Cinematographer Marco Solorio Uses TEN 512GB CFast 2.0 To Complete A Recent Documentary Feature Film Production in Wuyishan China

Award-winning Filmmaker (winner of BMW 2-hour documentary feature film)

Marco Solorio is an award-winning feature filmmaker, published author, and international speaker as a 27-year veteran in the industry with many industry awards to his name. As owner of OneRiver Media, he has produced, directed, and lensed content spanning from commercial to feature film works. As a credited thought-leader in the industry, Marco has consulted for the likes of Pixar, Apple, and Google to name a few. Along with published books to his credit (“Rigging Your Cinema Camera”), Marco has also been featured in POST Magazine, DV Magazine, and countless other publications and online outlets like Splice, PostPerspective, and Studio Daily. Marco enjoys giving back to the filmmaking community as an international speaker/presenter, with the honor at presenting at National Associations of Broadcasters (NAB), Hollywood Professionals Association (HPA), Broadcast Asia, SXSW, Digital Cinema Society (DSC) and countless other major industry conferences across the globe.

“It’s refreshing to use CFast 2.0 solutions from Wise Advanced that is both cost-effective, performance proven, and approved by Blackmagic Design”

-

Equipment

Cameras

Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro

Panasonic LUMIX DC-GH5

Camera Setup

4.6K RAW / ProRes in 24 and 60fps

4K 60p 8-bit and 4K 24FPS 10-bit

Marco Solorio, owner of OneRiver Media, was recently brought on as Director of Photography for a documentary feature project in Wuyishan China where the most prestigious tea grows. With options including top camera models from ARRI Amira, RED Epic, Sony FS7, Canon C300 Mk II, to the Panasonic VariCam LT, he chose a pair of Blackmagic Design URSA Mini PROs with Wise CFast 2.0 / SD media as his setup for the upcoming production. “There were countless variables in place that led us to this caculated decusion, but the largest of them was a compact, self-contained camera rig without the need for cumbersome devices (external video recorders, audio recorders, etc.), preferably with internal RAW and ProRes capabilities at 60 FPS option minimum. Because the final delivery of the documentary will be UHD, we were also required to have at least 4K native resolution or higher. Internal ND and ENG lens communication was also a must for this type of production. All of these factors determined that two URSA Mini Pros would be our best solution,” commented Marco. “ While the ‘UMP’ allows us to shoot in both CFast 2.0 and SD, we opted to use TEN Wise Advanced 512GB CFast 2.0 cards for its superior speed and capacity over SD cards. We also used Wise Advanced v90 SD cards for some C-camera gimbal operated GH5 shooting as well. To transfer all our assets for the month-long production, we also used Wise Advanced SD / CFast 2.0 media readers every day”

In video production, there is a strong correlation between media writing speed and camera video codecs. Marco notes, “Both UMP cameras primarily recorded at full open-gate 4.6K resolution at 60 FPS (for slow motion at 23.98 FPS) at 4:1 RAW. Interviews were also shot in 4.6K resolution but in ProRes format at 23.98 FPS. There were some select shots where we wanted 4.6K with slight slow motion over-crank (30 FPS and 40 FPS). But in ProRes, any format we chose, 60 FPS or 24 FPS, the 512GB Wise Advanced CFast 2.0 cards easily handled it in stride.” In addition to speed, the robustness of cards stands out in poor shooting environments. “With China’s extremely hot weather during that time of the year, we had very valid concerns the ambient temperature and humidity would cause problems to the cameras and/or media, but it never was, resulting in no heat errors or shutdowns.”

“With other costly proprietary media types on the market (RED MINI-MAG, Sony SxS, Panasonic expressP2, etc.), it’s refreshing to use CFast 2.0 solutions from Wise Advanced that is both cost-effective, performance proven, and approved by Blackmagic Design. Additionally, the advantages of using the smaller CFast 2.0 media has continued to prove helpful for us, including almost no heat dissipation, larger SSD style media can get extremely hot, and the ability to physically carry large quantities of CFast 2 cards but without the cards being too small, really small media can be prone to loss or damage. Due to cost, speed, and ease of use, CFast 2.0 has been my favorite media format of choice since its inception and this is still the case today. Wise’s 512GB CFast cards have been especially helpful when we’re shooting HFR (high frame rate) open gate RAW.”

Related Link >> The website