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Visual DOF, free Android application designed to extend the management of the depth of field area when filming, has been updated (download). The app supports the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, as well as many other popular cameras and sensors, and now features support of large tablet screens in landscape orientation, input of custom Circle of Confusion parameter, and locking the size of human subjects. More in the following video:

Sci-fi thriller ‘Hero Punk’ shot with Blackmagic Cinema Camera

March 7, 2013 - Blackmagic Design today announced that “Hero Punk,” an upcoming feature film from writer and director Kanen Flowers and produced by Scruffy.TV, was shot using Blackmagic Cinema Camera.

“Hero Punk” is a sci-fi thriller set in 2042 in a dystopian society where the government is working to rid the world of people with mutant abilities. Because more than half of the film was shot on a 1,100 sq. ft. green screen, the team had to mark the virtual world via tracking markers and capture enough latitude in the images to separate the actors from the background, ensuring that lighting the actors would not decompose in the footage.

“After shooting some tests, we realized we needed a camera that could handle the richness of the green screen and the fidelity of the tracking markers, but that was flexible enough to support our sometimes ‘run and gun’ workflow where we could grab SSDs and go,” said Kanen. “We also had to stay conscious of our budget and the fact that we needed two cameras for weeks of shooting.”



Kanen, along with cinematographers Paul Del Vecchio and Patrick Johnson, found everything they needed in Blackmagic Cinema Camera’s super wide 13 stops of dynamic range, high resolution 2.5K sensor, built in SSD recorder, open file format support and compact design. Shooting in ProRes 442 in a 10-bit color space against green screen, the team was able to easily capture tracking markers and correctly light the actors, preserving their natural look without requiring a tremendous amount of tweaking in post.

“We set both cameras at the same f-stop and shot flat, which allowed us to light the talent correctly because we didn’t have any interference from the green screen. The camera’s high dynamic range ensured that when we added the color back later, we could pull a better key in the composite,” said Kanen. “The Blackmagic Cinema Camera was perfectly suited for our workflow. ProRes is a great native codec, and the ability to pop out an SSD with ProRes and seamlessly copy it over to the editing system was amazing. We even edited on site, and the rough composites allowed us to stay on track with what we needed.”

Blackmagic Cinema Camera’s ease of use and flexibility were essential in accommodating the production’s workflow and allowed the team to focus on performance, directing and storyline. Shooting 10 pages a day, the team was constantly setting up new shots, experimenting with perspectives, from 12 ft. in the air hovering over actors or sliding along rails underneath them, and numerous handheld and shoulder shots.

“During one scene, we had the two cameras on shoulder rigs in a very tight kitchen. The scene would have never happened if not for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. There was so much movement that a DSLR would have sacrificed quality and any other camera would have been unwieldy and sacrificed movement,” said Kanen. “The Blackmagic Cinema Camera feels like a DLSR but shoots like a professional cinema camera. And it’s so intuitive that I was able to take over shooting one day. It provided us with the freedom to experiment with shots, let us achieve the look and feel that we wanted and allowed us to make the movie we wanted to make.”

While the film is still in the final editing and finishing stages, Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve, the world’s most advanced color correction tool, will be used for color grading.

Press Photography
Product photos of all Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images. “Hero Punk” images are available here.

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.

Intelligent Creatures announced their decision to define their pipeline with the entire eyeon suite of technologies and workflow methodologies. "We've been working closely with eyeon to develop a new pipeline around Fusion and Generation project management and shot review. The ability for artists to review their work in the context of an active timeline is amazing," explained Eric Doiron, Compositing Supervisor at Intelligent Creatures. With a long history in helping directors tell the most compelling stories possible in such films as Battle: Los Angeles, Watchmen, Babel, The Fountain, Stranger Than Fiction, and Mr & Mrs. Smith, Intelligent Creatures are one of the industry's most creative VFX firms. When asked to respond to the benefits of Fusion, Doiron elaborates, "I really like how Fusion approaches depth compositing and volumetric effects. Through efficient use of the world position pass, Fusion achieves beautiful volume masking and fog effects in a format with a very small data footprint. And since calculations are in world space, the solution is independent of the camera point of view. The low data overhead rendering in near real time allows for more iterations and reduced turnaround time. This gives artists incredible creative freedom up until the last minute, and provides significant savings for the producers." See our eyeon lineup page here.

Autodesk published a series of videos showing new features of the upcoming versions 2014 of its popular 3ds Max, Maya a Softimage products. More information will be announced during the Unfold event on March 27th. At the same time, Autodesk will also rise the prices of Subscription. Act now and renew your licenses at current rates.

Roman Coppola’s ‘A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III’ Colored on DaVinci Resolve

March 4, 2013

Blackmagic Design today announced that American Zoetrope, a San Francisco based production and post house, and SPY, a FotoKem company based in San Francisco and specializing in visual effects, used DaVinci Resolve Lite and DaVinci Resolve, respectively, for color grading on Roman Coppola’s latest film, “A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III.”

Resolve was used by freelance colorist and VFX artist Ryan Bozajian at American Zoetrope for the early conforming and initial color correction, with footage then sent to SPY for final color correction. Ryan and Sin Cohen, American Zoetrope’s digital post production manager, worked closely with SPY's Head of Technology, Steve Maggioncalda, and Senior Colorist, Chris Martin, on system calibration to ensure a seamless transition to SPY for a final color grade on Resolve. The project was then exported out of Resolve for film outs, digital cinema packages and video masters, and the team benefited from the ability to turn Resolve’s LUTs on and off for each deliverables’ needs.

“We developed a great workflow where certain nodes meant certain things, so when the project was handed over to Chris, there was a system for him to interpret right away,” said Ryan. “Resolve’s innate flexibility made the migration easy, and it was a huge advantage for the production.“

“The goal was to get the heavy lifting color correction done up front at Zoetrope, which would lead to an efficient final DI at SPY. We made sure the grading environment at Zoetrope was calibrated as closely as possible to SPY’s DI theater,” said Chris. “We even did initial tests that resulted in Roman feeling very good about how the color decisions made at Zoetrope translated at SPY. Upon import of the project, the media linked up immediately, and we finished color in just two days.”

Because of the compatibility between the two systems, SPY did not have to reconform, translate color decision lists or regrade the project, and instead, simply fine tuned it using Resolve’s Power Windows to sharpen and accentuate features, custom curves to hold highlights and maintain contrasts and multi point tracker for enhanced efficiency. The collaborative process maximized American Zoetrope's time and budget, while still allowing a specialized facility to handle final DI and deliverables.

“We got two weeks of time consuming pre grading work, which you don’t need to be in a DI suite for, done in our office, and Roman was able to work with Ryan in a non pressured environment,” said Sin. “We were able to maximize our time and budget, but still finish in a proper suite. It was the perfect combination.”

"Resolve's power and flexibility really made this whole process possible and incredibly seamless on top of that," said Roman Coppola, Director, American Zoetrope. "It was the bridge between the two workflows, allowing us to collaborate with SPY in the most efficient and cost effective way possible."

American Zoetrope and SPY are already collaborating on a second project for which Sin is using Resolve for dailies creation and transcoding for offline editing, which sets up media pools for a faster conform. “Now, everything goes into Resolve right off the camera. The projects get built in Resolve from the start, and I can create dailies out of Resolve with all the editing materials linking back to the system. It’s a seamless round trip that saves me time in the online process,” said Sin.

Press Photography

Product photos of all Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images. “A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III” images are available here.

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.

About SPY

SPY was founded in San Francisco in 1998, and acquired by FotoKem in 2009. A highly regarded creative studio, SPY has contributed to many projects for some of the industry’s leading advertising agencies, including Goodby Silverstein & Partners, TBWA\Chiat\Day, Leo Burnett, DDB, and more. Over the past several years, SPY has also provided visual effects for a number of features including Avatar and Priest, as well as effects and color grading for director Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt. The facility expanded to Santa Monica in 2012, and shares an address with FotoKem’s award winning sound studio Margarita Mix. For more information, go to www.spypost.com, or follow SPY on Facebook (www.facebook.com/spypost).