Sci-fi Thriller 'Hero Punk' Shot with Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera
Fremont, CA - March 7, 2013 - Blackmagic Design today announced that “Hero Punk,” an upcoming feature film from writer and director Kanen Flowers and produced by Scruffy.TV, was shot using Blackmagic Cinema Camera.
“Hero Punk” is a sci-fi thriller set in 2042 in a dystopian society where the government is working to rid the world of people with mutant abilities. Because more than half of the film was shot on a 1,100 sq. ft. green screen, the team had to mark the virtual world via tracking markers and capture enough latitude in the images to separate the actors from the background, ensuring that lighting the actors would not decompose in the footage.
“After shooting some tests, we realized we needed a camera that could handle the richness of the green screen and the fidelity of the tracking markers, but that was flexible enough to support our sometimes ‘run and gun’ workflow where we could grab SSDs and go,” said Kanen. “We also had to stay conscious of our budget and the fact that we needed two cameras for weeks of shooting.”
Kanen, along with cinematographers Paul Del Vecchio and Patrick Johnson, found everything they needed in Blackmagic Cinema Camera’s super wide 13 stops of dynamic range, high resolution 2.5K sensor, built in SSD recorder, open file format support and compact design. Shooting in ProRes 442 in a 10-bit colour space against green screen, the team was able to easily capture tracking markers and correctly light the actors, preserving their natural look without requiring a tremendous amount of tweaking in post.
“We set both cameras at the same f-stop and shot flat, which allowed us to light the talent correctly because we didn’t have any interference from the green screen. The camera’s high dynamic range ensured that when we added the colour back later, we could pull a better key in the composite,” said Kanen. “The Blackmagic Cinema Camera was perfectly suited for our workflow. ProRes is a great native codec, and the ability to pop out an SSD with ProRes and seamlessly copy it over to the editing system was amazing. We even edited on site, and the rough composites allowed us to stay on track with what we needed.”
Blackmagic Cinema Camera’s ease of use and flexibility were essential in accommodating the production’s workflow and allowed the team to focus on performance, directing and storyline. Shooting 10 pages a day, the team was constantly setting up new shots, experimenting with perspectives, from 12 ft. in the air hovering over actors or sliding along rails underneath them, and numerous handheld and shoulder shots.
“During one scene, we had the two cameras on shoulder rigs in a very tight kitchen. The scene would have never happened if not for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. There was so much movement that a DSLR would have sacrificed quality and any other camera would have been unwieldy and sacrificed movement,” said Kanen. “The Blackmagic Cinema Camera feels like a DLSR but shoots like a professional cinema camera. And it’s so intuitive that I was able to take over shooting one day. It provided us with the freedom to experiment with shots, let us achieve the look and feel that we wanted and allowed us to make the movie we wanted to make.”
While the film is still in the final editing and finishing stages, Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve, the world’s most advanced colour correction tool, will be used for colour grading.
Press Photography
Product photos of all Blackmagic Design products are available at http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/press/images/ “Hero Punk” images are available here.
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, colour correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci colour correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/
About New Magic Australia Pty Ltd (Australian and New Zealand Blackmagic Design master distributor)
New Magic Australia Pty Ltd is a recognised leader in the distribution and marketing of multimedia hardware and software, representing a carefully selected range of innovative, leading manufacturers and catering for both the professional and consumer markets. New Magic Australia established in 1993 is the Australian distributor of Blackmagic Design, Convergent Design, Hauppauge Computer Works Inc, Rotolight, Cubix, Matrox Video Products and Sony Creative Software products. www.newmagic.com.au
