I’ve been using our university’s collection of Blackmagic Design’s Pocket Cinema Camera 6Ks for a few years and wanted to see how the lower-priced Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 held up to its older sibling. Blackmagic Design dropped the price of the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K in 2020, and then made Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 for the same price, but with more features.

Features
The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 is a very solidly built camera—much like a DSLR on steroids. My review unit featured the five-inch tilting LCD touchscreen, three F570 batteries, the Blackmagic Pocket Camera Battery Pro Grip, and the optional electronic viewfinder 

The Super 35 23.1 x 12.99mm HDR Gen 5 CMOS sensor sits behind a Canon EF mount that will accept a multitude of lenses. With recording options in Blackmagic RAW at 6144 x 3456 and 6144 x 2560 at 23.98 through 50fps; 5744 x 3024 from 23.98 to 60fps; 4096 x 2160, 3728 x 3104, and 2868 x 1512 at 23.98 through 29.97fps—you have many options. Within this, you must select your compression level in either Constant Bitrate’s 3:1, 5:1; 8:1; or 12:1; or Constant Quality’s Q0, Q1, Q3, or Q5. ProRes allows 4096 x 2160 and 3840 x 2160 up to 59.94fps and up to 119.88fps if using 1920 x 1080 at HQ, 422, LT or PXY compression. 

The unit can record onto SD media (UHS-11), a CFast card, or and external SSD if the brand is on Blackmagic’s recommended media list. The storage media of choice will appear on the bottom right of the LCD screen.

The top of the camera has a slide on/off power switch, three customizable function keys, and buttons for ISO, Shutter, White Balance, Still Photo Capture and a Record button at the end of the hand grip. While holding the camera to shoot, the left-hand side has covered Microphone and Headphone mini jack inputs; HDMI; USB 3.1 input; 3-pin mini XLR Audio inputs 1 and 2; and the 12-volt DC input. The rear features the Iris and Focus buttons, High Frame Rate (HFR), Zoom, Menu, and Playback. You may also access many of these features on the five-inch tilting 1920 x 1080 LCD Touchscreen. The bottom has two tripod-mounting holes and the battery compartment.

When powered on, the on-screen menu offers tabs for Record, Monitor, Audio, Set-up, Presets, and LUTS—each with several options. Anyone who has used Blackmagic Design cameras in the past will be very familiar with these settings.

The optional accessories I received were the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Pro EVF which installs easily on the top of the camera and comes with several rubber eyepieces to suit the shooter’s needs, and the Blackmagic Pocket Camera Battery Pro Grip which houses two F570 batteries and mounts into the internal battery compartment with a few other minor adjustments. Both optional accessories are very handy, and I will discuss them in detail later.

Using the latest software update, the built-in gyro sensor allows moving images to be stabilized when shooting in Blackmagic RAW. The software utilizes this data and AI to greatly smooth out your shots. The gyro senses the data and stabilizes the footage in post.

In Use
Having the perfect film project lined up for the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2, I wanted to make sure I had indoor, outdoor, and shots that needed to be stabilized. As a big advocate of 6K RAW shooting, I set the camera to 6144 x 2560, 5:1, at 24 fps. 

Using two different Canon EF mount lenses (16mm – 35mm f/2.8 and 24mm – 70mm f/2.8), I set out to shoot “Goodbye, Mr. Bonde” a six-minute short about an aging secret agent not quite ready to throw in the towel. The first exterior shoot would be the longest in the scorching and humid Pennsylvania August weather. I installed the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Pro EVF with the largest rubber eyepiece because seeing the LCD touchscreen would be difficult outdoors. When using the eyepiece, a sensor automatically shuts off the LCD screen saving battery drain. The optional viewfinder is worth every penny—especially when shooting outdoors. As mentioned earlier, if you have several different shooters the multiple eyepiece rubber cups will make everyone happy.

The Blackmagic Pocket Camera Battery Pro Grip held two batteries which greatly extended the shooting time – roughly an extra hour per battery. However, the grip does add a bit of weight if you intend to handhold the shot. On a tripod, you are just happy having a longer shoot with an extra battery. If you intend to switch back and forth with the grip and no grip, make sure you leave enough time to make the conversion. The LCD touch screen is the largest power draw, so having two batteries in the grip is helpful.

Removing the grip and switching back to the internal battery, I wanted to really test the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2’s stabilization capabilities. Instead of using the tripod for most shots, I had the actor walk into or out of the handheld shots. Greg, who is my human stabilizer, had his shots further refined by the camera’s gyro stabilized shots which we would see in post. 

With several shots, he would handhold the camera and move slowly left or right knowing that the camera gyro feature in DaVinci Resolve would smooth everything out. I got about an hour of shooting time with one battery. One small nitpick—the batteries are charged by a USB cable connection rather than using AC. This might be more convenient for some, but it appears to add a lot to the charging time. 

The rest of the shoot went well with Greg doing every moving shot asked of him. I personally prefer minor improvements to cameras rather than major overhauls. With the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 it was as if I was wearing a favorite comfortable shoe. I know where everything was, what the camera could do, and the added peace of mind knowing that it would do it all well.

I had to install the latest version DaVinci Resolve 18 to edit the Blackmagic RAW files. Even though I shot in 6K, I used a 1920 x 1080 timeline set to center crop to edit the footage. The HD timeline speeds editing, and I still have the full 6K frame if I need to push into any shot. Anxious to stabilize the handheld footage, pulling down the camera gyro feature in Stabilization, I selected Analyze and it a few moments the shot was free of unnatural movement. That’s the fastest I have ever stabilized any shot!

There’s really a lot to rave about and very few complaints. When a product get better and the price drops—you can’t lose!

Application and Key Features
Multitude of Blackmagic RAW shooting formats, articulated LCD touch screen, user friendly interface, built in gyro stabilization—all from a company you can trust with a versatile camera package that does more for less.

Price – Available through Blackmagic Design authorized resellers
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera G2 - $1995
Blackmagic F570 Battery (2) - $55 each
Blackmagic Pocket Camera Battery Pro Grip - $149
Blackmagic Pocket Camera Pro EVF - $495
DaVinci Resolve Studio – Included free with Pocket Cinema Camera6K Pro G2

Total Package - $2,639

Contact
Blackmagic Design USA
408.954.0500
Website: www.blackmagicdesign.com
E-mail: info-usa@blackmagicdesign.com 

In my opinion, most student films focus too much on the visual, and not enough on the audio. With 4K, 6K, and 8K, the images look stellar; but the often-ignored sound is just as important. With the release of Tascam’s Portacapture X8, you now have a six input/eight track multitrack recorder. The large touchscreen, much like that on a mobile phone, dominates the unit but still makes it user friendly to almost everyone.

Features
The Tascam Portacapture X8 may be powered by four AA batteries or the optional PS-P520U AC Adapter. Its 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen allows access to 10 icons that control most of the recorder’s functions. Before selecting any of these icons, you should first choose the “General Settings” icon on the lower right. That opens: Record Settings, I/O Settings, Camera Settings, Other Settings, System, and Power Display.

The Record Settings allows you to set the parameters of your choosing like “File Format” (WAV/MP3), “Sample” (44.1kHz – 192kHz), “Bit Depth/Bit Rate” (16, 24, 32bit float); “Rec Pause”, “Auto Rec”, “Dual Rec”, “Pre Rec”, and “Time File Increment.” 

I/O Settings offers “Phantom Power”, “Mic Trim”, “Speaker”, “MS Decode”, and “Reverb”. Camera Settings has “Output”, “Level”, and “Auto Tone.” Other Settings contains “Peak Mark”, “Auto Mark”, “SD Card Reader”, and “Blue Tooth.” System accesses “Information”, “XRI”, “Date/Time”, “File Name”, “Initialize” and “Media Format.” Last, you’ll find Power Display with its “Auto Power Save”, “Battery Type”, and “Power Save Mode.”

Selecting Launcher opens the main menu with: Browse which shows the contents of the microSD card; ASMR for stereo recordings; Voice, as the name implies, is for mono recordings of interviews and blogs; Music offers reverb effects in different environments; Manual is used for multi-track recordings; Field for double system or for sound design/effects recording, foley recording, environment recording, etc.; Podcast records up four people and sound effects; Tuner gives you the option of tuning instruments; Metronome activates the metronome; and SD Card Reader, if you want to plug the Portacapture directly into a computer.

The front of the Tascam is ruled by a 3.5-inch color LCD touchscreen which accesses all the unit’s functions. Directly below are Stop, Record, Play/Pause, and Mark with a rotary knob to adjust levels. The bottom has a Peak and Record LEDs, and the top has two detachable 14.6mm Condenser Microphones that may be configured in the X/Y or A-B positions. 

The left side has XLR/Quarter Inch inputs 3 and 4, two-eighth inch mini jacks – Ext In and Line Out, the headphone output, and the headset volume adjustment. The right side has XLR/Quarter Inch inputs 5 and 6, power switch, microSD card slot, and a USB – C output. The back holds the four AA batteries and has a cold shoe mount and a 1/4-inch threaded female connector.

In Use
I always recommend my students play with the equipment to understand it better before they go out on a shoot. Not following my own advice, I went on location with a shotgun microphone to record some sound effects. 

The first thing I noticed was that there was too much handling noise being picked up by the two onboard microphones. I was unable to select inputs 3 through 6 because they were greyed out. Going to Input Select on the Main Menu, you can choose which microphone inputs you want Inputs 1 and 2 to be. In all the modes but Manual, only Inputs 1 and 2 are active. 

Therefore, you must select Input 3 and 4 or 5 and 6 to go to Inputs 1 and 2 if you want the other features (Music, Outdoor, etc.) to be active. To make it a little more complicated, if you choose Inputs 1 and 2 to be Inputs 3 and 4 in Music, you must do the same thing in Field—it doesn’t remember your settings from a previous menu or when you power off the system. I guess that does make sense, but I can’t see where you’d ever want Inputs 1 and 2 to be the onboard microphones unless the Portacapture were mounted on a tripod (probably not handheld) and you weren’t recording outdoors because of the lack of a windscreen.

There were so many different uses I had envisioned for the Portacapture X8, I decided to limit it to six different “tests.” In the first test, I used six microphones to record a small combo consisting of an acoustic guitar with an omnidirectional lavalier clipped to the guitar’s body and a cardioid on a stand pointed at the guitarist (XLR inputs 3 and 4). 

Another cardioid was placed near the bass guitar’s amp (XLR input 5). The vocalist had his own Fathead ribbon microphone (XLR input 6) and the onboard cardioid microphones (inputs 1 and 2) captured the ambient sound of the TV studio at a lower level. Tom selected Manual on the touchscreen and got levels for each input. 

The six audio channels where mixed to a WAV stereo track which was displayed on the top of the LCD screen. Wanting the best quality, he recorded in 32-bit float. 

Our university has dozens of Tascam 2 input recorders. Not having access to 32-bit float on those recorders, I wanted to see what this new setting had to offer. I know the files would be much larger. They were, but audio files are much smaller than video files and still load quickly. Could I hear the difference between 32-bit float and those recorded at 16 or 24 bit? Yes, I could, and I also believe it justifies the larger file size. I couldn’t really tell the difference between 16 and 24, but 32 is “clearer” sounding that 16 in my opinion.

Tom is one of the few people who can remain totally motionless when handholding the Portacapture.

 Wanting to add some reverb to the female vocalist on the next song, Tom switched to the Music icon and dialed it in. 

Another exciting feature that was new to me involved the process of downloading files from the Micro-SD card onto a computer. Instead of just having one stereo file to download, the Micro-SD card contained individual files for: 1-2 Wav, 3-4 Wav, Wav 5, Wav 6, and MIX Wav. This way, I can input each track onto an NLE Timeline and remix them or simply use the Mix track supplied—thanks, Tascam! You now have control of each file.

In my second test, I used the Portacapture to record a Portuguese audio track while the narrator watched the screen. Setting up the boom stand with a Sennheiser 416 shotgun microphone, Ellie selected Manual again, disabled microphones 1 and 2, and connected the XLR into input 3. She found it easier to use the touchscreen to adjust the level because the rotary knob was more of a finetuning adjustment.

In the third test, we recorded a Steinway Grand Piano and a very talented freshman musician. Choosing the "Music" icon, I used the onboard microphones on Inputs 1 and 2 because we were indoors and the two microphones were separated enough for a good stereo configuration. I chose the "Large Hall" preset with a reverb level of 54 even though we were recording in a TV Studio. This added bit of reverb accentuated the sound of the piano. 

While in college, I was always taught to record at the fastest speed to obtain the best fidelity. Back in my day that meant using the Nagra 4.2 at 15 inches-per-second (IPS) rather than 7.5 IPS. In the digital world, tape doesn’t “move” but the bit depth is essentially “increasing the recording speed” when you increase the bit depth. For me, 24 bit was a happy medium.

The fourth test involved recording audio for a short film—in several environments. Choosing the "Field" icon brings up a Dynamics Preset allowing you to choose City, Nature, Vehicle, Bird, or No Preset as your ambience background. This was especially helpful when I chose Vehicle when I wasn’t shooting in a vehicle. It lowered the background ambience, so it wasn’t as strong—much like when shooting in a vehicle with the windows up to dampen the outside noise. 

“Background levels” are very different on each environment selection and it does make your sound more pristine. However, when recording outside, the touchscreen is difficult to see when in bright sun, especially when the operator is wearing polarized sunglasses. 

In the fifth test, we used the Portacapture with a vintage Sennheiser MDS 1 Stereo Dynamic microphone. Bringing 1960s microphone technology over 50 years in the future with the Portacapture was an interesting combination. Wanting to see if the microphones functioned, I plugged the left 1/4-inch plug (red) into Input 4 and the right (yellow) into Input 6. 

Not needing an XLR to Quarter Inch adapter, I plugged each cable into the center of the XLR port. The sound quality was fantastic and mounted on a stand—could be used to record two singers.

The final application was something I had missed in the previous versions of the Tascam and that was to record a line input. Our Tascam recorders are set to record microphone inputs rather than line inputs. I did a high school radio show back in the 1970s and had a reel-to-reel recording of our last show. Wanting to transfer the analog recording to digital, I would have had to purchase two attenuators to convert the stereo line outputs of the reel to reel to a microphone input. 

With RCA outputs from my Teac X300 Reel to Reel Deck, I got an 1/8-inch male mini adapter with two female RCAs and plugged that into the External In on the Portacapture. It’s amazing how I could use a 40-year-old Teac and hook it into a 21st Century Teac/Tascam recorder! 

The fidelity on the 1/4-inch tape was a bit “dull” when I monitored it with headphones connected to the Portacapture. Using the new digital file from the Portacapture, I brought it into Adobe Premiere Pro, used the Tube Modeled Compressor, and had a file that sounded just like I remembered.

There are so many other features on the Portacapture 8 that I wanted to try: instrument tuning, Blog recording, metronome, and others. With the six different recording environments I chose, the unit performed flawless and was the perfect recorder.

Lastly, I would recommend investing in the optional AC power supply as the 4 AA batteries don’t last very long because of the touch screen’s energy consumption.

Breaking News
I just learned that the Portacapture X8 and Atomos now offers wireless Bluetooth connectivity with several devices. By purchasing the optional Tascam AK-BT1 dongle, you can wireless connect with your camera—video, mirrorless, or DSLRs. 

Ditching the wire is just the first step. If you’re shooting double system—recording the visuals and sound on two separate devices, sync-ing the picture and sound is time consuming. From as far away as 30 meters, timecode can be generated by the Atomos Ultrasync Blue and any camera and the Portacapture X8 will be wirelessly synchronized. 

This will revolutionize the way we shoot location video at the university. With Bluetooth everywhere, huge amounts of time may be saved with this wireless connectivity. There’s so much more the Atomos can do and I’m looking forward to trying the AK-BT1 on my next location production.

Application
I can foresee the Tascam Portacapture X8 being used in any situation that requires a digital audio recording. All of its features make it more versatile—blogs, field shoots, instrumental recordings, etc. Do you need everything it offers? No, but no matter what environment you encounter, this device can handle it. It may be intimidating on its first use, but once you know its capabilities it quickly becomes routine.

Key Features
Multitasking unit with fast touchscreen access. Multiple inputs eliminate the need for an external mixer with several recording options.

Price 
Tascam Portacapture X8 - $499 (Street price)

Contact
Teac America
10410 Pioneer Blvd Unit #1
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
323.726.0303
www.tascam.com

The latest generation of Blackmagic Design’s URSA Mini Pro line is the 80 megapixels per frame URSA Mini Pro 12K. Shooting in 12,288x6480 (17:9) in up to 60 frames per second, this is another Blackmagic Design first. So, what’s it like to shoot in 12K RAW? That’s what I’d like to discuss in this review.

FEATURES

Blackmagic Design’s URSA Mini Pro 12K ships with a PL mount and offers an EF, B4 and F mount as options. Because all of my lenses are EF mount, I asked for an EF mount, a VLock Battery Plate, URSA Viewfinder and URSA Mini Shoulder Kit.

The URSA Mini Pro 12K is a professional camera with a Super 35mm sensor utilizing 12-bit RAW files, 14 stops of dynamic range, behind the lens selectable ND filters, controls for ISO, shutter, white balance, iris, focus, audio channel 1/3 and 2/4 adjustments and menu controls all on the side facing the operator.

Behind the 4-inch LCD monitor are more controls including two CFast and two SD slots in addition to a USB-C input (not for recording to an SSD drive). The back houses the SDI out, in and reference/timecode in connections; and a USB-C input for recording to an external SSD drive.

Recording formats come in two compression categories: Constant Bitrate and Constant Quality. Constant Bitrate allows four modes of RAW shooting in 12K (12,288x6480) 5:1 (578 MB/s), 8:1 (361 MB/s), 12:1 (241 MB/s), 18:1 (160 MB/s). While these data rates are based on 24 frames per second, higher data rates are required for higher frame rates. If you prefer, you may shoot in 8K, 6K or 4K all with the same four modes of shooting with lesser file sizes.

Constant Quality uses a range of capturing speeds with 12K’s Q0 (241 - 578 MB/s), Q1 (144 - 361MB/s), Q3 (96 - 241 MB/s), Q5 (72 - 160MB/s) with lower megabytes per second in 8K, 6K and 4K. These data rates are also dependent on the frames per second selection.

The optional viewfinder has zoom, display and peak buttons (which are user assignable to other functions as well) on top of the housing containing an extremely sharp 1920x1080 Organic LED display with a built-in digital focus chart.

Blackmagic Design’s URSA Mini Pro 12K shoots in 12,228x6480 (17:9) and 11,520x6480 (16:9) up to 60fps; 12,288x5112 (12K 2.4:1) up to 75fps; 8192x4320 (8K) and 6144x3240 (6K Super 16) up to 120fps; and 4096x2160 (4K), 3840x2160 (UHD) and 2560x2136 (4K Anamorphic) up to 240fps—you have a multitude of options.

The camera comes loaded with Blackmagic Camera Setup 7.0, RAW 2.0 Beta 2 software and requires a minimum of Mojave 10.14 or Catalina 10.15, Windows 10 64-bit, Abobe CC 2019, Avid Media Composer 2018, and DaVinci Resolve 16.3 Beta.

IN USE

Using a camera that is capable of shooting in 12K requires you to at least try it out. Creating a short comedy entitled “Cats and Mouse” about two over-the-hill bounty hunters trying to capture a woman with superpowers. Using editing effects to display her abilities, capturing the story in 12K was my choice.

The optional external URSA Viewfinder is worth every penny when shooting outdoors. The organic LED display was crystal clean and the zoom and peak buttons on the top made critical focusing that much better. Since my workflow ended with a 1920x1080 output, I chose to shoot in 12K RAW, 12:1 Constant Bitrate and 24fps. The glass up front was Rokinon Cinema Series T 1.5 Primes, and the files were saved to a SanDisk 2TB SSD Drive. Although not an officially recommended drive for this camera, it functioned perfectly in the misty morning to the brilliant F16 sunshine in the afternoon.

Not believing we would need the larger files 5:1 or 8:1 created—especially for a 1080p output—12:1 proved to be a viable choice. Thirty-five minutes of footage netted about 750 GB of footage. The stills that illustrate this article were from the color graded 12K RAW footage.

In the post process, I needed to download DaVinci Resolve 16.3 Beta to read the 12K RAW image. At no time did my footage bog down because of its size, and the LUTs (Look Up Tables) available in DaVinci Resolve made color grading simple.

The greatest part of shooting in 12K is the ability to “zoom in” or enlarge the frame digitally without losing quality. With our longest lens being an 85mm and zooming in 4X in DaVinci Resolve’s Inspector, this was still the sharpest footage I’ve seen. In my mindset and as I tell my students, if you shoot on 35mm film even a DVD looks phenomenal because you started with such a high-quality source. I used to mention VHS, but no one understands that anymore! Now I can say I shot my project in IMAX quality for a 1080p output.

Lastly, one of the really great things about the URSA Mini Pro 12K is that you actually get a pull-out LCD capacitive touchscreen with the camera body at its $9,995 price. The menu options that are displayed on the 4-inch monitor are critical if you want to change shooting modes and quality settings. Our university’s high end, leading manufacturer 35.5-megapixel sensor 8K digital camera body was almost three times the price and we didn't get a monitor—we paid just for the body. The optional monitor for that camera, which you really need (and it's laid out almost exactly like the URSA Mini Pro 12K’s) in order to set the camera's parameters, costs almost $5,000 more. Why would you pay all that extra money for a name camera, when the URSA Mini Pro 12K gives you all that with an 80-pixel sensor, a 4-inch monitor and 12K shooting at less than a third of the price? 

Also, other cameras have expensive licensing and proprietary software to color grade, but the URSA Mini Pro 12K includes a full version of DaVinci Resolve Studio. Since the other cameras’ LUTs are available in DaVinci Resolve, you can take advantage of the URSA Mini Pro 12K’s advanced color science and workflow to achieve a similar “look.” This is useful in case you want to match cameras or achieve a certain look without the extra cost that comes with more expensive cameras. Keep in mind, however, that obtaining the same look as another camera cannot be accomplished solely with a LUT, as each look is created specifically for each camera’s specific sensor.

The bottom line, in my opinion, for ease of use, quality and cost I prefer using Blackmagic Design.

For more information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com. 

Chuck Gloman is an associate professor of the TV/Film Department at DeSales University. He may be reached chuck.gloman@desales.edu. 

It’s difficult to find a current film that doesn’t use some form of green or blue screen. Adobe Premiere has been doing a great job with Premiere CC’s Ultra Keyer and After Effect’s Keyframe 2.1, but Red Giant has released a new version of their Primatte Keyer (Version 6), which I will be reviewing. 

I will only be reviewing how the software worked on one of my projects; if you need training (as I did), Red Giant has some fantastic tutorials for how to use Primatte Keyer on their website—www.redgiant.com. 

I tested the Primatte Keyer while shooting a 10-minute comedy entitled “Prohibition Fellas,” which concerns two retiring bootleggers trying to make one last big score. Sitting in the cemetery in a vintage 1925 Henney Funeral Car, they must remove the booze filled coffin in the rear of the vehicle and exchange it with a similar coffin filled with money that has been placed in the cemetery.

FEATURES

Red Giant’s Primatte Keyer 6 is available as part of their RG VFX Suite and is a plugin for Adobe Premiere CC and After Effects. Once the software is downloaded, it is accessible through your Red Giant folder. Watching Red Giant’s Tutorials explains how easy the software is to use and how it functions.

As a brief aside, once I downloaded the software and applied the effect to my footage, a red “X” appeared as a watermark. I contacted Red Giant’s Tech Support and they were amazing. I was having some problems with my Mac’s Operating System and the version of Adode Premiere I was using. Not only did they solve my problem over the phone, but they asked for an error log from my computer (talking me through how to create it) in case the problem reoccurred. I also received periodic emails asking if I had experienced any other issues (I didn’t). Talk about a technical support system that works! The folks are incredible, friendly, they know their product and come to your aid immediately! Two thumbs up for Red Giant Support!

One of the reasons I initially chose Red Giant over the other green screen software programs was the almost idiot-proof method of operation. I do understand both Premiere and After Effect’s keyers and they function quite well, but Primatte Keyer is easier and, in my opinion, faster. I highly recommend viewing their “Getting Started with Primatte Keyer 6” available for download on Red Giant’s website. It spells everything out visually as well as aurally and talks you through some of the fine-tuning features.

I won’t go into detail on how to set up a green screen shot on your timeline, instead I’ll just explain the operation of Primatte Keyer itself. When you first open Primatte Keyer, drag the effect onto your video. Select “Auto Define Key” and immediately the “green” in your green screen is replaced with your background with almost no artifacts. You may also do this process “manually” in Primatte Keyer like you would in Premiere and After Effects by selecting the eye dropper and clicking on the green you want removed. But, at least in my case, Auto Define Key was faster. The “Clean Background” icon removes problems in your background, and “Clean Foreground” eliminates issues with your subject in front of the Green Screen. It’s really that simple. Of course, there are dozens of other small tweaking adjustments to make your Key perfect, but trial and error will get you the flawless Key.

IN USE

Because of the Henney’s rarity (this particular car is the only one known to still exist) and its location on the third floor of the America on Wheels Museum, we had to utilize green screen technology. The passenger side of the car was 11 inches from a glass wall and the driver’s side gave us free access to the vehicle. Once green screen fabric was hung around the vehicle, we were ready to shoot (see picture above).

As you can see in the image, green screen fabric was placed around the majority of the car. Sadly, not all of the green was the same color of green. We had a large area to cover with green and with the lack of a studio, this “mobile method” was the best we could do. The first step in After Effects or Premiere is to mask around the green screen so everything that isn’t green or “car” would disappear. I did that with the Masking Tool. Although the large wall fabric itself was the same color, shadows and wrinkles were more difficult to make disappear. I hoped this wasn’t an issue with Primatte Keyer—it wasn’t. If I did the keying (with Primatte Keyer) in Premiere or After Effects, I found no real difference. I am more familiar with Premiere’s software, so I chose that platform to do the majority of my editing and keying.

I selected “Auto Define Key” and 90% of the green was replaced with my background cemetery footage. As Red Giant’s Tutorial suggests, under “View Options,” select “Split Screen” and move the slider back and forth—the car and its occupants should be as white as possible with very little gray. Clicking and dragging across the actors faces allowed more of the grey to disappear and be replaced with white. The background footage (the green screen and masked areas) should be as black as you can make it. To make the car “whiter,” choose the “Clean Foreground” icon and drag it across the car to eliminate the gray. Then the “Clean Background” icon will have the same result on your black background. There was also a lot of green screen spill (green reflections) on the car because of its high gloss. These “green reflections” were removed with the “Spill Sponge,” which eliminated the green because these areas shouldn’t have the green disappear and the background showing through. There are other small adjustment tools I used to fine tune my image until it looked like the result in the photo below. Again, watching the Red Giant’s Tutorial really helped. Maybe it’s the child in me, but it still amazes me how when green screen disappears, almost anything can take its place—and it looks as real as if the car were actually in the cemetery! 

The medium shot of the actors within the car was much faster to key because the green screen was almost free of wrinkles and shadows. The Auto Define Key got it 98% right with one click—I couldn’t have done that with other keying software. Notice how clean the key was in the after shot as compared with the before shot. Not bad for less than 60 seconds of work. I owe it to my crew for stretching the green screen and lighting it so well. 

In the last scene, scene six, the green screen removal on the 1925 Rickenbaker D6 Coach was more difficult. Utilizing another rare vehicle, the two women inside had to appear as if their vehicle were also parked outdoors in the cemetery—when they were in actuality parked in another indoor showroom.

Because the entire project was shot using Blackmagic’s Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, shooting in RAW, I had plenty of options in color grading, as well as manipulating the image (compressing or enlarging) without difficulty. The initial shot before masking can be seen here. Using the same masking tool in Premiere, I followed the contour of the vehicle and cut out as much of the background as possible. Not worrying about the daylight reflections from the first-floor showroom window, I felt there would be natural highlights bouncing off the high sheen of the paint. 

Again, “Auto Define Key” removed the majority of the green with the “Spill Sponge” greatly needed for the spill on the fenders and hood. The “Clean Background” and “Clean Foreground” removed the green and allowed the background to show through. This time I only blurred the background about 4% with Gaussian Blur because the car was much closer to the camera. The end result is seen here. 

The rest of the “green” throughout the production of “Prohibition Fellas” was easily removed with Red Giant’s Primatte Keyer. Still waiting for an outside running shot of the Henney, the picture will soon be in picture lock and the music scoring may begin. My thanks for RB Car Collections for access to both the Henney and Rickenbaker cars, and the America on Wheels museum for access the day before the pandemic began.

In my opinion, the easiest way to learn new software is watch the tutorial and apply it to your project. Red Giant has several other plug-ins that I’d like to utilize in my films. It still amazes me that we have “Hollywood-style” effects at our fingertips to make our humble productions look that much better.

Look to Red Giant for your next epic. You will be surprised how simple it is to have great results!

SUMMARY 

Red Giant Primatte Keyer is an extremely easy to use plugin that removes green screen effortlessly. You will have cleaner keys with less time spent creating the final result.

APPLICATION

Housed in the RG VFX Folder in Adobe Premiere or After Effects, this plug-in is the only tool you’ll need to “get the green out.”

KEY FEATURES

Red Giant VFX Primatte Keyer is an extremely easy to use plugin keyer for Adobe After Effects and Premiere that quickly removes the green screen in moments. Other included tools allow keying and removal of spill are much more difficult and extremely time consuming, if not almost impossible to totally eliminate the green with artifacts. If you do a lot of green screen removal, there is no easier software out there. If I can learn it, anyone can!

PRICE

Red Giant VFX Primatte Keyer– List Price $199.00. 14 Day Trial – No Charge

CONTACT

Red Giant LLC
4230 SE King Road
Unit #345
Portland, OR 97222
Phone: 260.918.4505
www.redgiant.com

Chuck Gloman is an associate professor in the TV/Film Department at DeSales University.  He may be reached chuck.gloman@desales.edu.

Drones are used in real estate, various industries, corporate and training videos, and even Hollywood has embraced the drone experience. Drone technology is here to stay — but how do you choose the right model for your specific needs?

Ranging from department store models to massive units capable of lifting heavy cameras, drone selection may be a daunting task. Drone manufacturer Yuneec makes the decision much easier with the introduction of the bright orange H520 hexacopter (i.e. six rotors); the E90 wide angle, and E50 40mm equivalent gimbal stabilized, 4K capable camera; and the ST16S controller.

Our university has two drones and our students and faculty are the only people allowed to use a drone on campus. Yuneec was kind enough to offer the H520 for us to shoot a period film utilizing 4K aerial footage that would intercut with material from our RED camera.

Features

With most other drones being white, the Yuneec H520 drone’s most distinctive feature is its bright orange color that allows the operator greater ease is distinguishing it from gray, overcast skies and drab buildings. The two sensors in the front prevent collisions with objects, and if one of the six motors should fail, the unit will still return home safely. Also included is DataPilot — software that allows auto-generated survey paths for 3D output on the controller. Three 4S 5250mAh lithium polymer batteries and charger are included. With a 25-minute flying time per battery, a voice output will tell you if a potential problem might occur or alert you if less than 30% remains on your battery.

Packaged in a durable Pelican case, preparation is as simple as extending the arms and attaching the six rotor blades (with four extras). Resting on retractable landing gear, the E50 camera (two thirds-inch CMOS sensor; 12MP; 40mm lens; UHD 4096 x 2160 and 3840 x 2160 at 24 or 30fps; or 1920 x 1080 at 24/30/48/60/120fps MP4 recording), or the E90 camera (one-inch CMOS sensor; 20MP; 23mm lens; 4K 4096 x 2160, UHD 3840 x 2160, and 2720 x 1530 at 24/30/48/60fps, FHD 1920 x 1080 and HD 1280 x 720 at 24/30/48/60/120fps, in MP4, H.264, H.265, and MOV) — either may be mounted with its attached 360-degree gimbal. Stills and video footage is captured on an internally mounted microSD card in the camera.

The Android-based, 5.8 GHz Wi-Fi-based ST16 controller ground station acts as a transmitter and receiver with up to a one-mile range that allows real-time viewing on its seven-inch 720p touchscreen with HDMI outputs and a hood.

The front of the ST16 controller features and on/off switch; left and right joystick controllers; still or video on/off functions; pan and tilt modes with rheostat speed control; obstacle avoidance on/off; manual/angle/home operation; landing gear up and down switch; as well as rotor stop and start button.

Lastly, although the Yuneec H520 is intended for commercial use, it also has many broadcast applications. Repeatability of shots is necessary when doing traffic reports from a drone. The controller allows for preplanning and recalling of shots to be repeated. The HDMI output allows 720p video steam may be sent to a broadcast truck, cell network or to a video village on location.

In Use

For a novice drone user like myself, Yuneec made it extremely easy to sync the controller with the H520. After both the controller and drone are powered up, pressing and holding the red button on the controller activates the rotors. The drone lifts off the ground, position the camera, and begin shooting.

We needed two types of shots for our fairy-tale script. The opening of the film required the Yuneec H520 to fly over our 575-acre campus — close to the ground to show the rolling hills and plains. The footage on the controller was steady and slightly difficult to see in the sun’s glare. Keeping my face close to the hooded screen helped.

A tip — I recommend having another person to act as a spotter because if the camera is turned anyway other than the direction the drone is traveling — you’re seeing the camera’s input and not watching where the drone is going. Even then, the split second my spotter shouted “A tree…,” the H520 was in the tree. The obstacle avoidance sensors can’t distinguish slender branches.

After walking the quarter mile to the location, I saw the orange battery on the ground, but no drone. Eighteen feet up in a tree, the Yuneec was tangled sideways. My helper climbed the tree and shook it and I waited with extended arms to catch the prize as it dropped. Talk about durability — no scratches, scuffs, nicks, dinks or missing rotors. It looked as perfect as it left the box. Hoping to watch the video of the impact, it appears that when the battery ejected, the video file disappeared also.

A second attempt gave us the perfect image. As the wind picked up slightly, we could see the drone moving side to side rather violently. However, even with the drone “jerking” back and forth, the camera footage was stable — a smooth Steadicam-worthy shot. The gimbal really works!

The second shot was a steady lift from the ground with the camera panning 360 degrees showing the five actresses in the scene. Spaced far enough apart so the rotors didn’t blow their hair, the shot looked amazing. We were not shooting under ideal conditions — in that the day was windy and a slight drizzle was falling.

[Read: FAA Recommends Best Ways to Identify Drones]

When moving the joystick controls too quickly, the Yuneec H520 can “jerk” as seen by the eye, but the gimbal dampened all but the most violent moves. The feature that I admire most is the “RTL” or Return to Landing command. Simply touching that button anytime in the mission and sliding the icon on the bottom of the screen returns the drone to the spot where the flight originated to within a few feet. This is extremely helpful when you’ve lost visual site of the drone and want it back.

Sadly, I am now “hooked” on drones — especially the Yuneec H520. Adding a flyover or a fly-along shot greatly enhances the look of any video. This technology opens up new creative ideas for the use of drones. I will never make a film again without a drone involved. I hope it’s always a Yuneec.

Summary

An amazing drone with the flexibility to shoot 4K video, stills, automated lift off, return to landing, and mapping. The gimbal mounted camera eliminates excessive drone movement by recording rock-solid images. Large, easy to see controller.

Applications:

When recorded, stabilized aerial footage is needed in a multitude of formats. The H520 takes some of the fear out of drone flying with its automated features.

Key Features:

Yuneec H520 — bright orange color, quiet operation, automated take-off and landing, obstacle avoidance sensors, 360 degree stabilized 4K capability, one mile range, four hundred foot ceiling, retractable landing gear, and collapsible arms and rotors for easy storage and transport. ST16S controller — large, easy to see seven-inch touchscreen, detailed flight information display, long battery life, and all controls conveniently located.

Price:

Yuneec H520 Hexacopter Drone, E50 and E90 cameras, three batteries, charger, ST16S controller, and Pelican case — $4,500.

Contact:

Yuneec USA

2275 Sampson Ave, Suite 200

Corona, Calif. 92879

Toll Free: 855-284-8888

www.yuneec.com

Chuck Gloman is an associate professor and chair of the TV/Film Department at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pa. He may be reachedchuck.gloman@desales.edu.

[Want more information like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox.]

LED lighting is the new wave in studio and location lighting. With this technology, we no longer have to worry about the heat on the set, having to wait until the lights cooled before striking them, changing color temperature when diming, replacing bulbs frequently and high energy consumption. Litepanels Gemini Bi-color LED Soft Panel could be the perfect light to use on the set or take to your location—it is that versatile.

FEATURES

Considered a portable LED unit, the 22 pound Gemini Bi-Color 2x1 light is truly 2 feet across (actually 25 inches) by 1 foot high (12.5 inches). Powered by AC or DC (more on that later), you may mix daylight and tungsten color temperatures by dialing in a specific Kelvin temperature; add any Rosco or Lee gels internally without physically attaching them to the light; dim the fixture from 100 percent down to 0 percent; change the hue, saturation and intensity of a specific color; control the greens by addition or subtraction; add a fire, flashing light or strobe effect; utilize six presets for user-defined color control; and operate the unit through its built in DMX or Bluetooth control.

My students used a daylight color with a grey background for Alex.

The first thing notable about the light is its solid construction. Aluminum rather than inexpensive plastic means the Gemini is built to last. The yoke is adjustable and attaches with a female junior pin than may be converted to a baby pin for C-Stand usage rather than on a lighting grid. Drawing merely 325 W, the user has ultimate control over the light’s output.

The rear of the Gemini allows you to control all of the magic. Directly below the quiet, centralized cooling fan and slightly to the right are the Gemini’s inputs: “Mains In” and Through ports, a three pin 28-volt DC input, a male five pin DMX in and female output, and an Ethernet DMX in and out. Directly across from the Litepanels logo is a 2-inch LCD display screen that indicates: which mode you’re in; the color temperature source; the level of brightness listed as a percentage; the gel manufacturer, number and name; how the unit is controlled; the fan’s status; and AC or DC power indicator.

A row of six presets with an A/B switch allows you to activate six color temperatures (2700K, 3200K, 4000K, 5000K, 5600K and 6000K) as well as preset your own settings. Three rotary dials give you total control of: Plus or minus green and hue (push for menu access), Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) and saturation, and dimmer respectively. A green LED illuminates when the power is on when activated by the adjacent power switch.

IN USE

The Litepanels Gemini was put to immediate use in our university’s TV studio. While wanting to mount it on our ceiling grid, the students preferred to have it on their level on the floor in front of one of our many backdrops.

Arriving with a yoke and junior pin meant for grid use, we adapted it for placement on a C-Stand with a junior to baby adapter. Sandbagged and powered through AC, we placed the Gemini 5 feet to the right of our talent and used a Mole-Richardson 650 W Tungsten Tweeny as her backlight to further enhance her naturally red hair. Color balanced to tungsten, we dimming the light to 35.6 percent and utilizing a Lee 147 Apricot gel, we had the desired look. Having control over the intensity of the light, as well as adding filters internally, kept our set time to a minimum and gave Nikki (our talent) the look she was after. You can see the final result here. Having access to gels greatly aids in selecting one that will flatter the talent’s skin tone.

Moving on to Alex, a student with blonde hair, we selected a cooler daylight color temperature, dimmed the light to 89.3 percent and utilized a Lee 103 Straw gel. Alex’s lighter skin tone was enhanced with the daylight balance and the addition of the slight warmth of a straw gel. Having designed the black dress, Alex wanted to showcase the design by posing against a gray backdrop. The end result may be seen here.

The Gemini may be powered by AC or DC. In the near future, the units will be available to accept either Gold or V-mount batteries. Effects like fire and flashing lights may be programmed in if those effects are desired.

LED light panels, by their design, still have a more rapid light falloff than Fresnels. Although the Gemini is extremely bright, the farther you move from your subject, the more dramatic the light loss. In our initial set-up, I used our foot-candle meter and the specifications were similar to those Litepanels publishes. Because no heat is expelled from the front of the panels, they may be moved in very close to the talent without discomfort. In our situation at 5 feet, we had to drastically lower the output. Adaptable to any situation, the Gemini would be a welcome addition to your lighting arsenal.

Summary: One light that can do anything several different lights and gels could do—but in one package. No AC, no problem.

Application: Grid mount in a studio, use it on a set, take it to your location—even if it is where no AC power is available. Programmable, so it would be indispensable to your production.

Key Features: Modular; may be grid or stand mounted; DMX and Bluetooth capable; Bi-color; dimmable, full color control over hue and saturation; built in gel mode; programmable; AC or DC operation.

Price: $4,400.00

Contact

Vitec Videocom, Inc.
14 Progress Avenue
Shelton, CT 06484
203.929.1100
Email: Salessupport_USA@vitecgroup.com
Website: www.litepanels.com

Chuck Gloman is an Associate Professor and Chair of the TV/Film Department at DeSales University. He may be reached chuck.gloman@desales.edu.

You would be hard pressed to find any Hollywood film or television series that is not shot with an ARRI camera. Recently, DeSales had the opportunity to use the Alexa Mini, a lightweight camera that pulls its weight alongside its bigger brothers. Being the “gold standard” for the industry, the Alexa family of cameras has held our interest as the end result is seen in theatres and in homes.

FEATURES

Available with EF, PL, or B4 lens mounts, the Alexa Mini captures images through a 35mm film-style format Alev III sensor and records to a CFast 2.0 memory card in 16:9 or 4:3 formats. The five-pound body is compact enough to fit most mounts and allows shooting in HD, 2K, 3.2K, and 4K UHD. With an ISO ranging from 160 to 3200, that gives more than 14 stops of sensitivity.

When it comes to recording, the Alexa Mini excels with multiple sensor readout options. Open Gate 3424x2202, MXF/ARRIRAW, is available optionally when both the 4:3 and ARRIRAW licenses are purchased. In addition, ProRes, HD and 2K frame rates from 1–200 frames per second are possible.

IN USE

DeSales students utilized the Arri Alexa Mini capture behind-the-scenes footage for a run-and-gun production.

The students who had access to the ARRI Alexa SXT and Alexa Mini for our one-day shoot, couldn’t be happier with the choice of cameras. The Alexa SXT captured our 90 second film, “I Don’t,” and the Alexa Mini was called into action as the “behind the scenes” camera. The much larger and more robust Alexa SXT had its own crew to help with transport and set-up and was tethered to our 4K-field monitor. With the Alexa Mini shooting in ProRes Log, we filled three 128GB CFast 2.0 cards.

We assembled the Mini camera package in our TV studio and the MVF electronic viewfinder helped with the frequent handheld shots. Tripod mounting needed a much smaller tripod and worked well with our university’s tripod.

DeSales has a large selection of Cinema Series EF mount lenses and the Mini’s PL mount was easily replaced by an EF mount to accept our EF mount prime lenses. Our Gold Mount Anton Bauer batteries helped balance the Mini as most of the time it was shoulder mounted on our Jag to capture all of the action.

As the students took turns behind the camera, most preferred shooting with the Alexa Mini over our flagship 4K camera from another manufacturer. This trouble-free experience with the lightweight camera allowed our students to get unusual angles or to run with the actors during the chase scene. Everyone wanted to actually use the Alexa Mini. That says a lot about the camera.

The action was monitored on location with an Ikegami 4K monitor and the Log footage was easily transferred to our hard drive for editing in Adobe Premiere. The ARRI Color Tool (ACT) was a free download from www.arri.com that gave us an immediate “look” at our footage with various color templates. Each of these presets could be adjusted easily to customize the end result well before color grading. I understand that shooting in Log results in a washed out image and I frequently applied a more saturated preset to each shot because it was so simple to do.

Although the Mini does capture in RAW, we chose ProRes as the recording platform. The ARRIRAW Convertor, ARC, also a free download, easily converted the raw footage we shot on the SXT for the film itself.

One of the main reasons we wanted two ARRI’s for this production was for the behind-the-scenes documentary. In this doc, we showed a Log scene directly from the camera on the left side of the frame, and the final, color-graded scene on the right. We wanted the viewer to realize how much color correction actually occurs with everything shot in a project. What most won’t realize, however, is how simple it actually is to do the conversion.

After post, we had a great short film and an educational behind-the-scenes documentary.

SUMMARY

The Arri Alexa Mini is a cost-effective camera to shoot any sized production. Since our students use the latest technology when shooting their films, there was virtually no learning curve when using the ARRI. The footage will intercut with other cameras in its class and the free ARRI software saves much time in the postproduction phase.

FAST FACTS

Application: Small form factor camera body matching sensors of existing ARRI cameras with superior image quality and customizable looks and user controls.

Key Features: Multiple lens mounting options; built-in lens motor controller; HD, 2K, shooting up to 200fps, 3.2K, 4K shooting and up to 60fps; 4:3 sensor mode or internal Raw recording option available via separate licenses.

Price: ARRI ALEXA Mini (body only) MSRP – $41,040

Contact:
ARRI Inc,
Tel: 845.353.1400
info@arri.com
www.arri.com 

Chuck Gloman is an associate professor and chair of the TV/Film Department at DeSales University. He may be reached chuck.gloman@desales.edu.