Indie filmmaker William H. Baker used Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K digital movie digicam to assist recreate pictures from the 2024 Academy Award Best Picture Nominees for his viral YouTube video.
Known on social media for his shot breakdown and recreation movies, Baker has amassed greater than 700,000 followers throughout his Instagram (@william.h.baker), TikTok (@william.h.baker) and YouTube (@WilliamHBaker) channels, together with his Best Picture Nominees recreation video at greater than 900,000 views and counting.
This is an fascinating story, and the movies are a “must see” sequence to discover, as they’re all in regards to the magic of creating motion pictures… and the secrets and techniques behind among the most compelling scenes. The creator is studying as he explores the specifics of every completely different shot he needs to recreate, however he’s additionally sharing essential data with the general public, what’s greater than many different movies in YouTube or different social platforms do. The movies are additionally a superb instance of how a filmmaker with out the sources of well-known Hollywood administrators manages to recreate scenes that entice enormous audiences.
In reality, after discovering success on TikTok and Instagram with a sequence referred to as “30 Shots in 30 Days,” William H. Baker has constructed a worldwide following round his shot recreation movies, which break down complicated pictures into doable steps. Inspired by his “Oppenheimer” sensible FX recreation video, Baker knew he needed to do one thing across the 2024 Academy Awards, finally deciding on a shot from each Best Picture Nominee. So, he did…
From “Past Lives” to “Barbie”
From recreating the snowy French Alps in “Anatomy of a Fall” and the enduring shot of Barbie stepping out of her sneakers, to tackling an underwater shot from “Maestro,” a discipline lit on hearth in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and reapproaching the nuclear explosion from “Oppenheimer,” Baker relied on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K.
“The camera’s full frame sensor was essential to recreating shots originally captured with full frame or large format sensors, while its 6K resolution was also very helpful when cropping in for the films that were shot on Super 35. I also loved being able to shoot open gate and having a little extra vertical room. There were even a few films shot in a square aspect ratio this year, so it helped with matching those too,” stated Baker.
According to the data shared by Blackmagic Design, three pictures stood out to Baker specifically. “For ‘Past Lives,’ being able to crop into the Super 35 portion of the sensor while still getting 4K quality was a big deal. For ‘The Holdovers,’ we also set up the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K in the Super 35 crop to imitate an older movie just like the filmmakers did,” he defined. “Then, having full frame for the ‘Barbie’ shot was so helpful. The camera’s large sensor, along with 6K resolution, provided a lot of flexibility for matching our shots to the cameras that the originals were shot on.”
RAW on a cheap digicam
“For the entire time I’ve had Blackmagic cameras, the dual native ISO has been extremely useful,” Baker added. “As a filmmaker without huge lights but constantly shooting at night, I’m often needing to shoot at a higher ISO. This was true for ‘Barbie,’ ‘Anatomy of a Fall,’ and ‘The Holdovers,’ so having that second, brighter native ISO was really helpful.”
Shot in Blackmagic RAW, Baker used DaVinci Resolve Studio for colour grading. “I exclusively shoot in Blackmagic RAW with my Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K and Pocket Cinema Camera 4K,” he stated. “Having RAW on a camera as inexpensive as $1,295 is just really special, and I think that’s one of the major features that empowers young filmmakers without a ton of resources to film something that looks like a movie.”
In DaVinci Resolve Studio, Baker made use of magic masks, keyframing and display screen substitute to assist the recreations come alive. “For the ‘Barbie’ set, I foolishly decided to pick pink colors that were warmer and like human skin. Especially once the set was lit and those pink colors bounced pink light onto the actress, her skin and the set all blended. I used magic mask to track her feet and then made heavy alterations to the image but kept the same skin color. It worked beautifully, and I decided to do it a few more times to soften her skin and brighten the edge light to get even closer to the original shot,” he famous.
Baker concluded: “I learned filmmaking from YouTube, and I want to share that journey with people. For the longest time, I was nervous and didn’t feel like I was knowledgeable enough to contribute any new information to the space. However, I felt like I could contribute a story about how I did something. I try to make content, particularly on YouTube, where I stretch myself and give it my all. It’s the best way for me to learn, but I really hope telling those stories encourages people, filmmakers and more.”
