Blackmagic Pyxis: Untold Insights into Specialty Coffee

Konstantin Kovalev, director of Filmed by Few, deploys the cameras Blackmagic Pyxis 6K and 12K to create several documentary pieces aimed at the specialty coffee brand WatchHouse and shot in environments such as the mountainous regions of Ethiopia or the coffee-growing areas of China.

The WatchHouse initiative began with the objective of tracing the journey of the coffee bean until it reaches the cup, placing emphasis on the producers, routines and families that support the supply chain. Each of the locations brought with it significant challenges that had to be addressed by the production team. Filmed By Few.

The trip through Ethiopia, for example, involved dealing with remote terrain, limited road infrastructure, and unpredictable access to the electrical grid to charge batteries. These variables were what encouraged Kovalev to use the Pyxis 6K of Blackmagic Design, a compact, easy-to-carry cubic digital film camera: "Everything had to fit in a backpack. The camera had to be compact, sturdy and quick to put together. When filming a documentary, you don't get a second chance. I wanted a camera that would be ready to roll when something important happens. In smaller communities, using bulky cameras and accessories can feel invasive. The Pyxis 6K is compact enough not to be intimidating, which helps you capture more intimate moments," he explains.

The content was filmed both for Instagram how to YouTube, so it was decided to opt for a format Open Gate 3:2 take advantage of the entire sensor area: "This allowed us to frame the shot based on the story and, later, during post-production, obtain the vertical and horizontal versions without compromising the composition. This has represented a radical change."

Kovalev's experience with Blackmagic Design It started about five years ago, when he began to fully dedicate himself to film: "I started using the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and, since then, I have been working with other Blackmagic cameras. The combination of image quality, integration with the DaVinci Resolve workflow and the creative control that their cameras offer makes it easy to be loyal to the brand."

From Africa to Asia

For filming in China, Kovalev decided to add a Blackmagic Pyxis 12K to his Pyxis 6K: "I wanted a main camera that was more versatile. The Pyxis 12K and its RGBW sensor gave me that flexibility, and the images captured by both cameras complemented each other perfectly, so combining it with the 6K was easy." Thanks to the fact that both cameras share the same colorimetry, it was possible to make a montage of the material recorded with both units without having to resort to other grading tools in order for their appearance to match. Likewise, the Filmed by Few team deployed the optics on the field Carl Zeiss Jena and Helios; the monitor Blackmagic Pyxis and the AT875R shotgun microphone Audio-Technica.

In this Chinese stage, the piece was filmed in Blackmagic RAW 8:1 a 25 f/s in several resolutions and was later edited and graded in DaVinci Resolve Studio. “In an improvised production like ours, you don't always set everything up with the best precision, but the dynamics of working with Blackmagic RAW made corrections during grading quite easy,” Kovalev recalls.