Acoustic Communication: production to the limit with Blackmagic

Acoustic Comunicación, in Guatemala, uses Blackmagic Cinema, 4K and Ursa cameras to produce content in the most complex conditions.

It requires a lot of confidence to be able to record aerial images, inclined, hanging only from a harness and from the open door of a helicopter against the power of a headwind. But in the production center Acoustic Communication In Guatemala, this is just a normal work day. Luckily for the group, made up of videographers, editors, colorists, animators, lighting technicians, operators, directors of photography, assistants and administrative staff, their faith knows no limits when it comes to their equipment, especially with their extensive collection of cameras. Blackmagic Design.

Acoustic Comunicación began as a small audio post-production company in 1984. In 1993, it transformed into a comprehensive communications group with more than 40 people in four specialized departments: TV and animation, audio and music, web and multimedia, and events and industrial duplication, all focused on the Central American market.

Production director Danilo Morales formed the team after working in the media for a long time, during which time he accumulated an impressive portfolio of audiovisual projects. Since taking the helm of the production area, he has worked on almost every audiovisual production imaginable, including corporate shoots, commercial film and television. And in most of these projects, Danilo uses Blackmagic cameras to get the job done.

The company uses Blackmagic Cinema, 4K and Ursa cameras, with a series of accessories to adapt to any situation. They also have two recording studios and two renovated editing islands for post-production work, which include DaVinci Resolve systems for color treatment or grading. Since they made the switch two years ago to Blackmagic equipment, their quality and media production has skyrocketed.

“We transitioned to using Blackmagic tools for many reasons, but there are three main ones,” says Danilo. "Firstly there is the resolution, because without fear of being wrong I can say with certainty that the 4K Production Camera and the URSA are the queens of pixels. Secondly, the super 35mm sensor, its depth of field is fabulous. And then, of course, the robustness of the Blackmagic cameras."

Danilo does not base his verdict on other people's comments, but on what he has experienced firsthand. Last year, when Acoustic Comunicación was producing a promotional short film on the beach, the director requested that the cameraman go a few meters into the water with the Blackmagic Cinema camera; Lost in the moment and focused solely on capturing the best shot of the models, the camera operator didn't realize he had gotten too close to a wave until it was too late. The camera was soaked.

“En ese momento dijimos, ‘¡Adiós, cámara!'”, recuerda Danilo. “Pero ¡no! Después de secarla con una toalla de playa, pudimos continuar el rodaje. Y esa cámara todavía está en producción hoy en día”.

Extreme conditions

Danilo says that Acoustic Comunicación's Blackmagic cameras have passed all the tests, proving to be built like war tanks.

For example, working on production sessions almost always turns into continuous marathons, with a daily average of ten hours indoors and outdoors, at temperatures extreme enough to make blood boil and then freeze, becoming a challenge for any production team. Danilo is pleased to have the tools to maintain this pace. One of his favorite spots is the one produced for the San Pablo University of Guatemala called We are here, directed by director of photography Freddy Murphy with whom a via crucis of incomparable challenges was traveled.

The spot, which features a hot air balloon rising into the sky, was recorded with the 4K production camera and with the Ursa for the slow motion scenes, in ProRes HQ 3840 x 2160 format. The challenges of altitude but especially the winds made it impossible to film with a remote-controlled drone camera. So instead, it had to be filmed from a helicopter on a day with very high winds.

“There were two scenes in particular where the Blackmagic cameras stood out,” says Danilo. "One of them was the hot air balloon fire burners, which we shot with the Ursa. This was a slow motion scene where we captured 80 frames per second. Using DaVinci Resolve, we were able to make use of its Clip Retime feature to slow it down even further to 150 frames per second. Combining the Ursa with DaVinci Resolve made the open flames look incredible and realistic, even in slow motion. The second scene was the aerial shot in front of the Agua Volcano in Antigua, Guatemala.”

Danilo and the Acoustic Comunicación team filmed this scene with the 4K Production Camera from the open door of a Bell 206 helicopter. Due to the strength of the wind, it was difficult to keep the camera stable as the helicopter swayed extremely. Danilo feared the worst when he took the images to the editing room, but to his surprise, they looked beautiful thanks to the weight-stability factor of the 4K production camera. To further stabilize the image, DaVinci Resolve's powerful 3D tracker was used. The suite handled the images beautifully.

Color stability

Acoustic Communication uses DaVinci Resolve for most, if not all, of its projects. It was used entirely in the commercial We are here, and without it, some shots would not have been possible.

“Fue fácil lograr una apariencia uniforme entre toma y toma dentro de DaVinci Resolve, la corrección automática de tomas nos permitió hacer concordancias entre tomas, factor que nos simplificó el flujo de trabajo”, explica Danilo. “Power Windows también nos ayudó en el plano del segundo 15 del comercial donde aparecen tres modelos femeninas en la recámara del globo. La tela roja de la recámara enrojeció toda la toma, incluso el fondo exterior donde estaban los quemadores, y el director quería separar el color rojo del interior, del verde de la hierba del exterior. DaVinci Resolve hizo esto extremadamente fácil. Aplicamos una máscara con seguimiento y un nodo para diferenciar los colores”.

Danilo es un apasionado de los nodos del sistema DaVinci Resolve, que han ayudado a perfeccionar su flujo de producción. No sólo simplifica su trabajo, sino que lo clasifica y también potencializa. Su entendimiento de la estructura de nodos y sus diversas conexiones proporcionan al equipo de Acoustic Comunicación el control perfecto de todas las herramientas dentro de la suite DaVinci Resolve.

La Revolución del Universo

Recientemente, Acoustic Comunicación ha estado realizando una serie de diferentes proyectos que utilizan cámaras Blackmagic y DaVinci Resolve, para productos como joyas, anuncios de entidades bancarias, un promocional de ciclismo para Adrenaline Rush, una presentación para la bebida TING y muchos más. Como van las cosas, parece que Danilo y el resto del equipo tienen grandes planes de continuar incorporando Blackmagic hasta un futuro lejano.

“Permítanme hacer una analogía entre Blackmagic y la Ursa, y el Telescopio Espacial Hubble y las cámaras de la NASA”, explica Danilo. “En 1990, nadie imaginaba que el Hubble podría revolucionar la forma en que percibimos el universo. De la misma manera, en abril de 2014 nunca nadie imaginó que una cámara como la URSA, con su sensor intercambiable, revolucionaría la forma de ver y captar el mundo en UltraHD, y a un precio sorprendentemente asequible. El Hubble ha puesto a los teóricos a repensar algunas de sus ideas sobre la edad del universo. Con su sensor intercambiable y el sensor de 4.6K que pronto estará disponible, la URSA impulsará a los cineastas a repensar su flujo de trabajo y las maneras en que las imágenes que capturan podrán contar sus historias. Blackmagic ya está cambiando la forma de ver las cosas”.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7T_1_FfFMo[/youtube]