According to Blackmagic Design, Season 2 of The Chitlin Circuit virtual music performance was shot in Blackmagic RAW by Director of Photography Slim Moses, using a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro digital film camera. It was edited by Omoregbe Omebe and graded by Vafonba Donzo using DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Created by female multimedia artist and director/executive producer Tiara Bradley, ‘The Chitlin Circuit’ presents a contemporary take on historical heritage, featuring jazz, blues, alternative, R&B and hip-hop, spotlighting emerging Black artists in other genres. Performances provided by artists are available on Instagram and YouTube .
Bradley: Our mission is to amplify powerful, engaging and inspiring Black voices in music.
Within the music industry, Black artists are not only creating media representations that allow people to see, hear and be heard about their music, but also videography, photography, audio engineering, scenography, We also create opportunities for artists of color behind the camera, such as lighting.
The Chitlin Circuit: Derek Walton
Bradley used a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K digital film camera for Season 1, but wanted to upgrade workflow for Season 2.
Bradley: I was introduced to Blackmagic Design’s Pocket Camera by a production colleague and Christina Faith of Creative Thought Media.
We shot 24 episodes in Season 1 with her Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and the quality of the footage was amazing.
For Season 2, I wanted to continue leveraging the low-light performance of this camera, but wanted a little more resolution, so I decided to go with the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro. We design atmospheric lighting that matches the energy of the music. Using a camera with a large sensor gave me more room to experiment with lighting.
The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro’s dual native ISO was especially useful for silhouette shots of artists singing a cappella.
Bradley: We will use this content first for reels on Instagram. It’s a very limited low light setup as I only use one light for a unique look. Pocket Camera’s dual native ISO allows you to capture highlights and shadows in your images with excellent quality and low noise, even when shooting at ISO 1250-3200.
According to Bradley, “The Chitlin Circuit” tells a story not only through music, but also through color.
Bradley: Shooting in Blackmagic RAW with Blackmagic Gen 5 Color Science gives colorists more freedom to work in DaVinci Resolve Studio and takes performance color grading to the next level. It’s great that DaVinci’s export settings allow you to upload videos directly to your YouTube account while preserving your custom settings.
