Nobuaki Imura Uses Micro Cinema Camera for Three Music Videos
Fremont, CA – July 20, 2017 - Blackmagic Design today announced that Nobuaki Imura, founder of production house I-7 and the popular DP of choice for a huge number of top Japanese artists, has been using Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera to shoot the latest music videos for the popular Japanese bands Spitz, Fo'x Tails and the collaboration of the bands SiM and Crossfaith.
Imura's company, I-7, is a group of inspirational camera men and colorists. As a DP, Imura himself has shot many music videos, TV commercials and concert videos for top artists such as AKB 48, ONE OK ROCK and Namie Amuro, before starting his own production company.
"Once a camera man becomes independent, he loses the opportunity to share technical know-how easily. I have been doing many multi camera shoots with other DPs, so I started my company wishing that I could learn with them," said Imura.
Imura used a Micro Cinema Camera for various recent music video shoots. One of them is the music video "Minato" by top selling band Spitz, and includes a mixture of mono chrome live action and animation. The live action scenes were entirely shot with the Micro Cinema Camera.
"The director requested that he wanted to make the video look like old film. Since I have used Blackmagic's Production Camera 4K in the past, I knew the tone and texture Blackmagic cameras can capture, which is part of why I wanted to use them. The director also wanted "give" in the image and that's the reason I did not use a 35mm sensor. So I chose the Micro Cinema Camera which gives a more 16mm film look with deeper depth of field."
He continued: "The members of Spitz were very happy with the footage. It was actually too clean, and we wanted to add an old picture book style, so we had to rather roughen up the image in post production."
Imura also shot a music video for the collaboration between the bands SiM and Crossfaith. Their song "GET iT OUT" is a fast paced, energy packed song that had been selected as the theme for Red Bull's Air Race 2016. Many cameras, including Blackmagic's Production Camera 4K and Micro Cinema Camera, were used throughout the production. A Micro Cinema Camera was mounted on the competition air race plane and a Production Camera 4K was mounted on the rear of a camera car.
"The Micro Cinema Camera is compact, which is great for aerial shots and also gives me a nice tone of picture. Such compact cameras usually have difficulty pulling off getting the tone we want at this level. With this camera, it was easy to do matching with other cameras."
For rock band Fo'x Tails' newest song, "The Liberty," Imura also employed multi camera shooting techniques to capture the sense of speed and energy from the heavy track. He obtained unique shots by using the Micro Cinema Camera on his custom made camera mount, enabling him to roll the camera through the horizontal plane while achieving tilt.
Imura said, "It can only mount a very small and light camera. Small and light, and that's why I can handhold it and roll it. Having the ability to change lenses and capture an image with a wide dynamic range are all great advantages of the Micro Cinema Camera."
All three music videos were graded at I-7 using DaVinci Resolve Studio. "We wanted to see a graded picture when we went to do the offline edit, so we graded all first footage ourselves."
Imura continued, "If we do a big concert video, we end up using more than 30 cameras. In such situations, we have to use cameras from many different manufacturers, and Resolve handles those shots from all the different sources easily. Resolve allows me to get close to the look I aim for quickly. It is the best tool for grading."
Press Photography
Product photos of Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera, Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, DaVinci Resolve Studio and all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/press/images. Story photos can be found here.
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world's highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design's DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company's Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com/au.
New Magic Australia Pty Ltd is a recognised leader in the distribution and marketing of multimedia hardware and software, representing a carefully selected range of innovative, leading manufacturers and catering for both the professional and consumer markets. New Magic Australia established in 1993 is the Australian distributor of Blackmagic Design, Convergent Design, Hauppauge Computer Works Inc, Cubix and Matrox Video products. www.newmagic.com.au.
