For any production company, flexibility is key. It’s what allows you to overcome challenges, produce amazing footage and ensure the client’s happiness. While flexibility is important in all parts of a workflow, at the crux, it needs to stem from the technology itself in order to best produce the desired effect.
When Indiana based Brian Hammons Productions faced complications decoding footage and insufficient drive space for season one of its “Hoosier Legends” television show, it made the switch to Indianapolis, IN based production company Songbird Media Group for season two.
“’Hoosier Legends’ is a show we produce for Brian Hammons Productions and Fox Sports Indiana that profiles legendary Indiana sports figures. If they have ties to the Hoosier State, they are fair game,” said Zachary Rutledge, co owner, Songbird Media Group. “Because each episode of ‘Hoosier Legends’ is a mini biography, as opposed to live sports action like ‘Prep Zone,’ we have to be flexible enough to cater to the demands of each show in order to produce the best content possible. When it came to ‘Hoosier Legends,’ I couldn’t wait to get those images from a Blackmagic Design camera.”
A Documentary Look Requires Cinematic Images
Airing on Mondays at 5 p.m. on Fox Sports Indiana, "Hoosier Legends" is a nostalgic program that profiles the careers of the biggest names in Indiana sports. Hosted by Brian Hammons, the story of each legend is chronicled by interviews and insights from the legend being profiled, teammates and the media community.
For the show, Songbird Media Group required cameras that delivered high dynamic range and a filmic look to help enhance the biography feel and documentary look of the show. The production company uses a Blackmagic Production Camera 4K as the main camera and a Blackmagic Cinema Camera as the secondary camera.
“The overall show has a very documentary film feeling so having cameras that produce a more cinematic image just makes all the sense in the world,” said Zachary. “Couple that with the ability to run our audio from our Sound Devices mixer to all the cameras for proper syncing is just amazing. Not only that, but with the larger screens built into the Blackmagic cameras, our shooters do not have to use stand alone monitors, which just add extra set up time and gear to travel with.”
Songbird Media Group typically shoots in ProRes and in Film LOG, but also uses the cameras’ RAW capabilities from time to time, often when shooting outdoors. Though not delivered in 4K, Songbird Media Group also leverages 4K from the Production Camera 4K for crop availability.
“The RAW feature has been a lifesaver while shooting outdoors and not having the time or manpower to work on diffusing a bunch of light or bringing out an HMI and generator. The ability to bring all that picture information back out in post is amazing! It’s great that the cameras’ flexibility codec wise has such a positive ripple effect on our entire workflow, from production out in the field to post,” said Zachary.
Two Cameras, Two High End Looks
“After working with the two cameras together, I was actually amazed at how different an image you have between the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and the Production Camera 4K. The Cinema Camera really does give you more of that film like feel and look where as the Production Camera 4K provides high dynamic range but at a more ready for television look,” said Zachary. “For ‘Hoosier Legends,’ the look of the Production Camera 4K suits it best. It also more closely resembles the footage from season one, which is a huge help since there are times when we will have to pull footage from last year and splice it with new Blackmagic Design content.”
According to Zachary, it has been a learning curve coming from the video camera world to the DSLR world to a Blackmagic Design world, but the quality and price point coming from Blackmagic Design has made the production company move almost exclusively to the cameras. “We have great peaking, audio and histogram meters, time remaining on cards and even the ability to format cards in camera. All this on top of the variety of codecs built into the cameras and the ability to shoot in 4K, we have so much flexibility. It’s always a pleasure to introduce a new client to these cameras and for them to respond so positively about the image,” he concluded.
About Songbird Media Group
In 2003, Jason Rich and Keith Toombs formed Songbird Entertainment out of a mutual passion for professional production work, mixed with a lighthearted approach that results in a quality end product. With this approach, they have gained clients in the world of corporate video, broadcast video and broadcast and commercial television.
In 2012 Jason and Keith teamed up with Zachary Rutledge to transform Songbird Entertainment into Songbird Media Group. Songbird Media Group is a full scale, state of the art media production company that takes the client’s vision from idea, offering creative consulting to storyboards and scripting in pre production, to shooting on location, and finally, to editing a finished product delivery in multiple formats.
