LOS ANGELES—As Korn’s cinematographer for the past 20 years, I’ve worked closely with the band to capture everything from music videos and studio sessions to global tours. When it came time to document their 30th anniversary show, I wanted to do something we’d never done before, something that matched the scale and energy of the band’s legacy while pushing the boundaries of how a concert can be filmed.
The idea? Invite the fans to shoot it.
Korn has always embraced technology and they’re constantly looking for ways to connect with fans on a deeper level. So, when I pitched the idea of using the Blackmagic Camera mobile app to let fans become part of the film crew, the band was totally on board.
Mobile Production
Blackmagic Camera adds Blackmagic Design’s digital film camera controls and image processing to iPhone, iPad, Android phone and tablets, so anyone can create the same cinematic look as a Hollywood feature film from their smart device. It has color space directly integrated to preserve the dynamic range and when footage goes to post, it is consistent with footage shot on any other Blackmagic Design camera. This was crucial for consistency between fan footage and mine, as I was shooting on a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro.
We blasted the opportunity out on social media, inviting the first 200 fans who signed up to act as filmmakers for the night. Each downloaded the app, which is free for anyone, with a custom preset we provided to ensure a uniform recording format and upload settings. Time-code syncing was as simple as using each phone’s time of day.
DaVinci Resolve’s cloud-syncing capabilities made the phone-to-Blackmagic Cloud workflow seamless and hands-off for the fans. As fans were shooting, clips were uploading to the cloud right away. In another use case, the editor could have been working on the footage moments after it was filmed.
The footage we got was unlike anything I’ve ever shot. We had fans filming their journeys to the concert, the energy in the crowd and the raw chaos of the mosh pit. Some of the most striking moments were from right inside that pit—immersive, sweaty and emotional. It’s a perspective I could never have achieved with a traditional rig, nor would I want to disrupt those moments by pointing a professional camera in someone’s face. But thanks to Blackmagic Camera, we had hundreds of lenses capturing a deeply authentic experience from every possible angle and in cinematic quality.
Cloud Stores
We used Blackmagic Cloud Stores as local drives to sync and back up all footage. To stay organized, I relied on Blackmagic Organizations within Resolve to set up collaboration groups. We had one group for fan footage, another for our internal production team and another for editorial. This structure gave us creative flexibility while keeping everything secure and accessible.
One of the things I appreciate most about Blackmagic Camera is that it lowers the barrier to entry. Picking up a professional camera for the first time can be overwhelming; all the buttons, menus and controls can feel completely foreign if you haven’t worked in production before. But your phone? That’s something you’re already on constantly.
This app flips that learning curve on its head. You open it on the familiarity of your phone, while also experiencing the exact same user interface that’s found on Blackmagic Design’s entire line of cameras. You’re learning to frame, expose and shoot using the same visual language that professional DPs use in the field. It’s an incredible gateway into the craft.
For more information, contact Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500 or visit blackmagicdesign.com.
