Hamil Bros. shoots latest Champion Xpress ad campaign with Blackmagic

The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve software were the technological core of the shooting of the latest spot for Champion Xpress, a car wash that chose Hamil Bros. production services.

Jacob and Ross Hamil, used to challenging productions, found a new challenge when they were commissioned by advertising agency Flint Avenue Marketing to create a series of commercials for their client Champion Xpress Carwash. After contacting cinematographer William Hellmuth, the Hamil Bros worked tirelessly to develop a series of concepts for the spots, which would require top-notch finishing in a challenging environment, given the subject matter of the ad.

Hellmuth, who has been used to shooting with Blackmagic Design cameras for years, opted for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K model as he was looking to achieve a “cinematic look” with a “shallow” depth of field. The cinematographer shot the different spots in Blackmagic RAW format at a constant speed and 5:1 aspect ratio throughout the project: “I haven’t found a codec that I prefer more than Blackmagic RAW. It’s efficient, takes up so little space and retains so much data and quality.”

All of the commercials involved certain challenges, but the one titled Hard Work was the most difficult. Set on a ranch, the crew began filming before dawn in order to get the critical shots that were needed. The crew faced a few days of 30 mph-plus winds, as well as significant creative challenges: “There’s a shot of the interior of the pickup truck we used, looking out the windshield. While we were in post, I was having a hard time connecting the ranch footage with the car wash footage and it dawned on me that Champion might have their own branded car fresheners. We reached out and were met with a ‘yes.’ So, that day, we went to their offices and picked up a handful of them. Using a pop up green screen, a baby C Stand, and a couple lights, we took our Cinema Camera 6K out in the garage and let the wind blow the air freshener for a moment. Fortune smiled on us and the swaying of the freshener matched the motion of the vehicle and no one was any the wiser,” said Ross Hamil.

Postproduction with DaVinci Resolve

Ross and Jacob shared the editing and editing duties, for which they chose DaVinci Resolve Studio: “We have not had great experiences with other camera formats in the past, but we know Blackmagic RAW like the back of our hand. We knew what to expect with the workflow, and we knew on our very tight turnaround of a month we could trust Blackmagic RAW and DaVinci Resolve to be as efficient as possible,” said Jacob Hamil.

One of the keys to his production process is his decision to work in parallel to optimize processes and meet tight deadlines. The ability to work in the Blackmagic Cloud is a big help: “I could be editing the 15 second deliverables while he edits on the 30s. He can then move over to check the shorter spots, and I can jump into the master timeline and place motion graphics. It beats the old days where our project hierarchy had a bazillion XMLs for edits, then to color, and then making sure the XML translated the edit correctly, plus many other inconsistencies that could arise.”

“We pulled off post for this in 28 days and the credit really goes to DaVinci Resolve and the Blackmagic Cloud collaboration,” finished Jacob. “They both allowed us to stay as efficient as possible. This was certainly the single largest project we’ve ever produced but we went in with confidence knowing that we had the right camera and the right NLE ecosystem to deliver on time”, concludes Jacob, taking stock of the postproduction of the spot.