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Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that “Kill Game,” a new suspense thriller/horror film produced by Marty Murray of Full Throttle Pictures and distributed by Vantage Media International (VMI), and being screened at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, was shot entirely on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and graded and edited using DaVinci Resolve.

The filmmakers were so pleased with the results gained on “Kill Game”, they decided to also use the Blackmagic Cinema Camera for all reshoots and additional photography for their other new film, “PARANORMAL ISLAND”, starring Lance Henriksen and Briana Evigan. Ari Golan, owner of Atomic Imaging and a noted cinematographer, shot all of the steadicam/B-Cam, underwater and 2nd Unit footage for “Kill Game,” as well as shooting all the second unit, pick ups and underwater sequences for “PARANORMAL ISLAND,” after he returned from working with Peter Jackson on Hobbit 2.

“Kill Game” is an intense new horror film from Full Throttle Pictures and Atomic Imaging, who supplied all three of the Blackmagic camera packages. The film was directed by Robert Mearns, with cinematography by Andrew Strahorn. The film follows a group of high school pranksters who one day go too far and kill another student. Years later they return to their home town when one of their friends is mysteriously found dead and one by one each member of the group is slowly and methodically murdered.

To capture the extreme brutality and dark imagery of Mearns’s vision, Producer Marty Murray and Co-Producer Ari Golan approached Strahorn and chose to use multiple Blackmagic Cinema Cameras as the main cameras on the shoot.

“The director had a very specific vision for how he wanted every shot to look, and he wanted the entire movie to capture the darkness and horror that this group of friends was facing. We needed dark skies and morbid killing scenes. The brutality of the violence had to come out, but not be overwhelming. To get this, we needed a camera with high dynamic range and the ability to shoot in RAW so that the director could get all the data possible to really exercise his creativity,” said Marty. “The Blackmagic Cinema Camera fit everything we needed and the images were incredible.”

The film was shot in RAW using two Blackmagic Cinema Cameras. Footage was brought into DaVinci Resolve for a first pass grade and was then transferred to ProRes for editing. Once the footage received an initial edit, it was exported back to DaVinci Resolve for final color correction, final editing and audio fixes by Ari Golan It was then output to ProResHQ, BluRay and DVD for final delivery to Cannes.

“We really wanted to shoot on the Blackmagic cameras because of their workflow and image quality. Also, The camera had to be tough enough to work in some very difficult situations, and the Blackmagic cameras were extremely flexible. The entire workflow was simple with RAW and DaVinci Resolve. We really put the camera through some torture tests and the image quality was great throughout,” said Ari.

The shoot included working in a number of difficult locations and extreme conditions, such as shooting in the worst heat wave of 2013 in the US. In order to meet his vision, the director needed the action scene images to be up close and have a truly visceral feel. The Blackmagic Cinema Cameras allowed the filmmakers to get right into the middle of the action with their small form factor and design.

“It is a tough camera and held up great. One of the toughest shots we had was a POV shot from inside a car. We wedged ourselves into the trunk with no problem. The camera’s small form factor let me get my shot without worrying about losing image quality,” said Ari. “For another shot, we needed to shoot underwater and had a leak in the waterproof camera housing. About a quarter inch of the camera was sitting in water. It was not a problem at all, and the footage came out great. Although we certainly don't suggest the camera is waterproof, nor recommend testing that attribute, it did survive the unintended water torture test.”

“We will always shoot with the Blackmagic cameras from now on. They give us the best image quality per dollar, and allow us to do multi camera shoots. They really freed us up creatively to meet the director’s vision on ‘Kill Game’ and they gave us outstanding cinematic images at an amazing value,” said Ari.

The film will be shown at the Cannes film market event, Le Marche du Film, in May. It will also be shown at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival and the upcoming international Shriekfest horror film festival, and will be distributed to theaters later in 2014 by VMI.

Press Photography

Product photos of Blackmagic Cinema Camera and DaVinci Resolve are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images.

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 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 color 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 www.blackmagicdesign.com.

The popular 2D/2.5D painting and animation package TVPaint Animation has been updated to version 10.5.7 which contains several bug fixes as well as enhancements. Native 64-bit version of Mac OS X contains several fixes to lagging issues when moving in the timeline using keyboard keys, when resizing application window, and other actions. Download the update here.

A test of multiple microphones in the same conditions, with the option to download the original unedited recording, can be found here

Eyeon Software and Trumbull Studios have announced the first public screenings of UFOTOG, a ten-minute technology demonstration of a 4K 3D movie at an astounding 120 frames per second. Directed by Academy Award-winner Douglas Trumbull and produced at Trumbull Studios, this experimental sci-fi adventure demonstrates Trumbull's new process called MAGI, a new cinematic language that invites the audience to experience a powerful sense of immersion and impact that is not possible using conventional 24 fps or 3D standards. Trumbull Studios is committed to eyeon Software, a forerunner in production solutions, as eyeon was the only development firm able to provide the technology required for Trumbull's ground-breaking vision for UFOTOG, enabling the unheard-of impact of 3D in 4K at 120 fps using eyeon Fusion, Generation, Connection, and Dimension. Trumbull teamed with eyeon to create his film and push beyond the current cinema paradigm. UFOTOG premiered at Paul Allen's iconic Seattle Cinerama Theater as the headlining event at the annual Science Fiction Film Festival Sunday May 11, 2014, in conjunction with special screenings of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that UK-based On Set Tech (O.S.T.) Ltd has implemented an innovative color management workflow for digital dailies, based on DaVinci Resolve 10 during the filming of Mathew Vaughan’s “The Secret Service”, set for release in March 2015.

O.S.T. founder and director Joshua Callis-Smith collaborated with the editorial department to develop a DIT cart workflow capable of maintaining a color accurate pipeline right through the entire post workflow; from on set viewing through to editorial and visual effects (VFX). A major consideration when developing the solution was DaVinci Resolve’s new live grade capabilities, which were used extensively during principle photography to set up shots.

Up to four camera sources were captured via a series of Blackmagic Design UltraStudio 4K I/O devices straight to a Compact Videohub router, which acted as a switch and allowed the DIT to change which camera sources were fed into DaVinci Resolve. A live input was then graded with preview LUTs and then fed out via a HDLink Pro on to monitors for viewing by DoP George Richmond. The setup also featured several Blackmagic Design SmartScope Duos for monitoring the waveform from DaVinci Resolve or the camera’s log image, while an UltraStudio Mini Monitor was used to monitor back out of Resolve to a series of OLED screens.

The DIT cart also featured a Blackmagic Design MultiDock, which was used for uploading footage, some of which was shot on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, to and from SSDs to DaVinci Resolve via a Thunderbolt RAID. Each day the DIT would process on average two and half terabytes of data 25 minutes after wrapping for the day, including double delivery; ProRes files for Fox and MXF for the editorial delivery.

“DaVinci Resolve 10 has allowed us to apply primary and secondary grades requested by the DoP and taking this right through our on set post workflow up until the point of grade,” says Joshua. “The way we achieved that was to create stills for every slate. Editorial would then re-transcode everything using those stills knowing that they are applying exactly the same thing we had on set. This meant for example that our VFX shots came back to editorial via a VFX pipeline exactly the same way I delivered them. That is far more accurate than any way I’ve previously worked.”

He goes on to add: “The ability to now apply secondaries on set allowed for a collaboration between myself, George and the gaffer to take place when setting up a scene that up until now has been impossible. Now, we can pre-empt the DoP's thoughts for the DI as we are lighting and get a feel for how the entire image will look on completion before we turn over.”

Press Photography

Product photos of the Compact Videohub, DaVinci Resolve 10, MultiDock, SmartScope Duo, UltraStudio 4K and UltraStudio Mini Monitor are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images.

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 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 color 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 www.blackmagicdesign.com.