Red Bull BC One And The Curse Of The Phantom High Speed Camera

BC One is a world wide, annual break dance competition organized and produced by Red Bull. They have a massive investment in grassroots culture and sporting events, and BC One is probably the most entertaining event in the roster. Red Bull has been trying to sell this show in the U.S. for years, and with the recent success of other dance competition shows, MTV finally took the bait. The clip below is the intro for the MTV show.

A couple different editors worked on this intro, specifically the “I am a b-boy” section, and the Rokka on-camera intro. I cut the rest. I was really pleased with the graphic open where the dancer is in front of the stenciled walls. The walls were actually shot clean, and the stencils were added in post using After Effects. Our designer, Steven Jones, found those classic French images and treated them by hand to look like painted on stencils. The footage was shot on the Phantom high speed camera. The Phantom is an amazing toy, but it can create some political baggage if its not used properly. The Phantom cost far more to rent than a standard HD camera. Its about three times as much, depending on the configuration. When you are trying to justify a rental that is three times the standard rate, you might aid your cause by showing amazing demo clips like the infamous shark catching the seal video and you say “We’re getting the camera that shot this.” Everyone is blown away by that shot, but it sets a ridiculous expectation for delivery. In our case, the phantom footage was beautiful, and the slow motion helped the aesthetic, but the effects were very subtle. Inevitably, the Executive Producer asked why we needed to triple the camera rental for such a subtle effect. In other words, “Where’s our shark catching a seal?” Its not that our footage wasn’t beautiful, but we had an editorial and graphic concept in place that dictated the structure of the piece and it didn’t allow time for long, dramatic slow motion effects. If you promise the shark catching the seal, you better deliver the proper equivalent: