When Waiblingen-based Benjamin Studios was tasked with producing social clips to showcase Audi’s latest Etron and RS 7 models for a German dealership, the team knew that they would have to find the very best locations.
“The cars had to look stunning in both urban and landscape backdrops, so that our film could flow seamlessly between the two,” begins Noah Benjamin. “We scouted for long, curvy countryside roads with dramatic views, alongside more practical cityscapes with concrete and interesting angles.”
The studio specialises in content for high-end auto brands, so the team also understood that footage had be of the highest quality, even when filming at speed and from above, behind and alongside each of the cars. Noah worked with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro as the A cam for the shoot.
Image Credit: Benjamin Studios
“I wanted a more natural look than some of the glossier commercials,” Noah begins. “Not too overdone, but the look and feel still needed to be refined, so we worked with a range of Canon primes, that we felt would complement the Pocket 6K Pro color science, bring authenticity and help connect viewers to the images on screen.”
Working across a wide range of natural light situations, Noah relied on the camera’s ND filters, tiltable screen and viewfinder in the Spring sunshine. “This project also gave me a new passion for shooting with an EVF; there was a lot of bright sunlight throughout the shoot, so it was very useful and allowed us to move through the scenes smoothly,” Noah explains.
Image Credit: Benjamin Studios
The entire project was shot in 6K at Blackmagic RAW 12:1, helping to reduce data and hard drive storage on location. Shooting time was short, with just two days to capture everything required, so Noah also recorded straight to SSD via the camera’s USB connections. “All of our scenes were very smooth, capturing the cars driving at full speed with minimum blur or unnatural feel.”
Shooting in Blackmagic RAW has also led Noah to start to move his post production into DaVinci Resolve. “I’m very much enjoying the experience of editing and grading within the one package,” he concludes.
“There was certainly an initial learning curve, as I got used to new shortcuts and workflows, so that initially did slow my process, however things are starting to speed up and the process is becoming smoother each time.”
You can watch the finished piece on Noah Sam Benjamin’s Instagram here.
[source: Blackmagic Design]
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