One of the First Weddings on BlackMagic Cinema Cameras

Sana + Fahad - Next Day Edit - Filmed on BlackMagic Cinema Camera on Vimeo

To our knowledge, this is one of the first weddings filmed on BlackMagic Cinema Cameras


After travelling around the world for the past 5 months, we are finally back at home front to do our first wedding in Canada. Although, we had blast travelling and meeting new people, home is after all home.

Sana + Fahad are a very simple yet elegant couple. Sana's personality lies is on the shy side, whereas Fahad's personality falls more on the leadership side. He knows what she wants and makes sure he takes care of it. Both's personality compliments each other very nicely which you will see in the next day edit

To add to that, this Next Day Edit, as well as the final wedding film is the first wedding to be filmed on the Black Magic Cinema Cameras. The quality of these camera is far beyond than it's DSLR counterparts.

Technical Details
3x BlackMagic Cinema Cameras
Series of Cinema Lenses
Kessler Crane
Kessler Stealth Slider
Manfrotto Monopods
Adobe CS 6
Davinci Resolve

[Adrian Tan]

Thanks for sharing! First wedding I've seen on BMCCs. I think the better detail, colours, dynamic range do show. I'm intrigued by a lot of your dutch angles, and I think you're very brave for shooting on three BMCCs -- especially an Indian wedding. I personally find Indian weddings very chaotic and difficult to shoot.

I want to add also that for my own part I'm not tempted to give up my Mk3s just yet. Basically because I'm lazy about the workflow and ergonomics, because I think there's huge lowlight advantages to DSLRs, and also because I don't think the improvement in quality is something that is sellable for the sort of people I shoot for. I mean, I can see the difference, but I don't know that brides will -- not online at any rate (maybe in BluRay?).

[Noa Put]

Hope you don't mind me being honest, it's just my opinion and then again, who am I? :)
One thing I noticed immediately was how flat the colors are, there are so much color in Indi weddings and that's what I feel is missing completely here, with a bmc you should be able to make the color jump out the screen.

I don't see anything wrong with the clip, it's well shot, well edited but if you would have told me it was done with 3 dslr's (like a panasonic gh3) I would have believed you as well. I see you use the BMC camera's as a selling points to your clients but I wonder if they would even care, or know what a "bmc" camera is, there are some little masterpieces made (like Still motions and pacific pictures city of lakes) on first generation canon videodslr's which everyone is still talking about and the image quality should not even come close to what a bmc can do today, yet their film has a very cinematic feel to me, even if it's not pinsharp or lacks the high dr a bmc has. I am probably one of the few that doesn't see any benefit in using a bmc to shoot weddings, if you shoot raw you end up in a workflow hell and if you shoot prores you end up with a camera that has very limited controls in a run and gun environment , but I see you shot with 3 which does limit some issues as you can rely on other camera's. The bmc camera might look like a bargain and to a certain point they are but they require quite some investment in accessories to get production ready and in such a case I question if you would not be better of just getting three canon c100's instead.

But you are showing it is possible which I think is already an achievement.

[Victor Nguyen]

I agree with everything you said Noah. With raw capabilities, people need to learn how to color grade correctly and that can only come with time. In my opinion, BMCC is a terrible event camera. Not just because of the workflow but also because of internal battery and lack of button (you have to go into menus using the touchscreen).

[Jawad Mir]

First off thanks for your responses. Appreciate them. Here are my replies:)


Adrian,
Thanks for your thoughts dude. Appreciate it. And believe it or not we have shown this to few brides already and they do see the difference. There were 2 brides who did without any comparison while others had to see DSLR footage to notice the difference. Couples are getting their homework done.



Noa,
I agree with you about the colors. Davinci Resolve is not the most easiest program to learn. The wedding that we are working on right now does have more colors. Not because this wasn't. Since it was our first shoot, despite all the planning, we got into a bit of unexpected issues and Da Vinci is not like your 3 way color correction program. Much more complex

As far as BMC is a selling point to clients. That's not true unless we shoot RAW. The reason we made a switch to BMC is besides weddings, we do a lot of corporate/music video and commercial work under Sky Blue Productions. So it went hand and hand. The stories are far more important than cameras. No doubt but BMC does have details that DSLR doesn't offer even in ProRes. And a RAW wedding would definitely require lot of resources but it's something that we are aiming to do in near future. Let's see how that goes.

And with accessories, it does add up for sure.

Thanks again


Hi Victor,
Thanks for your thoughts. Agreed Color correction comes with time especially with Davinci.

I disagree about BMCC being a terrible event camera. Anything takes time to get used to as after filming one wedding, we are all over this camera. It has some disadvantages and no camera is perfect and no camera is for everyone. We feel it fits well with our Weddings as well as corporate/commercial shoot.

Thanks again


Jawad

[Josh Bass]

If I can go a little off-topic, what is the user experience with this cam like? Especially for something as chaotic and uncontrolled as an event? What is the moment to moment experience of dealing with adjusting exposure, focus, white balance etc. like as you set up each shot? What I mean is, how pleasant/easy is it to go around and get b-roll or whatever with this cam vs a typical camcorder? What do you like? What do you hate?

[Stephen Hill]

We hired a 1st gen BMCC for an Engagement Party shoot. For me the BMCC was a massive waste of time as this model had the lens flange issue. My APS-C lenses just simply wouldn't infinity focus which is a common problem with the 1st batch of cameras. This should now be sorted for future models. Outside of this issue I found the camera far heavier then the DSLRs we normally work with and therefore less manoeuvrable. Event work for me needs to be about getting the shot quick and easily and I didn't feel I could do that with a BMCC. Also, you simply would not shoot in RAW the whole time. It would cause a huge post production workflow when generally events need to be fairly quick turnaround events. It's not uncommon for us to shoot 500GB of DSLR video at an event so its already alot to manage. Shooting Pro Res still gives a better dynamic range but a perfect format for post work. I love the idea of the BMCC but the reality of it for event work is not suitable IMHO.

[Daniel Latimer]

I know I'm resurrecting an old thread, but I'm curious what you (anyone) is using for audio. Not so much during the ceremony, but during prep when a lav mic wouldn't be used. The mic on the BMCC isn't worth anything. I tried using a NTG2 that I have going straight into the Black Magic, but the preamp can't boost the signal enough.

I thought about rigging with an external recorder, but that's more weight on an already heavy camera.

[Stelios Christofides]

I agree with Noa. My Sony NX5 colors are much, much better than what I see here.

stelios

[Note Suwanchote]

Did you shoot prores/dnxhd?

[Daniel Latimer]

Originally Posted by Stelios Christofides

I agree with Noa. My Sony NX5 colors are much, much better than what I see here.

I think the blackmagic takes some work to get great colors out of it, but it's because it shoots so flat and the grading process is where you have to get the colors to a point that you like. The codec gives it a lot more leeway in post. You should be able to make the colors pop, if you want or stylistically choose to leave it as a flatter image.