This past weekend I directed and shot a short film called “Brothers and Sisters” which was shot on a Blackmagic Cinema Camera (EF model). This short film was a precursor to my upcoming feature of the same name and was done as a creative and technical test to explore techniques and ideas before we shot the feature. It was a very interesting experience because the film had to have a very quick turnaround as our goal was to finish it before the Sundance deadline (September 16th). From conception to final mastery, the entire process took less than 4 weeks.
The ultimate reason I bought the BMCC was to use it in a narrative context, and that’s where the camera really shines. But oddly enough, up until last weekend I’d mainly used it to shoot commercial/documentary/music video projects, so it’s quite refreshing to use it on a project where I can really use it to its full potential. In this post, I’ll walk through my experience with the camera from prep to shoot, and highlight some of the more important discoveries I made along the way. Also, keep an eye out for part two of this post, where I’ll discuss my post workflow.
Prepare
While preparing for this shoot, it became very clear to me that I needed more BMCC gear and accessories. The first thing on the list is a drill. I’ve been using a Jag35 DSLR rig and I definitely wouldn’t trust the BMCC as it feels so flimsy that I would have to build a rig from scratch. My first purchase was a view cage from BMCC and I highly recommend it. The cage is very well built, looks clean and efficient. It comes with an integrated 15mm rod clamp on the bottom which is a nice touch as I didn’t think I would need to buy it separately.
I threaded two 24″ 15mm rods through the bottom of the cage and built the rest from there. The next thing I added to my gear was the Zacuto shoulder pads, then the IDX battery plate (and of course the battery). The battery actually works pretty well as a counterweight, and while I could use a few extra pounds to balance it, I decided to use the battery to help balance things and it got the job done. On the front of the rig I added a small Arri Mattebox and another handle/clip for shoulder shooting. I like to build my equipment in a way that I can easily remove it from a tripod and use it on my shoulder with minimal effort and lag.
The only other extra in the set is a TVLogic HD-SDI monitor, which is crucial given the highly reflective nature of the BMCC back screen. I regret not purchasing the top handle for the BMCC (which attaches to the top of the cage), but I’ve gotten by just fine without it. I also don’t use a follow focus on my rig at all – but that’s because I know I won’t be carrying a follow focus with me and rarely, if ever, do any follow focus.
Production
On the first day we mainly shot interior scenes. The look and feel of the film is very dark and grim, so naturally I wanted to make sure we lit everything accordingly. Everyone always advises that you need to “expose to the right” with this camera, or in other words, get close to blowing out the shot and then lower it in post. In theory, by doing this, you can get the cleanest images from the BMCC. Even so, I decided from the first shot that I wasn’t going to do that in the interior shots. If I followed this rule, I would have to inject more light into the scene and deal with marking it all out, which is not worth it. I wanted to make sure that my actors felt like there was some sense of reality to the situations they were in. If we injected 4 or 5 times the amount of light into the scene, I’m not sure the scene would look the same. Regardless, the final image is very clean. I mostly shoot at around 2.8 aperture and rate the camera’s ASA 400.
Over lunch I dumped the footage to another drive and replaced the battery. The battery and card lasted almost half a day, which was perfect. We shot using Sandisk Extreme 480GB hard drives and carried 6 of them with us. Since we were shooting raw, each drive could only hold about an hour’s worth of footage. Since we don’t shoot more than 3 cards per day, I decided to use 3 as our shooting drives and the other 3 as backups. I’ve also always preferred backing up to an SSD, so this seemed to make the most sense. Many people worry about the cost of pristine filming on smaller productions. In my opinion, it’s really not that bad. Hard drives are so cheap these days that you can buy a 2 TB hard drive (or even two) for just over a hundred dollars for backup purposes. You can buy a slow drive if needed (to save money), it doesn’t matter if it’s just a backup drive. I usually use internal RAID on my computers anyway, so if I’m buying backup drives I rarely buy the fastest drives because they are rarely used and never used.
At the end of the day, we had to shoot a scene outside the house, and according to the script, it was supposed to be at noon. By the time we started rolling, it was almost sunset, so I started to worry that the camera wouldn’t have enough light to sell this as a mid-day shot, but thankfully the BMCC performed very well in relatively low light conditions. It may not be the low light king like the fs700 or c300, but it’s still very good in low light situations. Better than you think. And the raw image can be pushed very far in post, so it’s very forgiving.
The next day we shot completely outdoors in a desert area next to a man-made lake. Going into day two, I was worried about the camera overheating as the temperature was approaching 100 degrees at noon. Anyone who has shot with a BMCC knows how hot these SSDs get, so I’m pretty tired of shooting in these conditions. To protect the camera, we always put it under a tent when we are not using it to shoot, and we will set up several flags around the camera to block the sun when shooting. For a few of our handheld shots, our PA actually had to walk with the flag and cover the camera at all times.
These flags ultimately serve two purposes, the first of course is to block the sun’s heat, but the second is to help with screen reflections. As most of us know, the screen on the back of a BMCC is pretty much useless in bright sunlight, so you really need an EVF. Even our TVLogic monitor with its long sunshield still gave us some really bad reflections. I desperately needed an Alphatron EVF or something similar, but we managed to get through the day with just the extra monitor. What saves us is that this camera has such a large dynamic range that it’s pretty idiot proof when it comes to exposure. As long as you don’t hit a zebra in any normal area (the sun doesn’t count!) you’ll be fine. We really only need the monitor as a framing guide, and it does just that.
By the end of day two, we hadn’t even shot a full card and had just drained our first battery. Using an external power source is a must with this camera, but the importance of getting a good power source cannot be overstated. It’s tempting to buy a cheap Ikan battery solution or other similar alternatives, but it’s not worth it. You end up changing batteries every 20 minutes, and something doesn’t play well with the ergonomics of your gear. It’s nice not to have to worry about battery life on this shoot. One thing to note though is that the BMCC will only drain the entire external battery before draining its own battery. Therefore, when you see the charging symbol disappear from the BMCC screen, it means that the external device is completely out of power. Battery charge represents the internal battery only.
generalize
The BMCC certainly exceeded my expectations for this shoot in terms of reliability and raw performance. Best of all, when you think of the BMCC as a movie camera, it gives you a cinematic look. Does it require external power, equipment, electronic viewfinders and other accessories to reach its full potential? Absolutely. But the same goes for a RED camera or an Arri Alexa. Many shooters complained that it didn’t work as well out of the box as the 5D or C300, but the truth is, it wasn’t intentional. It is intended for use in film production, customizing the camera bag to suit the needs of the shoot. I often feel like people are looking for the perfect camera that can do it all, and if that’s what you’re looking for, this isn’t the camera for you. If you need a narrative cinema camera that can rival images produced by cameras that cost 20 times more, this is the camera for you. If you’re shooting man-on-the-street ENG style documentary footage, you’re going to go crazy with this camera.
As with most other BMCC shooters, my first requirement is that we absolutely need to read the remaining time from the SSD. The audio meter is also very important, although not that important to me since I don’t record audio into the camera regardless of the meter. Regardless, this camera really proved itself on the shoot and has earned a spot on our feature film gear list. I’m sure we’ll be shooting this feature on this camera, although we can use the Red Epic and many other cameras at a low cost. The truth is, the images speak for themselves and the cost is hard to beat! The next day we shot using only available light, and the BMCC functioned well even in harsh sunlight. For tips on shooting with available light, check out my blog post.
Check out some very lightly graded screenshots from the movie, and stay tuned for the trailer soon.
If you enjoyed this article, please help support the site by sharing it on Facebook using the links below and following me on Twitter – @NormKroll
