Major Project: Test Shooting and learning about Black Magic URSA
After asking Sam Creamer if he would be kind enough to allow us to test his Black magic Ursa, a camera we were keen to hire or even purchase its budget equivilent the pocket cinema, today we were able to test in person. And this camera did not dissapoint. Sam went through all the details with us and how much its helped his own filmmaking. This was a beast and is the camera needed in creating the look we want for our docuentary. This has been my intention since the pre-productiom unit and is exactly what I want to carry through. Something I was able to take from this was the idea that shooting in its pro-res setting is better for us than shooting RAW. Whilst RAW would give me more control in the edit becuase it brings "creative control over the images" (Andrews, Butler and Farace, 2006). This means haivng better control on the edit, especially when it comes to colour grading. However, Sam explained that it can be more trouble than what it is worth, and pro-res is his go to setting. Pro Res is "a line of intermediate codecs, which means they are intended for use during video editing, and not for practical end-user viewing. The benefit of an intermediate codec is that it retains higher quality than end-user codecs while still requiring much less expensive disk systems compared to uncompressed video." (En.wikipedia.org, 2019). After establishign thsi I realsied this would be the best setting.
When setitng up an interivew with a shallow depth of field (using a 50mm Lens). If we can achieve this same look with the Pocket Cinema, using a Canon EF Lens to Micro Four Thirds T Speed Booster, we can achive this look with a 4K resolution, a requirement for our target channel Netflix.
Sam explained that the URSA is fantastic for footage, and when hhe typically shoots on Film option as Video isn't great and more for BTS footage, if anything and the High end Film option is for in you're planning on doing a lot of grading in post-production. He also advised me NOT to go handheld with the camera or the pocket cinema. Neither have built in stabilisation and the weight of the URSA means that a heavier rig would be required. For interview shots this might not be so important as a tripod would do the trick, however in creating a build up to the potential interviews or scene recreations a steadicam would be an essential in creating.a proper cinematic look.
After picking it up I found it's incredibly heavy and not something you could do without a rig. Also, my own rig wouldn't be able to handle this as it's built for DSLR cameras so I could need to rent another rig and possibly even an Easy-Rig to help operating due to the weight.
After speaking to Sam he suggested we consider using the Cannon C300 as to purchase second hand can cost £1,300 which is the price we would pay ot hire one for a month. We would also require less accessories as to make the most of the pocket cinema there are a lot of addons you need such as speedbooster, battery isn't amazing and therefore a V-lock battery and to support that a battery V-Lock Plate with rails. It all adds up. After going home to researhc this futher I found it was difficult to find a second hand C300 under £1,800. This was a trickty situation so it made sence to do a tally of the accessories we need for each camera and total up what would be the chepaest. Our hearts were reallyset on the pocket cinema so it is a case where anythign could happen here. The conclusion to this was reached. The pocket cinema was the camera for us.
We would need to simply purchase a Metabones Canon EF Lens to Micro Four Thirds T Speed Booster to give more apeture (thus creaitng the interview looke we want) and also meant we could attach cannon lenses which we could hire from uni. This isnt cheap at £500, but is a worthy investment nevertheless. We found that the batteries and charger would come to £50 for the charger and £20 per battery. Having a few additional batteries and charger would fix the battery issue for cheaper than what ti would be for V-Lock. In terms of what to record it to this has the capabilit to record to USBC SSD directly, fortunately I have a 500GB compatible drive to do this. Whislt expensive, this has been somehting we have been saivng for for a while and if we are going to spend a lot money on equipment hire, why not pay a similar priece to keep it.
References:
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Apple ProRes. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_ProRes [Accessed 6 Feb. 2019].
Sam explained that the URSA is fantastic for footage, and when hhe typically shoots on Film option as Video isn't great and more for BTS footage, if anything and the High end Film option is for in you're planning on doing a lot of grading in post-production. He also advised me NOT to go handheld with the camera or the pocket cinema. Neither have built in stabilisation and the weight of the URSA means that a heavier rig would be required. For interview shots this might not be so important as a tripod would do the trick, however in creating a build up to the potential interviews or scene recreations a steadicam would be an essential in creating.a proper cinematic look.
After picking it up I found it's incredibly heavy and not something you could do without a rig. Also, my own rig wouldn't be able to handle this as it's built for DSLR cameras so I could need to rent another rig and possibly even an Easy-Rig to help operating due to the weight.
After speaking to Sam he suggested we consider using the Cannon C300 as to purchase second hand can cost £1,300 which is the price we would pay ot hire one for a month. We would also require less accessories as to make the most of the pocket cinema there are a lot of addons you need such as speedbooster, battery isn't amazing and therefore a V-lock battery and to support that a battery V-Lock Plate with rails. It all adds up. After going home to researhc this futher I found it was difficult to find a second hand C300 under £1,800. This was a trickty situation so it made sence to do a tally of the accessories we need for each camera and total up what would be the chepaest. Our hearts were reallyset on the pocket cinema so it is a case where anythign could happen here. The conclusion to this was reached. The pocket cinema was the camera for us.
We would need to simply purchase a Metabones Canon EF Lens to Micro Four Thirds T Speed Booster to give more apeture (thus creaitng the interview looke we want) and also meant we could attach cannon lenses which we could hire from uni. This isnt cheap at £500, but is a worthy investment nevertheless. We found that the batteries and charger would come to £50 for the charger and £20 per battery. Having a few additional batteries and charger would fix the battery issue for cheaper than what ti would be for V-Lock. In terms of what to record it to this has the capabilit to record to USBC SSD directly, fortunately I have a 500GB compatible drive to do this. Whislt expensive, this has been somehting we have been saivng for for a while and if we are going to spend a lot money on equipment hire, why not pay a similar priece to keep it.
References:
Andrews, P., Butler, Y. and Farace, J. (2006). Raw Workflow from Capture to Archives. Burlington: Elsevier.
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Apple ProRes. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_ProRes [Accessed 6 Feb. 2019].
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