Blackmagic Design has announced that “Mang Lalakbay,” a popular Filipino children’s travel and exploration show created by The Jumpcat Experiment, is shot using Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro digital film camera. Editing and colour correction for the show are done using DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software.
“Mang Lalakbay” is the Philippine’s first educational travel program for children, and began airing on the ABS-CBN Kapamilya Network in September of 2022. The Jumpcat Experiment creative agency, based in Manilla, provides full end to end production through post workflows and handled everything from conceptualization, execution and mastering for the show.
The show, which brings viewers to different scenic places throughout the Philippines, also includes a human host working with some puppet friends. This requires the Jumpcat creative crew to travel across the country and visit remote locations. For Froi Fabella, director and cofounder, and Joan Lopez-Florez, cofounder and managing director, this meant needing cameras that capture high quality images in any type of lighting and which are easy to set up and use anywhere.
Fabella explained: “The main target market of the show is kids. So we wanted the colors to be vibrant, fresh and as natural as can be. The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pros help us achieve all of these and the raw footage gives us the color details we want, the white balance is consistent and the sharpness of image detail is incredible!”
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pros are the main cameras for the show and are used with Blackmagic Video Assist 7” 3G monitors and recorders. A SmartView 4K broadcast monitor is also used as the director monitor. Footage is then edited and graded using DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Shooting a show with many scenes including a human host with two puppets also brings a unique set of challenges in terms of framing shots and giving the puppeteers as much creative freedom as possible.
“Shooting the three is very challenging and we are always careful not to show the hands of the puppeteers. We established a standard camera set up where the Pocket cameras give us room for cropping without losing the image quality. We also have several wide and medium shots where we really need to zoom in extremely close to hide the puppeteers that is not visually good for the frame. The Pocket camera’s ability to use 4K or 6K formats really help us with these challenges,” Fabella continued.
When traveling to remote parts of the country, the combination of a small and light design with low light capabilities has been a huge help to The Jumpcat Experiment.
“We use two Pocket 6K Pros to capture wide and close up shots while outside the studio. The image quality is superb, and we can use minimal lighting so that the majority of the shots are just natural light. The 6K feature also helps us crop shots without losing the sharpness of the material,” Fabella explained.
Lopez-Florez concluded: “We at Jumpcat are so honoured that because of the work completed with Blackmagic Design cameras, a show like Mang Lalakbay, which is the first of its kind on Philippine TV, is appreciated and has gained a following. For Season 2, we definitely look forward to using the same gear and putting out even more dynamic, wonderful shots around the Philippines, or even the world.”