Cinematographer James Westlake uses this budget Blackmagic camera to capture stunning visuals

I’ve been working as a cinematographer for about ten years now. I studied film at university, graduated a decade ago, and have been working my way up ever since.

I started out in lighting, working on Christmas movies, before moving into the commercial world as a DP. For quite a while, I was DPing adverts, lots of food work, actually. I’ve shot for brands like Gü, Domino’s, and restaurants like The Ivy. It wasn’t a niche I ever planned on, but once you do one food commercial, you tend to get pulled into more of that kind of work.

In recent years, though, I’ve been shifting back to narrative projects, the area that first made me fall in love with filmmaking. Over the past few years, I’ve been DPing features again, which feels like coming full circle.

It was actually a shoot for the NHS. I was approached to make two films for them; really ambitious, 15–20 minute one-take movies documenting a day in the life of a nurse in a hospital. In one, communication breaks down and everything goes a bit wrong, and in the other, things go a bit better.

I spoke to the director about the style for each, and we landed on making the one where things go wrong more of a frantic, handheld piece. The other one we wanted to feel smoother, shot on a gimbal, where things are running better – less frantic, less crazy, fewer whip pans.

After discussing the approach, we felt the ideal camera for it was the Blackmagic Pyxis 6K.

I’ve always loved Blackmagic. I’ve used a lot of cameras over the years – you don’t always get to use the one you own – but I’ve bought into Blackmagic because they’re at a price point where you can actually own them, and they’re really solid cameras.

I chose the Pyxis 6K because it’s very easy to rig in both of the ways we wanted to shoot. It’s compact and box-like, so you can rig it however you want. That makes it perfect for keeping things small on a gimbal rig, which is crucial for a one-take film; you don’t want a big camera struggling to get through doorways!

For this project, having a tiny camera on a DJI RS3 Pro was ideal for the handheld shots. But the Pyxis also performs just as well on tripods, dollies, and shoulder rigs, so it’s really the best of both worlds. The NHS project was a perfect showcase for that versatility.

No, I bought it pretty much when it came out, so I didn’t need to loan one for this project. I used my own. It’s a great camera to own.

I’ve been using it for a while on quite a lot of narrative work. It’s often been used as a gimbal camera alongside a bigger camera, but I’m now confident enough with it that it works fine as a primary camera. The image is gorgeous, and the colors are lovely.

Absolutely. I’ve done so many projects with cameras like RED and Arri, where you’re working with raw formats that have almost no compression and play back terribly. ArriRaw, for example, my computer struggles with it, and the same goes for RED.

BlackmagicRaw is just a pleasure. It feels like you’re using a ProRes file. It plays back smoothly, but you still get all the benefits of raw if you want to adjust white balance later.

So yeah, I love Blackmagic for the whole workflow; you’ve got the hardware and the software together. I tend to use it for everything now. I cancelled my Adobe subscription a while ago!

Yeah, I think that’s it. Even with the cameras, it’s incredibly easy to use. Very intuitive.

It’s not like Sony menus, where you have to go through a ton of options just to figure out how to change something like your native ISO. Everything on the Pyxis is so straightforward and user-friendly.

I feel like Blackmagic, being such an approachable company, really listens to people. They’ve been developing the software side of the cameras for a long time, and now it’s just pretty much perfect. I think they’ve got the best software of any camera; it’s easier to use than an Arri. It’s just so simple.

Absolutely! It’s really nice to have something easy to use. You can just assign false colors, set up your backgrounds, and everything just works smoothly. It’s so straightforward.

I think another advantage of Blackmagic is the price point. Most people can just about afford to own a Blackmagic camera, which means you can really get to know it inside and out. When you understand a camera completely, you’re always exposing it correctly because you know exactly how it responds to different settings. That’s a big advantage.

It’s kind of changing the game, too, because filmmaking is so much more accessible than it used to be. Even the Blackmagic app on your phone lets you record with the same settings and menus as the camera.

Yeah, absolutely. I’ve tried the 12K sensor on the Blackmagic Ursa Cine, and it’s unbelievable. Honestly, it’s just unbelievably good. I don’t know exactly what they’ve done to make it so good, but the 12K, 8K, and 4K sensors – all of them – are insanely good. Skin tones feel so natural, even in mixed lighting, and the dynamic range is incredible.

It’s unbelievably affordable, yet somehow an amazing camera. I don’t think it has the reputation it deserves yet, but it’s getting there. Blackmagic has been listening to what people needed, like a proper box-style camera. Their earlier DSLR-style form factors produced amazing images, but could be awkward to rig for film work.

Now they’ve made the camera people were asking for, and that’s fantastic. I think the only thing holding them back a little is time and the legacy that other brands have. But it’s only a matter of time before Blackmagic gets the recognition it deserves.

That’s a tough question, because obviously, jobs vary so much in what I bring. But generally, for cameras, I own the Blackmagic Pyxis 6K.

Lens-wise, I use the Blazar Anamorphic lenses. A beautiful set that I used for the NHS job. They pair really nicely with the Pyxis because it’s an open-gate full-frame sensor. I also have a set of vintage Canon FD lenses that took me a long time to build up my dream set. I’ve had those all cine-modded.

For lighting, I tend to use Aperture. I’m a big fan. The new Blair engine lights are fantastic; the colors, the skin tones, the natural daylight you get from mixing the near-ultraviolet light they use. I always have some Aperture gear in my kit, specifically the Blair 1200X.

Rig-wise, I use the Tilta cage for the Pyxis. It gives you a V-mount plate, which I think is essential for film use because it’s so universal. The camera has a battery plate, but everyone uses V-mounts, so the Tilta cage pairs really well with the Pyxis.

That’s kind of my base setup. The Pyxis is usable out of the box, but you definitely need to add a monitor somewhere. I use the side screen mainly for false color, and I have my image on the additional Pyxis monitor wherever it sits on the rig. The side screen’s kind of awkward for framing, so it’s really my settings and a false color screen.

I always use AngelBird media storage. I trust them completely. If anything ever gets corrupt, they help with recoveries, so I always use their cards.

That’s basically my setup.

A little bit.

I’ve actually started a video production agency recently. It’s still in its infancy, so we don’t really have editors yet.

When I started out, I never edited, I was just DPing. But now, with the agency and doing more commercial work, I sometimes edit because I have to. And it’s such a useful skill if you shoot. I’ve edited other people’s work before, and it makes you realize that if they’d just captured one extra shot on the day, the edit would have been so much easier.

So yeah, editing has taught me a lot about how to shoot a scene better. Something that might take just a few minutes to shoot on set can save so much time in the edit.

I do it all in DaVinci Resolve Studio, too. I don’t want to pay a subscription just to edit something, and it comes free with the camera – it’s crazy sometimes how much Blackmagic gives you.

Yeah.

This year has been an interesting one for video. Like I said, I moved back into narrative a while ago, but this year has been strangely quiet for narrative work. It’s been really good for commercial projects, though. I think it’s been a weird time for the film industry; everyone in the narrative world is kind of in the same boat. Luckily, I have commercial experience as well, so it’s worked out. Everyone seems to need content, and this has probably been my busiest year yet commercially.

Yeah, it does. I think it’s nice to have two strings to your bow. For a while, I felt like I was just a commercial DP, and that can get a bit repetitive, especially when you’re working with the same brand repeatedly, because they usually want the same thing over and over.

So having both commercial and narrative work is nice. Sometimes you just do a day’s shoot on a commercial, whereas narrative projects can take a month or more. I like that mix; it’s a bit of work-life balance, too. Narrative shoots can really consume your life, so it’s good to switch things up with commercial work.

I feel really lucky. Film is such a ‘who-you-know’ type of industry, and I came into it without knowing anyone.

At first, I had no idea how I was going to get work, but at my film school they had a notice board for jobs. I applied to every posting I could, got a few of them, and that led to the first feature I worked on. I won’t name it – it was terrible – but it was a really cool experience. We even did a boat chase sequence on the Thames.

From there, the narrative work just started to snowball. The more you do, the more opportunities come your way. I think getting that first job is the hardest part.

My advice to anyone starting out is just to apply for everything, even if the pay isn’t great. Do it because you’ll meet people who can give you your next break, and it really does go from there.

I think the main thing is to make stuff.

If you haven’t got a commercial yet but want to break into commercials, for example, make a spec ad. Get a few friends together and make something that shows your voice. That can help you get noticed, and it might lead to a real commercial for that brand, or at the very least give you something for your commercial showreel to get your next job. Building your reel as quickly as possible is the number one piece of advice. That’s what people care about; they don’t care about your degree. No one’s ever asked me for mine.

Also, try to meet as many people as you can. Go to networking events, and just be friendly. Film is a creative industry, and everyone can do the job technically. What matters is being likeable. People don’t want to work with someone who’s difficult.

The best advice I got in film school was: “always go to the wrap party”. That’s even more important than doing a perfect job on set. Go to the party, have fun, and get on with people. In this line of work, you spend twelve hours a day with the same crew, so you want to be working with people you like.

I think people forget to use a light meter nowadays. Cameras have really good exposure tools now, like false color, so people assume they don’t need a light meter. But especially on narrative shoots, the camera is often off being rigged for the next shot, and you can’t always look at the monitor to judge exposure.

I actually think learning to use a light meter and understanding lighting ratios with it is really important. I also find a spot meter easier to use than a traditional light meter. It’s kind of like using a monitor, but it’s very easy to overlook. I don’t see them coming out on set very often anymore.

It’s important to know what your lighting will look like before the camera is ready, especially on bigger jobs. So yeah, that’s probably one of the most overlooked but crucial tools.

Well, I can talk a little about the feature I’ve got coming up, because that’s going to be shot on Blackmagic. We’ll be using the Ursa Cine for it.

It’s a project that doesn’t really need much gimbal or handheld work; this camera is quite big for that. I’d pick the Pyxis over it for handheld stuff, just because it’s smaller. But for this job, the Ursa Cine is perfect. The sensor is beautiful, the dynamic range is fantastic, and it’s ideal for mostly sticks and dolly work.

The project is kind of a psychological thriller, questioning what’s real and what isn’t, so the style is mostly gritty. We’re planning to use some uncoated lenses to give it a flurry, vintage feel, but there are also moments where we’ll play with heightened reality and color. The flexibility of the camera, its RGB sensor, and how it handles saturated colors make it perfect for that.

I probably can’t talk too much about the story yet, but it’s exciting. It’ll be almost entirely shot on the Ursa Cine, maybe some Pyxis for certain shots. It’s been a while since I’ve done a feature entirely on Blackmagic, so it’ll be nice to work with the system I know best and get really good results from it.

I think it varies project to project. Some directors already know exactly what they want. They come with a shot list, and it’s pretty much, “This is what we’re going to do.”

But I prefer a more collaborative approach, and that’s how we’re working on this one. The director and I each created our own shot lists separately, and then we discussed them together, why we chose each shot, and what it adds to the scene. That kind of conversation makes you think more deeply about the story: do you really need a shot, or is it just wasted? I think collaboration like that is really valuable. Film is a team effort. The director has the vision, of course, but great directors listen to others and build something even better than they could alone.

I personally hate storyboards. Some sequences, like VFX-heavy or stunt-heavy shots, need them, or on big projects where you need a visual preview. But whenever possible, I prefer shot lists. They’re much nicer on the day because you can watch the blocking with the actors and adapt your ideas. It’s hard to visualize an entire movie just from words on a page. If you stick too rigidly to storyboards, you might end up copying a frame that doesn’t actually serve the story. A shot list is much more freeing.

Yeah. The best project I worked on in that regard was a short film called Asa, a BFI-funded short with Nicholas Pinnock, who’s been in quite a few big things. Even though we had a solid plan and shot list, he comes from a really actor-driven approach. He would block the scene with just the director present, no extra crew, and figure out what worked best for the story, where he needed to be to say his line, for example.

That freedom is something you don’t get if you’re rigidly following a storyboard. You feel constrained by what’s ‘decided’. Being able to block a scene naturally as an actor and then show it to the crew to tweak for visuals is so much nicer. Asa was the best project I worked on because it really felt like the right way to do things.

Yeah, I definitely think that’s true. Everyone in film wants to make the best project possible, and it really does feel like you’re all working together to create something better than any one person could alone. That’s the beautiful thing about filmmaking.

By the end of a project, it often feels like one big family. The community is very open, and even the biggest DPs will share lighting breakdowns, advice, or how they achieved something. They’re not trying to gatekeep; people just want to share because we’re all telling stories and trying to do the best we can. It’s a really generous, open, and collaborative community.