Hit Comedy 'TOO YOUNG TO DIE!' Shot with Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera
Fremont, CA - October 19, 2016 - Blackmagic Design today announced that five Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras were used to shoot live music scenes for Kankuro Kudo’s new hit film "TOO YOUNG TO DIE!"
"TOO YOUNG TO DIE" was written and directed by Kankuro Kudo, who has been involved in many popular dramas and films as a screenwriter and director. The film’s leading character, Daisuke, dies in an accident at the age of 17 and goes to Hell. While in Hell, Daisuke tries to come back to life to confess his love to his classmate and kiss the girl, all under the intensive training of Killer K, an ogre who formed a rock band called "Hells."
The film stars popular actors, such as Tomoya Nagase, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Aoi Morikawa, Kenta Kiritani and Nana Seino, as well as rock musicians Martin Freedman, Char, Yoshio Nomura and Rolly, and includes many live music scenes because of its rock music theme. To capture the power and energy from those scenes, five Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras were used because of their small size, film image and ease of use. During the live music scenes, the camera operators went into the audience as extras to shoot the scenes from the audience’s viewpoint and get close to the main actors on stage. The Pocket Cinema Cameras were also used to capture birds-eye shots of the live music scenes from the ceiling of the set.
"I was shooting from the side of the stage, but I wanted to give viewers more excitement and a feeling of unity in the live music scenes, so I decided to let camera operators have Pocket Cinema Cameras as well," said DoP Daisuke Soma. "This story is really unexpected and original, so we thought it was okay to have cameras in Hell. However, cameras are often too big to use and need an assistant to handle. It is hell being a camera assistant in Hell! So we picked the Pocket Cinema Camera, which is small and can have a real presence in the film."
"I could not do a monitor check for the output of the Pocket Cinema Cameras while shooting the live music scenes, so when I was editing, I could not tell which shot was shot by whom or which camera. However, the image quality of the Pocket Cinema Cameras were well-matched with our other cameras," said Kudo.
Kudo added, "I wanted to make the picture rough like Tarantino’s films often are." In this case, Kudo benefited from the Pocket Cinema Camera’s dynamic range, which allowed his team to grade heavily without the picture falling apart and helped to create a new world of Hell.
In order to create the various Hell scenes, the filmmakers made use of sets and lighting, while using less CG than many other films, bringing a more analog feeling to the scenes. Soma said, "I discussed the look of Hell with the director and the colorist, and we decided to make the tone like watching old color film on TV.
"I wanted to make the live music scenes high impact, so I wanted more than just a wide shot. If I want viewers to feel like they are watching the live music performance in the same place, it is necessary to have cameras on the set and in the audience. The Pocket Cinema Camera is small and easy-to-handle, which allowed us to capture an image that conventional big cameras can’t," Soma added.
"I used a lot of shots from this camera. It is amazing that such a small camera can capture such a filmic image. The stereotypes of a camera for a film shoot are that they are big and robust, and you would never think of the Pocket Cinema Camera. I found that size does not matter to get a great look," Kudo concluded.
Product photos of Pocket Cinema Camera and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/press/images. Story photos can be found here.
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to 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, Cubix, Matrox Video and Telestream Wirecast Software products. www.newmagic.com.au.
