The Blackmagic Camera App Should Change Your Classroom

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The BlackMagic Design IBC Update. Info about the camera app begins at 55:15.

On September 14th, Grant Petty and his Mary Poppins desk gave the IBC 2023 Update. There are two times each year that you can be guaranteed that Blackmagic will announce new products and this year was no different. But this one is different! There were several things announced including new cameras and other tools but this announcement should change the way you teach students how to use cameras. 

Let’s start with some background. Blackmagic Design has changed the game when it comes to film and live production. Their pricing is perfect for education. Their tools are simple to use yet professional grade. The systems all seem to work exactly the same and they just give students opportunities to do things that were unimaginable 10 years ago. 

I have loved BMD cameras since their first pocket cinema camera. I own an URSA and I just put three new studio cameras in at work. I am a BMD fan. That said, nothing they have done has changed the game like what they announced yesterday. 

In the middle of the IBC update, Petty brings out his phone and shares that BMD has released an IOS app that gives you ALL of the controls of the BMD cameras. The Blackmagic Camera is available now in the app store and will blow your mind! 

Screen capture of the Blackmagic Camera app showing focus assist and zebra stripes/controls.

One of the biggest struggles as a teacher is that you have to either have a professional camera for almost every student or you have to tether to a monitor and be engaging enough to not bore them with the super nerdy camera stuff. Now, that problem is solved. <Opinion> Most students have an iOS device.</opinion> Now they can all manipulate their camera just like they would a professional grade camera. 

I will never forget the first time I gave a student a “real” camera that had focus assist and they came back to the classroom and said the camera was broken and that everything had red lines around it. Focus assist is something that most phones are missing when it comes to video production. The Blackmagic Camera app has it along with zebra (to prevent over exposure), metadata so your students can label their shots as well as not good shot vs. bad shot. Also, with the built in Zebra stripes, your students can see areas of their shot that may be over exposed and can cause issues later if they are doing any color grading.

Another great tool for video production students is the fact that the camera app has a VU meter so the students can see that their video will actually have audio. As for how to monitor that audio, outside of an off board mixer, I have not found a reliable way to do that during a production. My suggestion is to always film a test clip and make sure the audio is good before the actual take.  

Screen capture of the BMD Camera app showing focus assist (red) and the rule of thirds overlay.

How can you use the app in your class? Previously I posted Teaching Proper Exposure which had you just work with your students to create shots that the students would have to use a “real” camera to create. Now every student with an iOS device can do this lesson and really nail down what it takes to create great looking images. 

With the new app, I would change how I would teach camera work: 

1. Introduction to the basic camera parts and what they do

1. Body: Contains the sensor that somehow through magic makes light signals into digital stuff that we can put on a computer and edit (yes that basic)

2. Lens: Gathers and focuses light

3. Viewfinder: Lets you see what you are doing

2. Introduce basic shot types and their impact on the visual message:

1. Extreme Long Shot: Establishes location (0 emotion)

2. Long Shot: Shows the whole NOUN (little emotion) 

3. Medium Shot: Give some detail about the character/subject of the shot (some emotion)

4. Close up: More details in order to show you something in more detail (a good amount of emotion) 

5. Extreme Closeup: The videographer wants you to see something specific (ALL of the feels) 

3. Students complete the activity in the Teaching Proper Exposure plan

1. Have the students use their phone in order to show how the phones do a lot of the work for you and you don’t have any control

4. Review the student exposure activity.

5. Teach the students the tools available in the BMD Camera app

1. Zebra Stripes

2. Focus Assist

3. Basic graphs

4. Control of aperture, ISO, etc.

6. Student complete the Advanced Camera Exposure Scavenger Hunt activity

1. Review the student works

2. Address what needs to be address

3. If needed, have the students do the advanced activity again. 

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Meet the Author, Tom White

Tom White is the Education and House Of Worship Specialist at Amitrace where he works with programs around the southeast United States to create better workflows for their programs. Prior to that role, Tom was the broadcast engineer at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. Tom taught at Morgan County High School and Rockdale Career Academy where he and his student produced thousands of live streams for sports, news, and community events. Tom’s program at the Rockdale Career Academy received the NFHS Network Program Of The Year in 2016 and his program at Morgan County High School received the New Program of the Year title in 2018.

Tom has been a long time contributor to many publications and is the host of Teaching to The Test Pattern Podcast.

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