Director/videographer Ben Hausdorff used the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K to shoot music videos for Pentatonix’s new Ariana Grande medley, as well as for Kirstin Maldonado’s cover of Selena’s “I Could Fall in Love.”
Pentatonix is a three time Grammy® Award winning and multi platinum selling group. Hausdorff has worked on a number of music videos, BTS videos for the band’s YouTube channel and concert videos for both Pentatonix and Maldonado (who’s also a Pentatonix member).
The music video of the Grande medley captured the harmonies of the five members of the Pentatonix group singing together, and was one of the fastest trending videos on YouTube, gaining more than five million views in less than a month.
One of the aspects of the camera that Hausdorff found especially useful was the large monitor on its back. “It is always better when the members of Pentatonix can see the result of each take, but with most cameras’ monitors it is not possible because they are so small and do not show a quality image. But with the Pocket Cinema Camera’s large back monitor, they could all see exactly what they needed with each shot.”
For Maldonado’s new cover, Hausdorff used the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K with a larger lighting set up than with the Pentatonix video. This video was also run and gun style, with Hausdorff constantly moving and capturing Maldonado singing in front five other musicians. “We wanted to get a real cinema look and feel for the video, but also capture a warm feel to it. At the same time we did not have the budget to go out and rent a lot of gear. The Pocket camera produces cinema quality images in such a small design that I was able to just use that camera and be as mobile as I needed to be,” said Hausdorff.
