'Heart of the Man', shot with Blackmagic's compact Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro

Director David Cook opted for the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and 4K cameras from Blackmagic to shape 'Heart of the Man', a story of "identity, love, pain and acceptance" that marks his debut full-length.

Inspired by the personal experiences of Cook, Heart of the Man conveys the history of Chris Wundurra (Parker Little), a promising amateur boxer torn between pleasing his father and following his heart. This story about the passing of the adolescence to maturity was filmed in Brisbane and Warwick, a small town in Queensland, and has had a remarkable reception captivating audiences with its authenticity and emotional depth.

From the beginning, Cook was clear that the smartest option was to use surveillance cameras. Blackmagic Design, given the limited budget for the movie and the short production lead time. Considering the large number of scenes filmed at dawn or dusk, the crew had to move in time with the sun, often recording shots of the protagonist running and training outdoors. The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro model allowed the team to move quickly without affecting image quality, even with the challenges of shooting on the go.

Nathan Jermyn, director of photography, was impressed by the lightweight design and the portability of Blackmagic Design cameras. As such, he notes: "The key challenge for this film was maintaining a consistent look between the different locations where filming took place. Typically, you had to travel for hours to get to them. For this reason, we didn't have much time to prepare and could only record a few shots once we were at each location. As a result, we needed a camera that we could rely on to get high-quality images immediately. Often, having to place a camera on a gimbal and remove it later makes filming much less time-consuming. agile, but with the Blackmagic models, we could leave the units on and be ready at any time.”

Going back to the 90s without giving up experimentation

Cook's goal for Heart of the Man was to recreate a mid 90s look for the movie. Beyond that, it also left room for try. Thanks to the compact design of the cameras, the entire team had the opportunity to be part of the trial and error. As Jermyn explains: "It was a really interesting shoot. A small crew means you have to do things you don't normally do. We improvised as we went, and what we achieved was impressive."

The budget for lighting Heart of the Man was limited, so the dual native ISO value of the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro model was a great help in making the most of the low light shots. Surprisingly, the film's boxing ring scenes were shot on location, behind a row of commercial businesses in inner-city Brisbane: "We had no control over the various outdoor lights, and having to control the light intensity during dawn, my team and I faced some problems in finding the right balance. I tried to achieve higher brightness and keep the lighting softer as much as possible, to match the '90s look. of the rest of the film.”

Looking back, Jermyn is pleased to have resorted to Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and to modelo 4K in making this feature film: "I had previous experience working with Blackmagic Design cameras, so I knew I could trust them to get the job done. They are considerably smaller than any other similar model, and the film looks great. I would recommend them to anyone who needs greater mobility on their next project."

https://youtu.be/YvvBvTgLD48