaVinci Resolve licenses and three DaVinci Resolves, forming one of the largest DaVinci Resolve workflows in the world. DaVinci Resolve has become a central part of O2 Post’s entire production and post production workflow, and O2 colorists, editors, VFX artists, producers, directors and clients will be able to view and collaboratively work with DaVinci Resolve files anywhere in the facility.

O2 Post is Brazil’s largest production and post production facility and is part of the larger O2 family of film, television and commercial companies. O2 Post, originally launched to serve O2 Filmes subsidiaries, now handles projects for all types of Brazilian and international productions with more than 100 professionals on staff and a massive 8,500 square meters of creative space located in S?o Paulo. With the new installation, all of the projects coming out of O2 will be graded using DaVinci Resolve.

The installation of DaVinci Resolve, which is ongoing, includes three DaVinci Resolve color correction suites and 77 DaVinci Resolve licenses running on Mac and Windows systems. All of these are connected via a facility wide SAN, with unique databases set up for different projects and with up to 40 people able to share a single project at the same time. And because all of O2 Post’s clients are connected to the SAN, they, along with all staff, will be able to open a project in DaVinci Resolve, update it and then play it back on different workstations, with DaVinci Resolve becoming a central part of the entire production and post production workflow.

O2 Post General Manager Paulo Barcellos has designed and managed the building of the new infrastructure: “O2 was a pioneer in shooting digital, but our post facility housed large scale solutions that were not a natural fit with digital, and this complicated the workflow. It was a bottleneck that left very little room to expand. You could not see color grading unless you were the artist working on the project, you were in the color grading room or someone rendered out a file and sent it to you. Turning Resolve into the center of our post production workflow and basing everything around Macs offer us better features, collaboration and performance that is actually three times faster than our previous system.”

Continued Barcellos: “With the DaVinci Resolve infrastructure in place, everyone in the post process is connected to color. We put a copy of Resolve 11 on every visual effects supervisor’s system, allowing him or her to browse, access and playback projects that are in progress. No conversions or exporting LUTs. Just open Resolve, then review and approve a scene. This is incredibly helpful for supervisors working on advertising spots that have a lot of changes. The colorist just updates the project, and the supervisor can review and approve from their desk.

“And O2 clients or DPs can meet with a supervisor to review a project in Resolve together. As the supervisor saves notes in the database, the colorist can immediately make changes to the content. Also, we can easily connect with on set work, accelerating production and post. The process is simple. The on set colorist exports the DaVinci Resolve file approved by the DP to the DaVinci Resolve colorist back at O2, who can start working on the original files immediately. It's a much more streamlined file delivery workflow,” he concluded.

To date, 14 seats of DaVinci Resolve Software have been installed along with the three color correction suites, with the full installation of all 80 systems planned for completion by end of 2015.

Press Photography

Product photos of DaVinci Resolve 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 Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS is a wide-angle zoom lens for E-mount cameras with constant f/4 maximum aperture and 16-35 mm zoom range (35mm). Featuring advanced optical design with five aspherical elements, ZEISS T* coating, and Optical SteadyShot™ image stabilization. Available November 2014.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that several Pocket Cinema Cameras were used to shoot behind the scenes footage and B roll for the Foo Fighters' eight part “Sonic Highways” series for HBO. Blackmagic Design's HyperDeck Studio Pro SSD recorders and Teranex 2D Processor were also used as the backbone for the mobile production unit.

Directed by Dave Grohl, each of “Sonic Highways” one hour episodes is devoted to a different musical landmark, chronicling the unique history, cultural environment and people that define a city, including local legends. With episodes set in (in alphabetical order) Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C., the series airs Fridays at 11:00pm ET/PT on HBO starting October 17.

Executive Producers James A. Rota, Roswell Films, and John Ramsay, Therapy Studios, oversaw all technical aspects of the production, which required a mobile, reliable and easy to use workflow to capture more than 480 hours of recordings, performances, interviews and behind the scenes footage.

“In turning 20 years old, the band wanted to do something special, and they have,” said James. “They didn't just fly around to different cities to record music. They went to iconic locations that have significance to the musical fabric of America, and those places inspired the album. Sometimes we were in a recording studio and sometimes we built a recording studio in a venue, such as Preservation Hall in New Orleans. Each location was a little different, and we wanted to document that process too.

“The concept around using the Pocket Cinema Cameras was anyone, a band member, gaffer, me or John for example, could pick one up and shoot if they saw something interesting happening. Because of the compact form factor, it was a great grab and go camera that still provided a really nice image,” he continued.

“By recording the album this way, it pulls back the curtain so you can see the band write and record the music. It’s a special opportunity as a fan to be able to watch the creative process,” said John. “The locations weren’t always the easiest places to record music in, but it was incredibly easy for us to set up cameras for static shots, plug them into the HyperDecks, put in the SSDs and have them record all day.”

Six HyperDeck Studio Pros were dispersed among six flypacks, which were placed near static cameras set up around the venue to capture the action from all angles. The camera feeds were sent via HDMI and SDI directly into the HyperDeck Studio Pros, which have dual SSD recording slots for continuous recording.

“With the HyperDecks, we could record in DNxHD, which saved time on transcoding, as well as playback footage if needed, jam it with timecodes and basically ‘set it and forget it’ all day. It was like having a never ending tape machine,” said James. “We would set the packs down near the cameras like little stations and when finished, carry them down to the truck and move on. At the end of the day, we would hand off the drives to the DIT, who would send the media back to L.A. for post, and bam you have the majority of your basic footage.”

“When the band wanted to do an impromptu performance in D.C., instead of having to hire a mobile truck, we could throw the camera and HyperDeck setup together and record a live performance on the fly,” said John. “It really allowed us to have a flexible, smaller, tighter crew instead of having to rent a big crew and deal with a complicated workflow.”

The DIT used a MultiDock Thunderbolt based disk dock to back up and manage the media, and a Teranex 2D Processor standards and format converter was also used in conjunction with one of the HyperDeck Studio Pros to record in the frame rate needed, as well as to smooth out any cadence issues.

“Teranex was great because we could record in whatever frame rate we needed, and when we started cutting episodes in post, we also used Teranex for the archival footage to get the formats and frame rates needed. We also used a few UltraStudio Express and Intensity Extreme devices for capture and playback,” said James. “Blackmagic Design has tools that are helpful and solutions for people who are actually doing the work.”

“The documentary process really became part of the music, and any production issues would have affected the album,” said John. “But we didn't have to worry about anything. Blackmagic Design makes end to end solutions and workflows that are very easy to use and very efficient. Anytime you think of a widget you need, Blackmagic Design has it, and it works well and is affordable.”

Press Photography

Product photos of Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, HyperDeck Studio Pro, Teranex 2D Processor and MultiDock 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.