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08: Blackmagic Design – A Conversation with Bob Caniglia, Director of Sales Operations, North America

Summary

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design was founded in 2002 with its release of the DeckLink capture card. The company originally specialized in capture and playback cards, but today encompasses all aspects of the film, post-production, and television broadcast industries. The product line underwent a huge transformation in 2009 when they acquired DaVinci Systems. Bob Caniglia, who was working for DaVinci at the time, came over to Blackmagic Design with the acquisition. Bob tells us that one day he was the youngest guy at DaVinci, and the next found himself as the oldest guy at Blackmagic Design. He sat down with us to talk shop and deliver the inside scoop on all of Blackmagic Designs' most exciting innovations.

About Bob Caniglia

Bob Caniglia has been working in the film and television industry since 1985 when he was a part-time camera operator and editor for industrial videos. He went on to finish school at night while working full time as a commercial producer and director at a local CVS affiliate. Eventually, Bob found himself in Los Angeles, working as an editor for the Disney Channel and 525 Post Productions. He later worked on music videos for the likes of Prince, Madonna and Michael Jackson. Bob eventually transitioned his career into production and post-production, working with major manufacturers including Panasonic, Snow, DaVinci Systems and Blackmagic Design where he is currently Director of Sales Operations. When he’s not telling the world about the latest and greatest Blackmagic Design projects, Bob is a professional comedian performing under the stage name Bobby Z.

Show Notes

[01:16] Bob’s role at Blackmagic Design.

[02:36] A little Blackmagic Design history.

[03:02] Blackmagic Design's CEO, Grant Petty came from the TV business. He originally worked at a post house but wanted to see if he could create a capture card.

[03:26] Blackmagic Design's strength comes from its ecosystem

[03:57] Some history on the DaVinci acquisition

[06:10] Blackmagic Design product overview

[09:13] What Blackmagic Design products are applicable for filmmakers?

URSA Mini 4.6k, URSA Mini Pro, the new Pocket Cinema Camera 4k and Micro Cinema Camera.

[14:42] For filmmakers, Blackmagic Design makes things like viewfinders, shoulder mounts and it's Video Assist (HD, 4K) 5 and 7-inch recorders and monitors.

[17:20] The company partnered with Apple to launch the Blackmagic eGPU in July.

These enclosures are paired with a Thunderbolt 3 MacBook Pro, iMac or iMac Pro.
It has a graphics card, but also connectivity for HDMI output, USB ports and even charges a laptop.
Blackmagic Design also recently announced the Blackmagic eGPU Pro, which is shipping at the end of November.
Requires Thunderbolt 3.
Powerful but still portable.

[20:50] Let's talk about the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K.

5″ touch screen.
Can record CinemaDNG RAW and Apple ProRes.
It has the ability to shoot stills (8 megapixels).
Versatile to get into small spaces.
High frame rates
The full-size HDMI output can act as a clean feed, or you can put the camera metadata out.

[29:53] What's special about the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K?

[33:23] Let's talk about DaVinci Resolve

The current version of DaVinci Resolve is 15.2.
Version 15 added Fusion visual effects to the software.
Also added to the editing side, with more title options that include the popular 3D titles that are subsets of Fusion.
The Fairlight audio continues to improve.

[36:17] Blackmagic Design continues to acquire companies and brings its robust manufacturing expertise to the table

International, award-winning design team.
Able to bring the cost down because of manufacturing abilities
Every piece of the process is run by specialists in their specific field.
Blackmagic Design is the largest consumer of SDI component parts in the world.

[42:55] DaVinci Resolve has a free version in addition to the paid “pro” version.

[45:19] Discussion of order fulfillment of Pocket Cinema Camera 4K.

[47:39] URSA Mini Pro 4.6K.

People asking for more on the shoulder features.
Wanted to be able to get to menus without having to take the camera off their shoulder.
Added ND filters and interchangeable mounts.
It can be used as a studio camera.
You can use it to shoot a movie or as an E&G camera.
Have an SDK (software developer kit) so people can create their own apps
The URSA Minis all come with a copy of DaVinci Resolve Studio.

[52:44] Common Workflows using Blackmagic Design cameras.

[53:47] Weezer Music Video shot on URSA Mini Pro and the team ended up editing and color editing all in DaVinci Resolve Studio.

[55:19] Blackmagic Design shows up in every category of the submission requirements for Netflix – cameras, color, editing, and coding.

Ready to bring the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K for Netflix certification.
The Three Billboards DP used the camera to shoot establishing shots on his own.

[57:58] Blackmagic RAW optimized for DaVinci Resolve.

The company also put out an SDK (software developer kit) so that other non-linear editing companies can adopt it.
Free codec – no license necessary.
Commitment from major companies to adopt through SDK.

[01:01:05] Post-production workflow for the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and URSA Mini 4.6k.

Blackmagic Design got into the camera side of things because they wanted to make it possible to record into a codec that you could just use right away without any ‘special sauce' and processing.
CinemaDNG RAW plays in an NLE but they are big files. People typically make proxies for editing and then relink for color.
Blackmagic RAW is different. Makes playback efficient.
Blackmagic RAW is already available for URSA Mini 4.6k but not the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K yet.

[01:04:26] Does DaVinci Resolve require a certain computer?

Works on three platforms, Linux, Windows, and Mac.
You can go to the website support section for DaVinci Resolve and check out the user configuration guide which makes it easy to see if your computer is compatible and optimized for specific equipment.
Made DaVinci Resolve ten times faster last year.

[01:09:13] Blackmagic Design is actively working with Mac to ensure integration.

[01:09:33] Upcoming Blackmagic Design Conference in Denver on December 5th