Eighteen Blackmagic Design Cameras Used for KIRINJI’s 25th Anniversary Live Concert
Blackmagic Design today announced that a full Blackmagic Design camera and switching workflow was used during KIRINJI’s solo live concert, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the band’s major debut. Eighteen Blackmagic Design cameras, including Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro, Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 and URSA Broadcast G2 cameras, were used in conjunction with several ATEM live production switchers.
KIRINJI, originally formed by brothers Takaki Horigome and Yasuyuki Horigome, made their major debut in 1998, since then producing numerous hit songs, including “Aliens.” Currently, Takaki Horigome continues to work under the solo project “KIRINJI,” contributing to a wide range of fields beyond his own music, such as providing songs to other artists and composing music for movies and games.
Recently, KIRINJI held a live concert to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the band’s major debut. Blackmagic Design products were extensively used in the live production of the concert.
“I wanted to attempt live streaming with a cinematic feel,” said Yosuke Ohno, the director behind many of KIRINJI’s music videos and concert footage. “Takaki Horigome’s music is not only literary and pop infused but also carries a deep, layered worldview. It’s not just about being shiny and vibrant, and I felt that the film like texture produced by Blackmagic Design’s cameras aligned perfectly with that. I wanted the live stream to have that same cinematic look, something a bit different from other streams. However, since this live concert was held at LINE CUBE SHIBUYA, a rather large scale venue, I thought it would be too much to handle on my own. So, I reached out to Yoshinori Morita, an expert in streaming, whom I had always wanted to collaborate with.”
Supporting the technical aspects of live production for the concert was Yoshinori Morita of Nirvana Inc. Morita operates a studio capable of both sound recording and live streaming and has a long history of working as a sound engineer.
“My studio is structured so that the booth is in the basement, and the control room is on the ground floor, so during recordings, I watch the performers through the camera. That’s when I became obsessed with cameras, and I gradually started doing streaming as well. In recent years, I have been doing less and less recording myself, and 90 percent of my work is video related,” said Morita.
He continued, “Recording itself has shifted from everyone playing together in one take to recording separately and then editing it together. I felt like the tension in performance, which l love, was fading. On the other hand, live streaming and live production are one shot deals, so that tension is exciting. I’ve been using Blackmagic cameras since the first generation of Blackmagic Cinema Camera. I got hooked on the texture of the footage it captured. Blackmagic products are intuitive to use, so I think many people in the music industry who start working with video use Blackmagic cameras. For the KIRINJI concert, four of the camera operators were active professional musicians.”
The equipment used included eight Pocket Cinema Camera 4Ks, five Pocket Cinema Camera 6Ks, two Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pros, two Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2s, and one URSA Broadcast G2. The output from each camera was sent to an ATEM 2 M/E Constellation HD switcher complete with an ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel 20.
Morita explained, “We positioned the cameras on the stage’s left and right sides to capture various shots. The director especially requested very close up shots, so we used a SIGMA 60-600mm lens. Even though this lens is a bit unwieldy, it allowed us not only capture very close up shots but also wide shots when filming the audience from the stage. For shots from the back of the venue, we used a Canon 200-400mm with built in 1.4x extender lens. We equipped the URSA Broadcast G2 with a FUJINON LA16x8BRM B4 lens for shots from the rail in front of the stage. We didn’t want the camera to be noticeable near the keyboards, so we fixed a Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 for each.”
Morita continued, “We sent the camera output to the ATEM switcher without adding any LUTs and handled color correction on the switcher’s program output. The same color correction was applied to the multiview output, so we could adjust the colors until we were satisfied during rehearsal, checking how each camera output looked. All footage was recorded in Blackmagic RAW. One of the major reasons for using Blackmagic’s cameras is the ability to use Blackmagic RAW, which is lightweight and easy to handle, despite being a 4K or 6K RAW file.”
Director Ohno added, “With Blackmagic RAW, even brightly lit or completely dark areas can be adjusted afterward. I like the film like graininess that appears when lifting the shadows with Blackmagic’s cameras. I also really appreciate how they don’t apply unnecessary processing in camera, leaving the user free to decide whether to reduce or preserve the noise later. This directly affects the atmosphere of the image, which is very important to me. The recorded footage will be edited in DaVinci Resolve Studio.”
For this live concert, the recording space was set up in the basement, making cable routing a challenge. “We needed to route about 150 meters of cable at maximum. We usually use a lot of optical fiber Blackmagic Mini Converters and ATEM Camera Converters, so this time, we converted the HDMI and SDI signal to optical fiber to extend cables,” explained Morita.
Morita said, “I don’t think many people have used this many Pocket Cinema Cameras for live production. There might be more URSA Broadcasts. However, the footage we got with these cameras is undoubtedly better than that from other cameras. Even in other projects, artists often say, ‘This footage looks amazing.’”
Director Ohno concluded, “KIRINJI is Takaki Horigome’s solo project, with all other musicians being support members. These musicians are highly sought after by various bands and have extensive experience with live streaming. Many of them said that the footage from this live stream was the best they’ve ever seen. KIRINJI’s manager also mentioned that this was the best live stream in KIRINJI’s history. This is absolutely thanks to the cameras.”