Blackmagic Production Camera 4K Used to Shoot Hilary Duff's "All About You" Music Video
Fremont, CA - December 10, 2014 - Blackmagic Design today announced that the Production Camera 4K and Cinema Camera were used to shoot Hilary Duff’s “All About You” lyric music video. The music video was shot by LA based production company Nightjar, which is helmed by brothers Felix and Julian Mack and specializes in creating multimedia content, including video, animation, editing and sound.
For “All About You,” Felix and Julian had just seven days to bring the video from concept to completion and to shoot, edit, animate and post produce it. “Artists like Hilary Duff have unbelievable demands made on their time. After hair and makeup, which were very important since the video is all close ups, we had around 70 minutes to shoot,” said Julian. “We didn't end up needing more time than that because Hilary is a great performer and professional, and the cameras have such an easy to use workflow and deliver amazing footage.”
In a lyric music video, the lyrics of the song play on screen in time with the music, and Felix and Julian developed an intimate look at Hilary, employing close ups with a shallow plane of focus. With no set, no backgrounds and no props, the video focuses on Hilary and the words of the song, which were animated and compiled in post.
“We wanted the video to be about the audience and Hilary. We are minimalists, and we approached this project in that style. We wanted it to feel intimate, small and personal,” explained Julian. “We shot from two angles at once with the Production Camera 4K as the A cam and the Cinema Camera as the B cam.
“We had no sets or backgrounds, so it was all in the lighting. The cameras’ dynamic range, detail and color reproduction had to be as good as possible,” he continued. “Whether it was hair in front of a green screen or strong gradients on a face, we just needed to capture as much detail as possible, and the cameras keyed well and delivered.”
An accomplished photographer, Felix took his cue from using still cameras and wanted to have that flexibility of movement and framing during the shoot. Both he and Julian wanted to improvise and to react to Hilary’s performance, so they mounted the cameras on monopods and were ready to go.
“We didn't plan any camera moves or framing in advance. The idea was ‘do your thing,’ and we will film what catches our eye,” said Julian. “We simply ran takes the entire duration of the song from two angles, and you really don't need too many takes when you can use them from beginning to end; Hilary is that good.”
He continued: “The focal plane was so shallow that we constantly had to pull focus. Hilary, Felix and I were moving constantly, and that was the whole premise: you appear in focus, then disappear. It's a tease, really. We could only achieve this by essentially treating, holding and using the Blackmagic cameras like you would a still camera. One hand on the body, one on the focus ring, and it worked. The cameras’ focus peaking and support for the Canon lenses optical image stabilization were indispensable.”
Shot in ProRes, Felix and Julian leveraged the Production Camera 4K to reframe the footage and create extra movement and effects by cropping the 4K in post. Shooting in ProRes also allowed them to streamline the post process.
“We had to minimize any technical challenges, and there was no time for experimentation. We still had to animate all the words, flares and edit the video,” concluded Julian. “Blackmagic Design cameras are ‘plug and play’ all the way from capture to edit, which was a necessity for this project. They are easy to learn, light and small, work with EF lenses, have focus peaking, support image stabilization, have long record times and high dynamic range. They basically eliminate all the drawbacks of DSLRs without adding any hassles.”
Press Photography
Product photos of Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, Blackmagic Cinema Camera and all other Blackmagic Design products are available here. A link to story photos is here and the link to the video is 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 http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/au.
About New Magic Australia Pty Ltd (Australian and New Zealand Blackmagic Design master distributor)
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, Matrox Video and Sony Creative Software products. www.newmagic.com.au
