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Fuji TV's "Busu to Yajyu" Uses Blackmagic Cinema Camera and Pocket Cinema Camera

Fremont, CA - September 18, 2015 - Blackmagic Design today announced that the hit comedy series, “Busu together Yaiyu,” produced by major Japanese broadcast network Fuji TV, uses Blackmagic Cinema Cameras and Pocket Cinema Camera as the show’s main production cameras. DaVinci Resolve Studio, along with other Blackmagic Design products, are also used in post production.

“Busu to Yajyu,” (The Ugly and The Beast) is a love-comedy airing every Saturday at 11:40pm. Its lead characters are not so good looking college coeds who fall in love with each other’s best friends. Production and post production for this tale of outcasts who are using each other to find love is done by VASC Inc., a group company of Fuji TV.

“We wanted to use multiple cameras, so we chose Blackmagic Cinema Camera MFT and EF models as well as Pocket Cinema Camera. Blackmagic cameras are capable of shooting in log and they are superior in showing highlight details compared to cameras that are mainly used for TV drama shooting in Japan. For example, if we shoot under the light filtering through the trees, regular cameras clip the highlights because the difference of shades is too wide between shadowy and sunny places. However, Blackmagic cameras can capture the details in such highlighted areas,” said Shinichi Kaitani, the DoP of VASC Inc.

Blackmagic’s Cinema Camera MFT with Speed Booster and Yashika/Contacs mount Carl Zeiss lens perform “A” camera duties, while the EF model with Canon lens is the “B” camera and is used mainly for close up shots. The Pocket Cinema Camera was the production’s “C” camera. The “A” and “B” cameras’ SDI outputs and the HDMI output of the Pocket Cinema Camera were converted on set to SDI using Blackmagic’s Mini Converter HDMI to SDI, with Vask also using a Blackmagic HDLink Pro DVI to apply a LUT on their preview monitor.

“We use the Pocket Cinema Camera and take full advantage of its small size. For example, we set it up inside a student’s locker on the college campus. While there are other compact cameras we could use, the Pocket Cinema Camera offers the best image quality, which is what we wanted for this project,“ Kaitani said. “By using the Blackmagic cameras we have the flexibility to achieve our creativity. If we used conventional cameras, we would not be able to use multiple cameras because of budget restrictions. Also, with the wide dynamic range of the Blackmagic cameras, we can shoot where there are big differences between shadow and highlight without bringing in additional lighting.”

After shooting each scene, the DIT makes a copy of the SSDs and SD cards while the camera staff prepares for next scene. Footage is then graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio on set. The DIT and on set colorist, Genta Tamaki of Interceptor, Inc., explained, “There are differences in lens and aperture with each camera used, or even with the same camera, and the difference in the lighting conditions would change the look of footage. So I color corrected these differences. I sometimes used the Shot Match tool in Resolve 12 to get me to a good point to start making more precise color adjustments for each shot. While I worked on adjusting the overall tone of the footage, I may, for example, have some scenes shot in daytime and tune them to dusk. For onset grading, I brought my portable rack system loaded with a MacPro, UltraStudio 4K I/O, SmartView 4K monitor, and MultiDock SSD player. I used a MultiDock to read the SSDs and a SmartView 4K for monitoring Resolve output from MacPro via UltraStudio 4K.”

Tamaki also used Resolve to create shot lists. “I made a shot list which displays information about footage shot each day such as file names, timecode and shot numbers. When I export files from my timeline, I can export meta data of each clip on the timeline. When you open the file in Excel, you can see it as a shot list. It is very convenient as it’s very fast to perform a search!”

“Busu to Yajyu”’s producer, Takuya Ikea of Fuji TV drama production center, concluded: “With a limited budget, we are looking for a better way to make great work and came up with a great workflow using Blackmagic cameras. Their picture quality is way better than what we attained for other projects I have worked on. Many of my colleagues, after seeing the results, were curious as to what kind of camera I used for this project. Even the actors are very happy about the look. And being able to check the final look of the footage by grading on set is a great tool. I plan to use this very successful workflow, from both creative and economic standpoints, for other programs.”

Press Photography
Product photos of Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Pocket Cinema Camera, DaVinci Resolve Studio, UltraStudio 4K, SmartView 4K, MultiDock, and all other Blackmagic Design products are available here.  Story photos can be found here (There is an official photo from the program. Please use the following credit if the photo is used:  ©Fuji TV )

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 the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)
Founded in 1965, the nonprofit Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is one of the oldest and largest membership organizations for industrial design professionals. IDSA sponsors the annual International Design Excellence Awards® (IDEA), the world’s most prestigious industrial design honor, and its events, including an annual International Design Conference and five district conferences, bring together the brightest minds in the profession. INNOVATION, IDSA’s flagship publication, is a highly regarded magazine within the profession. IDSA has thousands of members around the world. To learn more about IDSA, visit www.idsa.org, and connect via Twitter, and Facebook.

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 Telestream Wirecast Software products. www.newmagic.com.au