Now, almost all films are shot on digital and while Red never cleans up at the Academy awards at least they are present. It was just too much of a drastic change to let film go. In fact, many DPs did not want to make the switch to digital. I remember when Red came out and many DPs wouldn’t touch it with a 10 ft pole. I’m just curious as to why this is the case? Is the 12k not competitive enough? Not enough latitude with dynamic range? Bad color science? Noisy ISO Ranges? Bad internal recording codecs? Too much morié? Too large of a pixel pitch? What could be the possible reason the industry overlooks this camera? If you put Ziess, Cooke, Kowas, Fujinon, Angenieuxc, Leica, etc lens on an Ursa Mini Pro 12k does it not hold up to an acceptable standard? Essentially saying that we’ll use the disposable BMPCC 6k Pro for the action scenes, but for our A and B cams, never. But the only time you will hear about Black Magic cameras being used is as a crash cam for a car chase scene, or an action sequence. Most cinematographers are very familiar with Black Magic as DaVinci is the premier (you see what I did there?) color grading software that the industry uses. At least not on a professional set with union actors and workers. Why does Hollywood not use Black Magic cameras, specifically the Ursa Mini Pro 12k for their narrative work? The first thing a budding cinematographer will hear is that “it’s not the tools, it’s how you use them.” Well, the Ursa Mini Pro 12k is a tool and it’s not used. You will always see Arri, Panavision, and Sony….and sometimes Red.

If you examine the cameras used for these films year after year you will never see Black Magic. As we know, movie aesthetics are quite subjective, but at least with the nominations there is some type of consensus. This is an indication of the movies the Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts And Sciences (AMPAS) really took a liking to. As an aspiring DOP, each year I check the Academy’s nominations for Best Cinematographer and Best Picture.

I have a question that I’m hoping some of you who’ve actually worked on a movie set around gaffers, grips, PA, DPs, etc.

Blackmagic ursa 12k