Samsung Cameras Offer New Perspective for Documentary Crew

“Super Fish,” a historical documentary produced by the Korean Broadcasting System, or KBS, was produced using – guess what – the Samsung NX System. What is it about this camera that made it so integral to the documentary’s production?

Let’s take a closer look at the Samsung NX system and some of the techniques used to produce this eye-catching documentary.

Time Slice Shooting

The KBS team used the Samsung NX System and a technique called time slice shooting to capture some amazing images for their documentary. Do you wonder what time slice is? Read on.

What is Time Slice shooting?

Time slice shooting technique that simultaneously captures a moving object with an arrangement of cameras at a 120 degrees angle, where the photographs captured by each camera are consecutively arranged.

Using this technique, the viewer can observe a frozen time frame rotating around 120 degrees. The shots captured using Time Slice technique is able to see the viewer to feel the cubic effects as if watching a 3D video even if the shot is stopped or played very slowly. (You might remember the iconic scene from the Matrix where Trinity jumps to kick an enemy out of her way)

The photograph above shows the team testing time-division shooting with Samsung NX System before the actual shots. Time-division requires the installation of tens, sometimes hundreds of cameras, which can be very time-consuming. A slight difference in camera angle can create a big difference in the video, so each camera must be carefully positioned for a seamless effect.

How can you get all those cameras to go at the same time?  Well, look carefully at the device in the photograph. This device can hit the shutter on dozens of NX cameras at the same time. Just a slight glitch in the timing would make it look unnatural, so it must be perfectly calibrated.

By now you must be wondering how the video taken this way looks? Well, here it is. Let’s take a look at the preparation process and the video shot using this technology, and learn a little more about the documentary “Super Fish”.

‘Super Fish’ consists of five episodes: Fish Planet, The Great Taste of Fish, Mystery of Rotten Fish, Fish on Friday, and Super Fish Diary. Each episode was produced for the viewers to enjoy the grandeur of nature in some of the world’s most beautiful rivers, oceans, deserts, and creeks.

In the first episode of ‘Fish Planet,’ the stories of various fishing techniques dating back over 100,000 years are told, and in the second episode of “The Great Taste of Fish,” the story of how the common dishes such as raw fish, salted fish, dried fish, grilled fish, and fermented fish are prepared is covered.

In ‘Mystery of Rotten Fish’ where we accompanied the production staff, the producers focused on resolving all curiosities on rice and fish surrounding East Asia. The fourth episode, ‘Fish on Friday’, covers the interesting story on fishery technologies and excessive fish supply at a medieval monastery as well as the cultural background of how people came to eat fish. The last episode of ‘Super Fish Diary’ covered high-speed shooting, HD underwater ultra-high-speed shooting, and the previously mentioned Time Slice technique.

Does this look familiar? This is the shooting location of ‘Super Fish’ in the video that was introduced below. KBS team used the Time Slice technique for a lively shot of fish in the deep water.

By connecting 60 Samsung NX Cameras, they were able to capture movements that would have been impossible otherwise. Installing 60 cameras for such a short shot takes dedication and skill.  The staff recalled that day to be one of the hardest shootings.

The production staffs were careful to install the cameras properly, and showed a great respect for the technology and equipment. Samsung was glad to be able to contribute to these striking documentaries.

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