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Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that award winning director Derek Yee purchased the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K for his production team and to provide footage for his new film, “I Am Somebody.”

As the chairman of Hong Kong Film Directors Guild and a film director known for his critically acclaimed works including “Protégé”, “One Night in MongKok”, “Shinjuku Incident” and “Triple Tap,” director Yee was no stranger to Blackmagic Design's products before his purchase of the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, as many of his films were graded on Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve.

When preparing for his film “I Am Somebody”, which tells the story of small time actors working as extras in Hengdian, the world's largest film studio, Yee wanted a portable compact 4K cinema camera. Chi Ying Chan, DP of the film, best known for his work on “The Man with the Iron Fists”, “DOA: Dead or Alive”, “Finding Mr. Right” and “Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame”, recommended the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K for its compact size, lightweight, ability to record 4K RAW and easy to use Blackmagic post workflow.

“It is a good camera for us since it has enough resolution and dynamic range for our film projects and the detail is quite amazing. We tried the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K to key out some blue/green screen footage and the result was satisfying, which means it could be used as a great CG source camera as well,” said Chan. “Its menu design is so user friendly that you can quickly locate the setting you want to adjust on the built in touch screen and it’s also good to see what you are shooting and have shot on the screen.”

“Due to the documentary nature of our film 'I Am Somebody', Mr.Yee thought that the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K would be extremely useful as the compact design of the camera would allow us to conceal the camera very nicely and would be able to capture some unique shots of real interaction between the actor and the people and environment around them, making our movie extremely authentic,” said Douglas Chang, coordinator of Yee’s production team.

Chang also noted the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K was great for location scouting because location scouts could take it to a remote location easily and capture some rare weather changes there, such as heavy snow, clouds, strong winds and storms, so they would not have to make a second trip back to the same remote location with heavy production equipment. “By bringing a lightweight portable 4k camera, we are very versatile and able to shoot whatever we like during the recce, which gives us a lot of time and cost saving advantages,” said Chang.

According to Chang, Yee wanted the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K for underwater shoots as well because Yee was an avid diver and underwater cinematographer. “As soon as he heard that the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K is able to produce film quality imagery with minimal accessories and manageable size, he asked his friend, who is the owner of the underwater housing company Nauticam, to produce a housing that fits the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K,” said Chang. “Mr. Yee does have several upcoming projects that will require underwater shooting. Purchasing the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K will give us a good chance to do tests and experiments.”

“The affordability of the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K means more talented people now could get their own high quality 4K cinema camera at a much lower cost, which would move the whole filmmaking industry to a higher level,” Chi Ying Chan concluded.

Press Photography
Product photos of Blackmagic Production Camera 4K 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 film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, 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 stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced today that its Pocket Cinema Camera and DaVinci Resolve were used on a new ad campaign by SanDisk, one of the world’s top brands for memory cards.

“The World Is Memorable” campaign was produced by the Tokyo based Taiyo Kikaku production company and took three directors around the world to capture everyday life around the themes of life, passion and color. One of the directors, Eiji Tanikawa, and his DP, Senzo Ueno, used the Pocket Cinema Camera to capture footage as they traveled through India and France over the course of a week.

”Everybody carried a camera to shoot people they saw at each location,” Takao Inoue, Taiyo Kikaku producer, said. “They constantly shot anything interesting to them, and as a result, they captured enormous amounts of footage. Twenty seven hours of it.”

“I don’t think we could have achieved this job if we used big cameras. Carrying bigger equipment on locations makes the scale of the production bigger, which requires more staff. It also means a higher production cost. Bigger cameras are easily noticeable, so we would have to get permission for shooting everywhere we went. On top of that, even if we had enough budget to handle a big production and use big cameras, we wouldn’t have captured such great expressions from the people we shot with the Pocket Cinema Camera,” said Senzo Ueno.

“The Pocket Cinema Camera is the best camera for documentary or documentary like projects, which capture real people’s everyday lives like this SanDisk campaign,” explained Eiji Tanikawa. “It is nice, as the camera allowed me to shoot the subjects without them getting nervous. Usually, when someone has a camera pointed at them, they will feel tense, however when it’s over, they will relax. Our trick was to mimic the action of pressing the shutter button. People thought we had just finished taking a picture and became relaxed, but we were actually filming the moment.”

“The Pocket Cinema Camera has 13 stops of dynamic range, and I love the tone that the camera captures. When we finished filming, we edited the footage in our office. Not only that, but a colorist came to our office with his equipment to grade our footage. Since we shot ProRes, we could keep our workflow very simple, which allowed us to finish this project all in house,” said Ueno. “The edited timeline contained shots from various cameras, and the lighting conditions of each shot were different, so we had to make a consistent look for the entire timeline. With DaVinci Resolve, we could easily archive to balance out all the shots using a wide range of toolsets.”

After shooting, both Tanikawa and Ueno personally purchased Pocket Cinema Cameras because of the camera’s benefits. “Even if I am not working, for example, if I travel to New York and shoot something with the Pocket Cinema Camera, the footage can be used for my work, it’s so high quality. I couldn’t have done this before. The camera is very useful to film your own personal stock footage,” concluded Tanikawa.

SanDisk “World is Memorable”

Three leading directors in Japan traveled the world and captured irreplaceable moments. Watch all ten movies at: http://www.sandisk-jp.com/memory/

About SanDisk

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, is a global leader in flash storage solutions. For more than 25 years, SanDisk has expanded the possibilities of storage, providing trusted and innovative products that have transformed the electronics industry. Today, SanDisk’s quality, state-of-the-art solutions are at the heart of many of the world's largest data centers, and embedded in advanced smart phones, tablets and PCs. SanDisk’s consumer products are available at hundreds of thousands of retail stores worldwide. For more information, visit www.sandisk.com.

Press Photography

Product photos of Pocket Cinema Camera and DaVinci Resolve, 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 film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, 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 stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that Cardy Films has shot “Life of Hers” on the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. Written by Samantha Chioma, directed by Olan Collardy and Ola Masha, the brand new micro-budget drama series explores the lives of four women living in London as part of the African diaspora.

“Life of Hers” reflects on the existence and friendships of four millennials in a cosmopolitan city. It explores the complexities of life as a young woman and some of the unique conflicts that can arise between inherited traditions and assimilated new cultures. The pilot series is set to follow the Netflix model of releasing all five episodes at once on YouTube so that viewers can watch the series holistically.

In addition to being the executive producer and cinematographer, Olan Collardy also co-directed the “Life of Hers” with writer friend, Ola Masha. As the cinematographer, Collardy wanted the drama to be filmic in quality with a rustic look and natural skin tones.

“I knew, having observed the camera space, that the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K and its beautiful rendition of color and skin tones was the right camera for this job. The Super35 sensor really complemented my vast array of EF lenses and the ability to work in ProRes was also preferential,” Olan reveals, before explaining “While I am accustomed to shooting in RAW, it would have been too cumbersome and risky on a time critical and cost sensitive project such as this.”

Collardy wanted muted colors to best reflect the narrative world in which these women lived. “They had conflicts, some external but mostly internal and we felt going with bright colors or brightly lit environments would have detracted from the feeling of introspection that we wanted to get across to the viewer.

“Shooting with the Production Camera 4K, I knew its sweet spot was 400ASA so we needed to be meticulous with our lighting. We had two ARRI 650W at our disposal and a few LED lights to accentuate and add fill where necessary. Given we were shooting in relatively small spaces, this was ample lighting sources. We also used a number of practical lamps to add some light to dark corners of the frame.”

He goes on to add: “Due to filming schedules and the time of the year, we didn’t have sun down until around 8pm. That meant every ‘night’ shot had be filmed during daytime and we had to get creative with light placement and gels to cheat a night shot. Filming in ProRes also gave us the flexibility needed to adjust things like the white balance during post.”

“The ability to film in 4K was a massive help during the edit as it meant we could recompose shots in post and punch in for a close up without losing detail. Being able to get your wide, medium and close up from a single shot is a massive win especially when shooting on a tight schedule and an even tighter budget,” he concludes. “Blackmagic Design really does give us the best color science and image quality possible for our budget.”

Press Photography

Product photos of the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K 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 film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, 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 stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Livestream released Livestream for Glass. Downloaded more than 3,000 times since the beta version debuted in April, Livestream for Glass is available to all today via Google's MyGlass - the official Glassware app store. For the first time, users can now stream live to millions of viewers on any device, from conferences to live surgeries to concerts. Today's release of Livestream for Glass marks the latest in the company’s efforts to democratize live video, connecting people and live events around the world. To stream live from a Glass camera to Livestream’s Platform, users need only install and say “ok glass, start broadcasting.” With Livestream for Glass, users can read and verbally respond to real-time chat messages from their audience, right in their Glass viewfinder. In addition to Glass, Livestream offers mobile live streaming apps for Android, iPhone, and iPad, as well as a dedicated camera-mounted hardware product, Broadcaster. All of these devices - including Glass - also function as roaming Wi-Fi cameras, connected directly to Livestream's multi-camera live production software, Studio. Livestream Studio is traditionally used for higher-end productions involving graphics and multiple HD cameras, with output to venue screens as well as Livestream. The addition of a remote camera on Glass opens up innovative production possibilities, enabling producers to incorporate the perspective of a performer, athlete, or an audience member.

Livestream released Livestream for Glass. Downloaded more than 3,000 times since the beta version debuted in April, Livestream for Glass is available to all today via Google's MyGlass - the official Glassware app store. For the first time, users can now stream live to millions of viewers on any device, from conferences to live surgeries to concerts. Today's release of Livestream for Glass marks the latest in the company’s efforts to democratize live video, connecting people and live events around the world. To stream live from a Glass camera to Livestream’s Platform, users need only install and say “ok glass, start broadcasting.” With Livestream for Glass, users can read and verbally respond to real-time chat messages from their audience, right in their Glass viewfinder. In addition to Glass, Livestream offers mobile live streaming apps for Android, iPhone, and iPad, as well as a dedicated camera-mounted hardware product, Broadcaster. All of these devices - including Glass - also function as roaming Wi-Fi cameras, connected directly to Livestream's multi-camera live production software, Studio. Livestream Studio is traditionally used for higher-end productions involving graphics and multiple HD cameras, with output to venue screens as well as Livestream. The addition of a remote camera on Glass opens up innovative production possibilities, enabling producers to incorporate the perspective of a performer, athlete, or an audience member.

Bruce Austin of Bruce Austin Productions Inc. (BAPI) and Dan Harris of Eight Ball Pictures and Stereoscope LLC, have turned to Grass Valley, a Belden Brand, to harness the powerful capabilities of its EDIUS 7 multiformat nonlinear editing software on the film "Our Restless Planet," for the JPL Earth Science Visitor Center. The film highlights the effects of hurricanes, earthquakes and fresh water supplies on our planet.

"We're so proud of this film, which is being seen by thousands of visitors to JPL each year," said Bruce Austin, freelance 3D director of photography, BAPI. "With EDIUS at our fingertips, editing this film was an absolute breeze. We were able to bring multiple formats, resolutions and clips together and were able to edit in real-time without rendering, which made the entire process quick and painless. We're very excited with the outcome of this project, and I don't think it could have been done on any other editing system."

"Our Restless Planet" was assembled with footage from JPL consisting of Red Digital 3D files, 2D-to-3D converted archival footage and a number of other 3D file formats. In addition, Austin shot original footage on a number of 3D cameras, including Sony's TD300 and Panasonic's 3DP1 and Z10000. CG animations of the earth with multiple layers of compositing and chroma keying were accomplished with EDIUS.

"EDIUS allowed me to make editing decisions in real-time while viewing in 3D," said Dan Harris, director and editor, Eight Ball Productions and Stereoscope LLC. "Past experience with other NLE's transcoding slowed the creative process down. With EDIUS, the final delivery was performed in weeks instead of months. Whether editing in 2D or 3D, EDIUS stands out as one of the top editing tools available today."

Grass Valley's EDIUS 7 is a comprehensive editing system widely used for broadcast news, newsmagazine and studio program content, as well as by professional video editors working on organizational, documentary and 4K theatrical productions. Designed as a native 64-bit application for Windows 7 and Windows 8, EDIUS 7 takes full advantage of installed physical memory access for super-intensive media operations, especially layering, 3D, multicam and multitrack 4K editing.

About Grass Valley

The new Grass Valley keeps broadcasters, content owners and service providers future-ready as they navigate the changing landscape of television. With the most comprehensive collection of workflow solutions in the industry, Grass Valley delivers end-to-end television production and content distribution workflows that enable the efficiency and flexibility broadcasters need to stay competitive today — while offering technological foresight they need to keep pace with consumers' desires for more content on more devices. Grass Valley, headquartered in Montreal, leverages the collective expertise and depth of the Grass Valley Group and Miranda Technologies, each having been acquired by St. Louis-based Belden Inc. Belden delivers a comprehensive product portfolio designed to meet the mission-critical network infrastructure needs of industrial, enterprise and broadcast markets. With innovative solutions targeted at reliable and secure transmission of rapidly growing amounts of data, audio and video needed for today's applications, Belden is at the center of the global transformation to a connected world. For more information visit www.belden.com.