Blackmagic Pyxis 6K: first steps with Rossetto campaign

The Rossetto supermarket chain has trusted the creative agency Coo'ee Italia to shape its new advertising campaign, which has been shot with the new Pyxis 6K camera from Blackmagic Design.

The concept of the campaign The Shopping of Dreams (Dream Shopping) is inspired by the approach of Lipstick to keep prices low all year round instead of focusing on frequent customer cards and promotions. The idea was developed by the advertising agency Coo'ee Italy, was directed by Mauro Miglioranzi and had the creative direction of Alessandro Tosatto, who trusted Paolo Doppieri as director.

Alessandro Zonin (AIC, IMAGO) was the director of photography for the piece, and one of the main architects of the choice of the Pyxis 6K of Blackmagic as a camera for this project: "I have been using Blackmagic cameras for years, but as soon as I found out that they had released the PYXIS 6K, I went to Adcom in Bologna to try it out. I was immediately impressed with its innovative and capable features." The camera was equipped with Meister fixed focal length lenses. Heen and a casing XLCS Designs, which has connections for accessories, including a wireless transmitter for focus and the Blackmagic URSA Cine EVF electronic viewfinder, and in addition, a V-Lock battery was used for power supply.

The images were captured in resolution 6K taking advantage of the entire sensor area (6048 x 4032), and the final material for broadcasters and social networks was delivered in 4K. The decision to use the format Blackmagic RAW during filming and resorting to DaVinci Resolve, the editing, grading, special effects and audio post-production program, was the common thread of this project, according to Zonin, who highlights the advantages of this unified workflow: “Working with Blackmagic Cloud gave us the opportunity to have a library of projects and files that we could share, which facilitated remote collaboration with Diego Larosa, our colorist and editor.” Also, filming with the model PYXIS 6K opened the doors to an integrated workflow that allowed the camera to record files H.264 lower resolution, in addition to the originals from the camera.

Proxy files (lower resolution) were uploaded directly from the camera to Blackmagic Cloud through tethering from a cell phone with a 5G connection, and this was made available to all team members. “This approach ensured that we could quickly identify the most interesting clips and lay the foundation for a more efficient creative process,” explains Zonin, who also highlights that “the flexibility of shooting in 6K resolution with the full sensor allowed us to reframe the images during post-production, using the data recorded by the gyro sensor and stored in the files as metadata, which saved us a considerable amount of time by stabilizing the shots captured by hand-holding the camera.”

The creative concept of Rossetto's latest campaign

Rossetto's ad shows a crowded supermarket, with customers pushing carts full of colorful products and tempting offers down the aisles. In the middle of this everyday scene, something extraordinary happens: a man flies through the air with his car. This surreal moment forms the backbone of the supermarket's new campaign.

One of the main challenges was to integrate a digital clone of the protagonist in a real environment. This is how Zonin explains: "We created an avatar using computer images with the assistance of detailed scans and high-resolution photographs of Matteo Montaperto, our lead actor. The scenes were filmed without an avatar, using precise lighting and composition references, with the aim of integrating the computer images later." Tommaso Malaisi, the visual effects (VFX) artist, was in charge of creating the digital clone: "The goal was to ensure that the avatar interacted naturally with the real-life environment and character. It required meticulous attention to all the details, just like in large feature film productions."

The production combined the recorded material with the computerized imaging sequences to give rise to a narrative that balanced the fantastic aspects with those of realism, so it was necessary to carry out a meticulous planning, which began with an exhaustive reconnaissance of the site in order to perfect the conceptual sketch and ended with technical tests with exposure meters and colorimeters to detect color temperature and identify and resolve any lighting problems early. For example, to solve the LED lighting of the stores, Zonin and his team decided to use the Dual native camera ISO value, “which gave us the ability to switch between 400 and 1250 without sacrificing image quality.”