Argentina. Argentinian audiovisual production company Pandax 4K used Blackmagic Design technology to record the program "The Last Supper," hosted by Alejandro Fantino and broadcast on the national channel El Nueve.
For the production, the Argentinian production company used six Blackmagic URSA Broadcast cameras, an ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher, an ATEM 2 M/E Advanced panel, Hyperdeck 12g and HyperDeck Studio HD Pro recorders, a 40×40 matrix and converters of the brand.
"The Last Supper" was filmed in an old palace in 1957 where a specific set was prepared for filming. "Although the production asked us to shoot three cameras, for a backup issue we decided to shoot with six. I point this out because one of the great advantages that Blackmagic offers us is the possibility to record in swicheado but also in all cameras, and especially to do it in the RAW position. This is very important because it allows you to do color post-production as desired, and even provides the opportunity to correct any possible errors in the vivid," said Marcos Nuñez, Partner at Pandax 4K.
"Although in television everything is a little more controlled, we consider that with seven participants at a table it is very interesting to be able to have the chance to record some shots, such as a knowing look or a close-up that perhaps the director did not get to strike," he added.
As for the workflow itself, Nuñez acknowledged that with Blackmagic it is possible to record everything on the same level, making CCU from the IP without having to carry giant racks. "We occupy a third of the place that would be occupied by teams from competing brands, such as Sony or Panasonic. In addition, it is a workflow that stands out for its simplicity when it comes to operating it. And the hybrid part allows you to record and be able to put everything from an SD memory to some SSD hard drive adapters. We even use the brand's built-in intercom system, using the camera's connection. And as a fairly open system in the concept of what engineering is, we have also staged associated Blackmagic products such as the wireless TalIys and a Shield for Arduino, which is a 3D SDI board that we programmed to have the part of the Tally in the crane operator," he detailed.
For recording, Pandax 4K also had all the features of the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher switcher and panel, allowing production to add graphics and record, with and without graphics. The executive highlighted the convenience of having worked with the 40×40 matrix, since it allowed them to have the entire rack pre-connected, even with the converters, taking the fiber from the camera itself.
When it comes to giving an account of the feedback obtained from the production company Red Cube Digital and the channel El Nueve regarding the performance of Blackmagic's cameras. "While we knew this because we had been working with Blackmagic technology on other projects, they were surprised by the final image quality that the equipment provides. They quickly realized that compared to two other competing productions made with Hitachi 4K and Sony 4K cameras, there is no leap in image quality," he said, while emphasizing: "If you zap through the three programs, no one realizes that there are three cameras from different brands. And with one caveat: in the case of 'The Last Supper', we didn't use the camera's 4K, but worked in 50i for a matter of post-production speed. Therefore, it is clear that we do not use 100% of the camera sensor. There is an explanation for this: there is only one day of post-production and the times are very short, especially because of the copying time given that in recorders the ProRes almost quadruples the copying capacity. In the case of Fantino's program, it was finished at night and the editor was there waiting because he had to be on the channel a day before the intake," he said.
Defining the biggest challenge they had to face in "The Last Supper", he did not hesitate to admit that matching the color of the G1 with the G2 was a challenge with capital letters. "The G1 and G2 feature two different color technologies. However, we were able to do it," he said, offering details about the obstacle and its resolution. "It took us a long time to incorporate 24-color X Rite patterns that DaVinci Resolve uses, and we ended up doing it, basically, with CCU control. But, beyond the program, it was also a challenge in itself for Pandax 4K, which as a production company is growing and acquiring cameras that look the same from the outside, but are not the same inside. Because the truth is that in Argentina, although there is a lot of knowledge of color from the point of view of the post-production of a camera, there is not much school about what it means to do color maching in real time with a CCU. In short, it was a great challenge that we were finally able to solve," Nuñez concluded.
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