The documentary 'The Way I See It' shot remotely with a Pocket Cinema Camera 6K

Directed by Dawn Porter, the hit documentary follows the life and work of Pete Souza, former official White House photographer.

The model Pocket Cinema Camera 6K of Blackmagic Design It has been used during the filming of the documentary The Way I see It to record remote interviews with Pete Souza, protagonist of the same and former official photographer of the White House.

Directed by Dawn Porter, the hit documentary is about the life and work of Souza, who served as a photographer during the Reagan and Obama presidencies. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and in theaters in September, while its television debut is scheduled for this month on MSNBC.

Production had to be suspended due to the global pandemic caused by COVID-19, but according to Porter, it had to move forward. Given the documentary's relevance to the US presidential election, it was important to stay the course and meet the planned release date. The only option was to film remotely, so Porter and the cinematographer Clair Popkin They decided to send Souza a Pocket Cinema Camera 6K unit to conduct the remaining interviews.

"Because Pete's photographs are an essential part of the story, it was important to be able to achieve a cinematic quality. We were about 75 percent complete and needed the remaining interview footage to match the footage perfectly, although we were going to have to shoot it in a very different way," explains Porter.

With this idea in mind, Porter and Popkin quickly ruled out the option of using a webcam or mobile phone to end the interviews. Since they had already used Blackmagic Design equipment on other projects, Popkin decided to use a Pocket Cinema Camera 6K unit, considering its functionality and dynamic range.

“Pete was in charge of the lighting, and as a result, it was critical that the dynamic range and log curve be decent,” adds Popkin. "Ease of use was also an important factor, as the camera had to be simple enough that he could set it up himself, but still allow us to record cinema-quality images. The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K ticked all the boxes."

Although Souza is an accomplished photographer, he does not generally use digital film cameras, so the production team wanted to ensure that no difficulties arose regarding use. To this end, they hired a company to prepare and disinfect the equipment before sending it to Souza, and included laminated cards that showed the work dynamics and described how everything worked.

According to Popkin, “using objectives Canon Using the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K was an added bonus as Pete was already familiar with them as he regularly uses multiple Canon systems in his photography projects. On the other hand, by recording the material directly to SSD drives, the work was much easier, as this allowed us to optimize processes and reduce the margin of error. “Pete could transfer the files from one drive to another and send us the storage media, which made it simple to deliver the content.”

"If we had not used the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K model, we would not have had such a wide range of possibilities when filming remotely. We were able to adapt and record the material we needed to finish the documentary and meet the deadlines, even though we could not do it in person," concludes Porter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L4ktHbelhc