Director Shuma Jan shot this spot for Japan’s Curél brand with Cinema Camera 6K in open gate format, choosing the camera for its colour rendition, full frame sensor and of course skin tones.
Curél is a recognised, familiar skincare brand in Japan, marketed by Kao Corporation for more than 20 years. Over time, the brand has developed a variety of products from skin moisturizing lotions and creams to laundry detergents designed with skin sensitivity in mind. Their most recent web commercial features Tomoa Narasaki, a member of Japan's Olympic sport rock climbing team for the Paris Games.
The project was directed by Shuma Jan, who also directed a spot for web for Curél in Kyoto in 2024. That commercial was shot on the Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 6K digital film camera and this time, the production team used Blackmagic’s Cinema Camera 6K, with editing and colour grading handled in DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Tonal Gradation
"I've been using Blackmagic cameras since the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. I have always thought the image quality from these cameras was great, but with the Cinema Camera 6K's full frame sensor, the quality has become even more impressive, although the colour science remains the same," said Jan. "Whether in the Blackmagic RAW footage or in post for grading, the tonal gradation feels more refined. Its low pass filter also reduces inaccurate colours, giving a more natural, high-quality look.”
A low-pass filter only allows frequencies that are lower than a selected point to pass through for recording and filters out any higher frequencies. In this way, it limits stray colours, removing the short-term fluctuations and leaving the longer-term trend to result in a smoother form of the signal.
Jan said, “The DP I collaborated with, who is very familiar with Blackmagic's cameras, was also excited about the Cinema Camera 6K's image quality. I think people who have used Blackmagic cameras for many years will really appreciate it."
Shooting Open Gate
The project was shot in the open gate format, which captures images with a characteristic 3:2 aspect ratio. "The 3:2 aspect ratio is very practical. Shooting in the usual 16:9 style can sometimes leave too much or too little space, but I find the shots easier to frame in this newer aspect ratio. Once I got used to it, I realised that it's quite a balanced format, especially when capturing the talent’s expressions close up," said Jan.
"The larger sensor on the Cinema Camera 6K makes a wider shot possible in tight spaces that smaller sensors couldn't handle. Smaller sensors often require very wide angle lenses, which can distort edges, but with a full frame sensor, this isn't an issue, and you have more flexibility in lens choice."
After filming, Jan edited the footage himself with DaVinci Resolve Studio before his colourist graded the project with the same software. "I didn't have any problems in editing, but matching colours was tricky because the Cinema Camera 6K's image clarity was so much better than the drone camera and action camera we used alongside it,” he said.
“The way the primary colours look, such as red, is especially different due to their high saturation, and required us to reduce the saturation of that footage to achieve a more subdued tone. Meanwhile, we boosted the saturation of Blackmagic RAW to balance the entire film. The colourist mentioned that the Cinema Camera 6K's skin tones – critical for this project! - look especially attractive, and are much easier to adjust during the grade." www.blackmagicdesign.com
