Blackmagic Camera App

Our process began with trying to understand the users unique needs, workflows and limitations when creating content using mobile devices.

This was achieved by having the design team create a video project using only mobile devices and our Davinci Resolve postproduction software. Analysing this experience and combining it with our plethora of camera user research, a detailed picture of design opportunites, pain points and possible innovations began to emerge. After a final comparison with the existing workflows of our professional cinema cameras we finalised the design brief and started ideating.

The ideation process started with sketching multiple design concepts and possible workflows. With a concept finalised we began to modify and optimise for mobile, while also prototyping interactions, controls and other operations.

Rapid prototyping and testing allowed us to keep refining the workflows, user interface and new features.

This process led us to successfully reimagining our award winning Camera OS for the mobile format in a manner that is highly functional, visually pleasing and contains true innovations such as Blackmagic Cloud integration, DaVinci Resolve Projects and Live Team Chat.

The overall design has been carefully considered, with all elements crafted to achieve clarity, familiarity, functionality, and aesthetic balance. The user interface is instantly recognisable as a Blackmagic camera product while still appearing new and exciting.

This familiarity enables existing users to intuitively understand, while simultaneously providing new users with a full range of professional camera tools that are easy to learn.

Mindful of the ergonomic demands of shooting video with a phone, controls are vertically grouped at the side of the screen, allowing easy, single-handed adjustment without impeding primary camera functionality.

A relatively flat hierarchy, allows users to adjust settings with no more than three taps. This eliminates the need to navigate through submenus, keeping the user anchored and encouraging discovery and exploration,

If a user taps on unfamiliar settings, they can easily return to the previous configuration, allowing them to experiment with confidence.

Recorded clips are sent directly to a Davinci Resolve Project in the media pool. Clips can be synced to the same project from multiple devices running the Blackmagic Camera app, giving editors immediate access to footage from multiple sources.

By providing a comprehensive set of professional tools within a simple interface that belies its power and complexity, Blackmagic Camera elevates the mobile production experience for creatives of all levels.

In designing this product, Blackmagic Design has taken it’s years of experience in professional Cinema Camera innovation and distilled it into one digital experience.

A world first feature is the fully integrated Blackmagic Cloud workflow, which allows users to record clips directly to a DaVinci record project.

Blackmagic Cloud workflow allows filmmakers to export original footage as it is being recorded and securely send it to an editor to immediately begin working on it.

Before this product’s inception, these workflows required the use of a third-party service at both the camera and editing sides.

Previously, this was a complicated, technical process, as it involved transporting huge amounts of data securely from hardware to software via a third party application, all made and updated by different companies using multiple secure accounts. Managing these variables can be incredibly time-consuming and unreliable, two factors that are critical in the production world.

By fully integrating this workflow into the app itself we have provided the user with a simple and effective way of delivering clips to an editor securely, reliably and quickly.

With over 5 million downloads, Blackmagic Camera furthers our company’s core mission of democratising the filmmaking process. Free to download, it has absolutely no requirement to pay extra for professional features that are added in every release, in complete contrast to the freemium or subscription model adopted by its competitors.

With its professional features and being freely available, it empowers aspiring filmmakers to express themselves creatively, thereby contributing to the broader cultural landscape.

By utilising existing, rather than specialised hardware we are actively trying to remove any financial barriers in the paths of young filmmakers so they can increase their creative output, learn their craft and progress quicker in their careers.

Furthermore, putting powerful software in a widely distributed consumer product reduces the demand for more expensive professional hardware, thus reducing resource consumption - a net positive for the environment.

Blackmagic Camera demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the next generation of filmmakers. It has been incredibly well-received by the filmmaking community, with Blackmagic being praised for continuing to support young professionals as they progress through their career and developing a tool that can be utilised by novices and professionals alike.

It allows them to learn and grow, honing their craft as they develop their filmmaking skills, and in the process creating lifelong customers who share Blackmagic’s vision and passion for the future of filmmaking.