Blackmagic Forum

Hi,

I'm Danish and have just finished shooting a feature film on the BMCC (in Sweden). I know that no one i Scandinavian have shoot a feature, on this wonderful camera, but have anyone else in Europe made a feature film on the camera.
Not that it matters at all (!), but it could just be fun to know, if we where the fist to make a feature film on the BMCC...

And how are your emotions toward the workflow and the results ?

Alx wrote:Hi,

I'm Danish and have just finished shooting a feature film on the BMCC (in Sweden). I know that no one i Scandinavian have shoot a feature, on this wonderful camera, but have anyone else in Europe made a feature film on the camera.
Not that it matters at all (!), but it could just be fun to know, if we where the fist to make a feature film on the BMCC...

Alx, if you think you might be first you might want to post something publicly (a trailer?) from the actual footage to establish your claim to fame! And then try for the real prize, the first feature to be distributed. Good luck.

Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Congratulations on completing your shoot!

Margus Voll wrote:And how are your emotions toward the workflow and the results ?

I'd also be interested to hear how you found the BMCC, and perhaps a few details of your workflow, i.e. RAW or Prores, lens choices, etc.

A synopsis of your feature for us to read would be nice also while were at it

Any Ppromo links to your film as well would also be good.

It has been a great experience filming on BMCC.

I only had the camera a few days before we started filming, so it was not that many tests we made before we started...

The camera is not mine, but one I borrowed from a friend. It was the first BMCC in Scandinavia, but now I know that there are 2 in Denmark, one in Sweden and at least one in Norway. (perhaps more...)

We shot on a Canon 14mm and a Canon 16-35mm.
I tried the Tokina but it is not sharp if object are more than a few meters away.
Also tried some other SLR lenses but ended up only using the two Canon lenses.

This camera has a "bug" - every time I turn it off it, resets the date and since I did not have time to test the workflow regarding metadata, I renamed the cameras name to the scene we shoot. So with each new scene the camera got a new name. So that was the "fast" solution to make sure that I've named all files and eventually could find them.

We finished recording this Sunday.
Right now we synchronizes sound and picture and would like to start editing asap.
Therefore, we chose to shoot everything in proress, so we did not have to convert everything.
Could have been interesting to shoot raw, but we did not have time for it...

The camera was great to work with but I would probably choose some other lenses next time.

I have not got my own BMCC yet and it's a MFT model I've ordered. Looking forward to getting it!

I'll soon post some pictures or short clips...
The film has not yet a website but only a Facebook page - which is in Swedish ...
https://www.facebook.com/filmenLFO?fref=ts

Anyway it was not because I wanted to claim that we were the first to make a feature film on BMCC - it was just pure interest

Best
Alexander

When ours arrives (MFT) we will be shooting a feature with it so ill keep you posted.

The only advice I'd give is if you can use a slate or an iPad app to record each of your shots(date, time, take, timecode etc) it's more of a sure thing incase the metadata fails.

Congrats on finishing the feature. Advice : Do your trailer like yesterday

The next feature I'm to DP is scheduled in a few months. If my MFT BMCC gets here with enough time to do some tests then that will be the first project I use it for and I'll post as much helpful field info as I can. But I second the tip of an old fashioned clapper/slate and the practise of recording sound externally.

eddietor wrote:When ours arrives (MFT) we will be shooting a feature with it so ill keep you posted.

The only advice I'd give is if you can use a slate or an iPad app to record each of your shots(date, time, take, timecode etc) it's more of a sure thing incase the metadata fails.

Congrats on finishing the feature. Advice : Do your trailer like yesterday

Thanks !

We used a IPad slate...
The thing is that the camera puts the files on the disk in the a totally random order, so if the files are named with scene numbers it's quit nice and great is for a quick sorting.
We'll then use the iPad / clapperboard to synchronize audio and video.

Jason R. Johnston wrote:The next feature I'm to DP is scheduled in a few months. If my MFT BMCC gets here with enough time to do some tests then that will be the first project I use it for and I'll post as much helpful field info as I can. But I second the tip of an old fashioned clapper/slate and the practise of recording sound externally.

I sincerely hope that you get your camera soon. I did not have time to test much...
We used a Ipad slate / clapperboard and recorded the sound externally.
(there are some pictures on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/filmenLFO - it's in Swedish )
But we also sent wireless a "mix" from sound mixer to the camera so we had sound for "dailies".
The idea of ​​sending a very rough mix directly to the camera worked really well. And it is also easier if there should be an error in the files names either on camera or audio recorder.

The only "big" thing I would change next time is that I would like to work with other lenses...

Alx wrote:The only "big" thing I would change next time is that I would like to work with other lenses...

Interesting approach, renaming the camera to the scene. Not sure if that will have some strange metadata ramifications later in edit but apparently it worked well for you to identify scenes and sync audio and video.

Which lenses would you prefer next time? Do you want to use ciné lenses?

Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Hi Rick,

I'll let you know if renaming the camera to the scene will have any strange metadata ramifications...
It was just the "easy" way to identify the files since the camera I borrowed have a "bug" and resets the data every time the camera is turned off. And the BMCC places the files completely random on the disc. Hope it can be solved with a firmware update.

Cine lenses would be fantastic - no doubt about that, and it's not that there is anything wrong with Canon L-series lenses - not at all.
But I used a Glidetrack quit a lot, and to maintain focus when I track towards an object is quit difficult. The extra "resistance" there is Cine lenses and the longer "turn" would have made it a lot easier
Or just a Voigtländer (I have ordered the MFT version) or a Zeiss Distagon have that ekstra "resistance".
I tried to borrow a Zeiss CP2 15mm but no one had it at that time, and I had to have something there was quit wide...

Best
Alexander

Alx wrote:Hi Rick,

I'll let you know if renaming the camera to the scene will have any strange metadata ramifications...
I used a Glidetrack quit a lot, and to maintain focus when I track towards an object is quit difficult. The extra "resistance" there is Cine lenses and the longer "turn" would have made it a lot easier
Or just a Voigtländer (I have ordered the MFT version) or a Zeiss Distagon have that ekstra "resistance".

Alexander

I hear the SLR Magic ciné-style lenses have nice resistance too so should be worth looking into for the BMCC MFT and may be sharper wide open than the Voitländer.

Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Hi Rick,

SLR magic is on my "wish list"
I've tried it (on a GH2) and has exactly as you write a nice resistance.
I was actually surprised at how sharp it was also due to the price!

Best Alexander

The sound of LFO:http://vimeo.com/57860328

Also posted this in another tread...

Just wanna follow up on my post some month ago.

We just had the premiere on LFO at Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX
http://fantasticfest.com/films/lfo

I was really great to see the film on a big screen and I must say that I'm quit happy with the result.

We had some great reviews that I have to share
http://twitchfilm.com/2013/09/fantastic ... ssues.html
http://www.quietearth.us/articles/2013/ ... LFO-Review

LFO are made for a VERY limited budget, and shot in 10 days, but I'm just so happy that it ended up successfully and we're now in the preproduction of another film. And we'll also shoot that on a Black Magic - and hope it will be 4K model

We have used it so that the cam name is changed to the jobs name or shots name.

It is really simple to navigate the material that way.

Mostly you have Name and time stamp to navigate your stuff lets say finder level.

We will see how it goes when Premiere will have DNG support.

checked the facebook pics, great stuff!
How do you come to wear an "IOWA" shirt in Sweden?? I'm in Iowa so that stuck out to me.
What is the "squeeze horn" for on that tripod arm??

Hi Alexander,

I currently shooting with my pocket with four SLR Magic Lenses already and to be honest, I so like them so I would recommend those!

Lenses I use at the moment:

SLR Magic 50mm 0.95 (Cine)
SLR Magic 30mm 1.7 (normal)
SLR Magic 30mm 1.4 (Cine)
SLR Magic 12mm 1.6 (Cine)

When we shoot with Red's, Sony's or Arri's we use Carl Zeiss primes but for al the others SLR Magic's. Great lenses for the prices they do a good job.

Greg Best wrote:checked the facebook pics, great stuff!
How do you come to wear an "IOWA" shirt in Sweden?? I'm in Iowa so that stuck out to me.
What is the "squeeze horn" for on that tripod arm??

HAHA the "squeeze horn" was a prop that we used in the film and I just thought it was fun to have on the tripod. Then I could give at little squeeze once in a while

The IOWA T-shirt is actually the actors owe. He was at a seminar/conference some years ago at a university in IOWA and just thought it was cool...! It's quite funny because other guys from IOWA have comment it

StefanBastein wrote:Hi Alexander,

I currently shooting with my pocket with four SLR Magic Lenses already and to be honest, I so like them so I would recommend those!

Lenses I use at the moment:

SLR Magic 50mm 0.95 (Cine)
SLR Magic 30mm 1.7 (normal)
SLR Magic 30mm 1.4 (Cine)
SLR Magic 12mm 1.6 (Cine)

When we shoot with Red's, Sony's or Arri's we use Carl Zeiss primes but for al the others SLR Magic's. Great lenses for the prices they do a good job.

Great to hear!
Have you any experience with old 16mm lenses on the pocket cam ?

I've thrown up some old Bolex C-Mount lenses on my pocket for giggles, that I used to use on my GH2 and I found the image very pleasing. However, for serious work on the pocket, I reach for my Optar Illuminas since we need to interface with follow focuses and the like.

As for feature shooting on the BMD cams--- shooting one now with 2x Cinema cameras. Biggest annoyance is the cages for them; which I don't like-- and the fact that the screens on the two of them don't match-- they're not horribly off, but it's still an annoyance.

Workflow wise, since we're shooting RAW, the biggest issue comes at the offload stage, since it's a lot of data to have in rotation from 2x cameras. And since it's low budget, very low, there isn't a 100% proper DIT solution on this shoot which just means staying mindful of how much footage we're shooting so we don't get backed up. it hasn't happened.. yet...

Recommend you label the SSDs with a rough record time on them and change out as soon as you get close to that.

Using Compact Primes helps with lenses, but even then, I hate figuring what stop I need for what DoF I want, since it's an odd sensor size, it just makes such things some mental math I honestly would rather not be doing (hence why i err towards liking the pocket with a S16mm sensor which is a size I'm used to or the 4K which is also a common size).

Will say that the dynamic range is the best part of the cameras. Even if you're only shooting prores, the fact that you can not worry about protecting your highlights just makes my life so much easier on set. I can focus on what is important in the scene, and know that roll-off will be there for when we, for example, pan across a window or the like.