Shoot a wedding film with the Blackmagic Pocket 6K Pro | Behind the scenes

It was for us a very exciting step to record our very first wedding in 2018, also because of the incredible responsibility you carry with you as a wedding videographer! After all, you can’t do a day like this all over again. We have learned a lot in recent years, especially from our own “mistakes” and experiences with different weddings.

Which project did we shoot?

On Sunday 2nd May we were allowed to take part in a “Styled Wedding Shoot”. Super nice! Everything was perfectly organised, the location, the models, the styling, etc. All of our weddings were shot on a Sony A7III, but we noticed that the dynamic reach and quality weren’t quite what we were looking for. We were looking for a camera that could give us more quality and mostly one that could shoot real raw footage so we could go deeper in the color grading. Since the Blackmagic 6K pro came out, we were intrigued. Would this be the perfect camera for us ?

The gear

Budgetcam gave us the chance to test the Blackmagic 6K Pro during our Styled Wedding Shoot, the perfect opportunity to check if this setup fits our line of work.

The gear that we tested :

That day, we had our own Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, we filmed the shoot with 2 cameras.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6K Pro EF

First of all, the images of the Blackmagic 6K were really something! Bright colors, extremely sharp images and mostly very nice to use. The built-in ND filter was so much easier than how you usually have to turn the filter every time until you reach the right stop.

Weight wise, I find the camera on its own pretty decent, but once you assemble it completely, it’s quite heavy compared to the Sony A7III, which is also logical. But when you have a long shooting day, like a wedding, it’s good to take it into account.

Lens set

We didn’t use the whole lens set that we got with the camera, of the two cinema lense we used mostly the 35mm T2.1. The 25mm turned out to be superfluous. The cinema lense was exactly what you had hoped/ expected it to be, extremely sharp, and very nice to use thanks to the bigger focus ring.

For the Blackmagic 6K we used the EF 70-200mm 2.8, a versatile lens! Though I do not advise using it as the main lens. We always work in a team of two, my partner takes mostly the wide shots and I make close-ups of all the details. You then get a beautiful variety of images that complement each other very well.

For the detailed shots, the lens was really great! Mostly because it allows you to film from a distance without being an annoyance to the people present. This can already be quite a stressful day and if you then come with a big camera set up under their nose, it isn’t very nice.

Accessories

We used the Manfrotto Monopod as a setup for the Blackmagic 6K. For the closed-up still shots and all the detailed shots the Manfrotto is really an essential. You have less freedom of movement, which I find annoying sometimes. But since my partner did hand-held filming he could make sure that we have dynamic images that we can then alternate with some of my still detailed shots.

Final edit

Once we’re home we directly start editing. After a 6hour film day we get to a total of 500GB. The footage looked really good, and the style we went for was “dreamy”. And it definitely worked! We noticed that the footage of the Blackmagic 6K and the ones from the Blackmagic 4K mixed very well. Once the raw edit was done, we could start with the color grading. We are currently grading with Davinci Resolve. The grading of the Blackmagic images really is a feast, you can literally adjust everything (!) without losing any of the quality.

Tips for new makers

Do you get enthusiastic when you hear about our story ? Do you feel the itch to take the first step to become a wedding videographer? Let’s go! We also started from the beginning and that is the only way you learn. Or another good advice could also be to accompany a wedding videographer on a shoot so that you know how such a day is organised and what are the important tips and tricks. And one last tip: always make sure you have enough storage space and extra batteries with you on the day itself.

Styled Wedding shoot | 2 Mei