Using Blackmagic Cameras to Make My Award Winning Feature Documentary
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.ค. 2024
- It took over four and half years to make the biggest passion project I'd ever embarked on and that was to create my first feature documentary on the rhino poaching crisis in South Africa! As both Director and Cinematographer for the film, I had decided to use only Blackmagic Cameras and they all certainly held up well in the harsh conditions that Africa throws at you everyday. I firmly believe that documentary filmmaking forces you to become a better cameraman and I can't wait to sink my teeth into a new documentary soon! My experience with using the URSA Mini range of cameras taught me to master the camera and learn it's capabilities as well as how to work within its limitations.
Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
0:50 - URSA Mini 4k
04:56 - URSA Mini 4.6k
09:21 - URSA Mini Pro 4.6k
13:51 - URSA Mini G2 & Pocket 4k
14:10 - How to Become A Better Filmmaker
Team Behind 'The Last Horns of Africa:'
- John Banovich, Executive Producer
- Antonia Salm, Exeuctive Producer
- Garth de Bruno Austin, Director & DoP
- Sean Viljoen, Camera Operator & Writer
- Morgan Pelt, Producer
- Jonathan Rowden, Editor
- Sean Tinnion, Composer
- Glenn Martin, Sound Design
- Brad Habib & Colin Graham, Dialogue Edit & Sound Mix
Cameras & the gear used to make the video:
✅ Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro G2 4.6k
✅ Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6k
✅ Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6k
✅ Blackmagic URSA Mini 4k
✅ Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k
✅ Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens
✅ Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 Sport Lens
✅ Edelkrone Focus One
Photos in the video taken by @SeanViljoen from 'Conservation Film Company' and @Morgan_Pelt
🎵 Music used in this video from Artlist: shorturl.at/iuKP0
[Note: None of these are affiliate links.]
For any questions and enquiries, please email me at hello@garthdbaustin.com
#documentaryfilm #blackmagicdesign #thelasthornsofafrica - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
I´m gonna go in a few hours to make some footage in a soccer stadium for an independent documentary project. WIth my loyal Blackmagic Production Camera 4k. You gave me some good insights and inspiration with this video. Thank you! Cheers from Brazil.
Blew my mind. So, so helpful - thank you for sharing.
Incredible footage! Your focus-pulling skills are enviable
Wow I havent seen a 35mm DOF adapter in forever. Those pictures gave me heavy nostalgia! Great shots man.
Congratulations, you are living the dream. Well, my dream anyway 😆. Keep it up 👍
haha thanks mate! Appreciate it, but I really wish I was living the dream a bit more, covid has made travel difficult.
What a great story!
Inspiring! Coming from a corporate videographher with 6k pro, I push it's limits and saying to myself, one day I could have a project filming a documentary with my beloved Blackmagic.
Thank you for this video
love your videos. Amazing knowledge.
Thank you!
What a Great VIdeo!!!!
Awesome job man
Fantastic, brilliant video.
Also as a documentary filmmaker from England myself (currently in Peru)....can I just applogise about our weather haha.
Amazing story ❤
BLESSINGS
Great video, thank you.
I love that you used some of Hans Johnson's music at 0:50 The strong African themes really suit you're content. Anyway, Congrats on the Jackson Wild Film Fest nom! excited to see what the future holds.
Thanks Keegan! love his music! That actually reminds me, I really need to add the artists in the description not just that the music is from Artlist.
@@GarthDeBrunoAustin 👍 Respect, I'm sure the composer's would appreciate it.
Awesome vid! This is the type of content I would love to make (animal/conservation, not TH-cam). Thanks for sharing!
Even a low-budget system has windows where excellent results are possible. While finding those windows and stitching them into a workable range of solutions, I work around smaller holes and fill major holes with updated equipment (or rentals). Interestingly for me ...a lot of test video winds up producing potentially useful B-roll clips.
Hi Ken, totally agree! Thanks for your comment. 👍
Wow
Some amazing footage and really well made video.
I’m curious on how you decided on which aperture to use?
Your work looks amazing ! It is possible to see the film ?
Do you have a few more videos planned for the coming future? I'm so keen to see more from you
Plenty more, ill be posting weekly!
Is there anything in particular you'd like to see?
@@GarthDeBrunoAustin I am wondering if you have put your hands on BMPCC 6k pro. i watched your BMPCC 4k video long ago. i was actually waiting for 6k pro video.
Bello
Some clips were marked as HD and some as 4K. Would you be able to explain the thought process between deciding on when to film in which one? My best guess is that if you know what you're filming needs to be a longer constant clip or longer time of filming in general or said event, it would be HD, and then cinematic events that are shorter in duration you film them in 4k? I'm about to setout to film a docu series using the 6k Pro and got my rig up and hdd's ordered. Hoping I've considered everything and additionally I'm trying to see when to use my GH5 and when to use the main camera. Or should I just always aim to use 6k pro. For example mountain biking with a interviewee, I can't bring the 6k with me or keep it in the car. Or on my back while coming down a mountain....
It was a bit of a mixed bag. Most of the landscape shots were shot in 4K so I could reframe and add more movement. Most of the film was shot in HD because of storage. We were shooting on and off for 2 years so hard drives would have become unmanageable if we shot everything in 4K.
Although, I am planning on shooting our next documentary in 4K. With Braw I feel I have the ability to shoot in higher compression without compromising the image. I currently have a complete braw workflow so will bring that over to the next doco.
Hope that answered the questions 👌
@@GarthDeBrunoAustin For your next documentary, what combination of camera and lenses do you think you will use?
I love the color grade of the film, did you use Resolve? Or a particular LUT you'd be willing to share the source of?
Would love to see a video on your approach to color. Did you hire a colorist for this? Looks great!
I was just thinking the same!
Good video,like it. Can you share how you record the ambient sound in the documentary? especially the giraffe shot. 👍👍👍
I have a video about layering audio for sound design, I show the setup I have as well as how I record foley to go along with ambience.
When it comes to recording the Ambience I use the Zoom H6 with the stereo attachment as well as a 4 channel surround sound mic for special recordings.
I always try and record for about 5 minutes or more per field recording, this is so get a chance to capture as much diversity in the recordings as possible.
Link: th-cam.com/video/dwd3TKOg1mQ/w-d-xo.html
The giraffe shot was a few different recordings.
1. The ambience
2. Rhino breathing sounds
3. Rhino eating sounds
I needed sounds that sounded a big and close. so I chose some of my rhino sounds to give the giraffe his eating sounds.
Hope that helps 👍
Damn, I've never really looked into these cameras. I'm absolutely loving these images. I'm currently at the point, where I'm looking to upgrade to a bigger, cinema-style body, and the camera I've had on my radar the most and am ready to buy (Sony FX6) is just not available, for months to come probably. Everything else is a compromise, but these seem the be the closest, especially with the RAW benefit. One thing I'm worried about a bit tho, how is the AF? I use it quite often, and it would be nice to have something at least kinda reliable :D
There is no AF. FX6 makes more sense, just that the image is not the same.
@@kolecava thanks! Yeah, I got my FX6 finally, was the right choice
that"s really beautiful ! i'm looking for a lens for the BMPCC 6K PRo like sigma 18 35 1.8 ef but im really afraid to dot have the stabilisation on it for make documentary do you have an idea of one lens like this beautiful one not too expensive ? thk
Amazing video Garth and congratulations! Any plans for ‘Last Horns of Africa’ to go to a streaming service?
Did you have any issues with clipping highlights on the Ursa mini 4k??
I've been told that black magic cameras perform greatly when having studio lighting set ups. And that they suffer in low light situations. For the shot of the soldier @2:03, Is all the light from the cars?
Wie kann man den Film anschauen?
what mode did you shoot in? un compressed raw? pro res?
We shot most of the film in Prores 444 HD, a few landscapes and time lapses were shot in prores 444 4K
We still ended up with nearly 40tb of HD footage, would have been unmanageable if we had shot pro res 4K.
If we were shooting the film now I’d be using Braw 4K 8:1/12:1 for almost everything.
@@GarthDeBrunoAustin I have the ssd module connected to the mini. What’s your best ssd you’ve found to work? Biggest capacity I mean?
@@risingempireentertainment I had the SSD module as well but I ended up using the c-fast cards more because the card readers are easier to find but I also don’t like shooting for an entire day on one card. I have trust issues with cards and SSD’s :P
I think I have the Samsung evo SSD for the attachment which works pretty well
@@GarthDeBrunoAustin thank you. I have learned a lot from just this one video. I’m very impressed by the range you got shooting in pro res. I’d be scared to make mistakes I couldn’t fix in post with out the flexibility of raw.
@@risingempireentertainment interestingly enough, pro res still has a lot of range for colour correction. The film called “moonlight” was shot in Prores as well as many others. I think it’s also really good practise to try and get it right in camera as often as you can
Great tutorial for wildlife film productions. we got the Black magic mini G2 in India for our work ,your presentation answered 1st. question what lens do we use, we will go for Sigma or Sony since we need tele zoom lens . My Cameraman tells me that from CF card to store or save footage is expensive, what do we do. Please guide and advise. we have 3 cards in us now. Thanks for sharing the tips and all the best. Do watch our video on You tube ,Ecocare foundation. Yash
Why are they cutting off their horns in the footage ....
From another documentary I watched they cut off the Rhinos horns (on wild life reservations) so that poachers won’t kill the Rhinos for their horns. The Poachers will kill the Rhinos and then take off their horns. So if the Rhinos now don’t have horns they are safe from the poachers.