TORONTO—Jesse Sukunda, Julia Schwartz and Ian Duchene are likely the most envied teenagers in Canada. They get paid to play video games on Canadian network channels Family Channel and Family CHRGD. Half of their show, “Gaming Show (In My Parents’ Garage),” takes place in the studio—Jesse’s parents’ garage—and half takes place in the field, with our crew at Banger Films managing the show’s technical setup. Blackmagic Design products are an integral part of our studio workflow.
When Family Channel was looking for new original programming, Banger Films, which specializes in heavy metal documentaries and live concerts, created and developed the “Gaming Show (In My Parents’ Garage),” which was greenlit for 10 episodes.
We had to figure out how to be successful long term with a modest budget, and after researching how to bring gaming content into the production mix, I turned to my Blackmagic Teranex 2D Processor to convert content from different gaming platforms. It worked perfectly, so I built out the rest of our workflow with Blackmagic.
Blackmagic’s SmartView monitor of set of “Gaming Show (In My Parents’ Garage)”FULL HOUSE
Our video sources include professional cameras, gaming consoles, PC, and three consumer action cameras, and it’s critical all sources are closely monitored. We use the Blackmagic’s SmartView Duo monitors for high-quality filtering and scaling, so the image retains a lot of fine detail and we can identify any problems immediately. My gear rack also includes a Blackmagic Design SmartScope Duo. With so many varied sources it’s important to be able to check that every feed is sending legal video because we need to pass Disney’s quality control requirements for delivery.
REVIEW CAPABILITY
We use the Blackmagic UltraStudio Express to capture a multiview output from an ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher. This allows our different departments to review takes and ensure continuity within the footage. Every take gets recorded as a multiview proxy file on the hard drive and piped back into the switcher, allowing anyone to review takes and camera angles. This is played back to 17-inch SmartView HD monitors for viewing by the camera and lighting departments or sent to a consumer TV in the green room. The ATEM switcher has so many outputs, allowing me to mix and match SDI and HDMI for any need.
We often shoot out of order so we need to make sure things like set and wardrobe are consistent scene to scene. The Smartview monitors allow us to review content right on set, which makes everybody’s life easier.
In the end, I don’t know how we could have done the show without the SmartView monitors and other Blackmagic Design gear.
Andrew Kowalchuk is the technical director for "Gaming Show (In My Parents Garage)". He can be reached atandrew@bangerfilms.com.
For more information, visitwww.blackmagicdesign.comor call 408-954-0500.
