Pocket Cinema Camera 6K by Blackmagic, in the 2nd season of the HBO Max phenomenon 'The White Lotus'

Xavier Grobet, director of photography for the second season of 'The White Lotus', decided to choose the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K camera from Blackmagic to film some key scenes of the production.

The second season This social satire is set in an exclusive hotel in Italy and closely follows the exploits of various guests and employees over the course of a week in different locations, unlike the first installment, which takes place only in a Hawaiian hotel. This also affects the aesthetics of the fiction, which beyond focusing on exuberant colors and attractive environments, took advantage of the Italian landscape to explore all kinds of places. In the words of Grobet: "The sea and the waves are also elements of equal importance in the program. Of course, the waves of Sicily are very different from those of Hawaii, but they still have the strength that we wanted to capture."

At the time of film underwater, Grobet carried out tests with various equipment, but most of them were too heavy and impractical. It was then that he remembered his experience with products from Blackmagic Design: “In 2015, when I was preparing for the film Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, I was looking for a very compact camera to film inside moving vehicles. We did not want to use any type of trailers or platforms for the vehicles, so I carried out tests with the original model Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, and I was surprised by the dynamic range it offered compared to our main cameras. I had no problem unifying the color with both units and the results were surprising.” In the case of The White Lotus, The suggestion came from one of his assistants: "Fabio Ciotto suggested exploring with the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K model and the Nauticam waterproof housing. We sent the equipment to Sicily and did some processing and quality tests, and then we passed the material to our digital imaging technician, Leonardo Frosina, to work with and develop comparisons. We discovered that we had a small camera of excellent quality that was perfectly compatible with the rest of our equipment."

Thanks to the camera's compact size and light weight, Grobet was able Handle the unit easily under and out of water in a critical fight scene The White Lotus: "Our assistant camera operator, Armando Avallone, found it very easy to manipulate the unit, which in turn gave me more opportunities to focus on the creative aspect, using it underwater and submerging it in and out of the water, as an additional resource in the narration of the plot. It's something I couldn't have achieved with other cameras."

Grobet was impressed not only with the size of the camera, but also with the colorimetry of Blackmagic models: "I really love the image quality of Blackmagic cameras. Additionally, the size is a significant advantage, giving me the ability to work with more compact equipment and the freedom to place it in tight spaces, but mostly, I love the dynamic range and image quality. Ultimately, the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K helped me achieve the scenes I had envisioned."

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