Blackmagic Ultimatte Gallery
One Studio, Yet Two Locations!
Andre Dantzler, SociallyU
Ryan Somerfield, Tiny Giants AV
“Ryan Somerfield was interviewed at the SociallyU studios in Chattanooga, from nine thousand miles away!”
Virtual production innovators Andre Dantzler and Ryan Somerfield wanted to show what is possible with virtual production technology using AI and the Blackmagic workflow. Andre and Ryan were able to create, perhaps the longest ‘over the shoulder shot in history’. With Andre sitting in Chattanooga and Ryan in Sydney, they wanted the interview to look like it all happened in the US even though they were 9,000 miles apart.
“Ryan also has a Blackmagic Design Ultimatte ecosystem that perfectly matched ours at SociallyU, where we have eight Blackmagic cameras each with its own Ultimate. The two over the shoulder shots we created I have never seen before shot and composited all in real time! We were even able to add two moving shots in each studio for extra realism, by having them on sliders and compositing those cameras angles in real time as well. So there we a bunch of firsts for this virtual production test.”
The Cinematic Look
“With this virtual production we really wanted to create a cinematic look for realism. Alot of virtual studios use only PTZ cameras, which means they are super in focus on every shot. We wanted this to look real, as if both Ryan and I were in the same studio. Which meant we needed a shallow depth of field for the over the shoulder shots, shooting at around F2.
Why So Many Ultimattes!
“What's cool about the Ultimatte 12 is that you can ‘layer in’. We used the ‘layer in’ and composite feature to make Ryan and myself look like we're on the exact same layer. To get this to work I had one Ultimatte just keying Ryan’s feed from Sydney, while I was sending out my fill and key to a second dedicated Ultimatte for the wider shot.
Camera Placement Is Everything
“We started with the wide shot to establish the whole room. To do this we needed to get the camera in Sydney and Chattanooga, literally in the exact same position. Once we had those positions fixed down we move on to our side shots. One of the biggest challenges was how to create the layers so that everything fitted correctly in the set.
Over The Shoulder Shots
“In order to line up the over the shoulder shots, we took a monitor and put it on a C-stand and then rolled it into position. I had a couple of folk comment that our eyes drifted a little during the over shoulder shots. Next time I would be more precise making sure it looks exactly like your eye-line. Because I was looking at monitor, I would find myself moving off center from time to time, mostly when I was thinking what to say next.
