by FilmInk Staff<\/p>\n
Colorist blends vintage film looks to shape the desert Western\u00a0feel.<\/p>\n
Blackmagic Design have announced that the independent feature film Where in the Hell<\/a>\u00a0was shot using the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K digital film camera and graded using DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software.<\/p>\n Directed by Laramie Dennis, Where in the Hell\u00a0follows a pair of defectors from the crumbling Los Angeles film industry who set off on an unlikely road trip to track down a missing girlfriend. The film was born from necessity. Dennis had planned to shoot a different movie in Canada until the pandemic closed the border. \u201cI started from scratch and dreamed up a road movie we could shoot in the US,\u201d she said. She built the production around California desert locations, from a vintage motel in Lee Vining to Mono Lake and the ghost town of Calico, shooting in blocks across 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Cinematographer Marilyn Flores shot the film handheld to carry the restless feeling of life on the road. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want a Hallmark looking movie. We wanted a modern classic look, and the landscapes to be a huge part of the story,\u201d said Flores. \u201cThis film was not going to feel perfect, but rather realistic, raw, and even a bit shaky.\u201d The two leaned on references like Paris, Texas, American Honey, and Y Tu Mam\u00e1 Tambi\u00e9n\u00a0to find a tone that felt cinematic but never too clean.<\/p>\n For a\u00a0shoot with a\u00a0small crew and no focus puller, Flores needed a\u00a0camera she could carry all day and rig almost anywhere. \u201cI\u00a0proposed this knowing we were going to be outside traveling and walking, and I\u00a0was not going to have a\u00a0full camera team to help me,\u201d she said. \u201cThe advantages of the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K were weight, size, durability, and menu familiarity.\u201d The compact body went everywhere the production did. \u201cIts size and weight helped with mounting it on top of a\u00a0car, on the side of a\u00a0car window, or going on a\u00a0sixteen foot ladder,\u201d Flores\u00a0said.<\/p>\n On the cut, Dennis\u2019s producing partner and editor Ricky de Laveaga worked in DaVinci Resolve Studio after years spent across AVID, Final Cut Pro, and Premiere. \u201cI\u00a0love how Resolve respects the craft, the art form, of movie editing,\u201d he said. \u201cIts interface sensibly reflects the history and tradition of both film and video editing.\u201d For an editor who also writes software, the appeal was direct. \u201cThis is the highest praise I\u00a0can offer. Resolve makes sense to me,\u201d de Laveaga said. \u201cNow whenever I\u00a0use any other editing software, I\u00a0miss Resolve\u00a0immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n The grade went to colorist Temesgen Gebremeskel at Point360 Post Production Studios, who carved out the film\u2019s look in DaVinci Resolve Studio. \u201cI went through a handful of my custom Kodak neg and print LUTs and found the combination that got us the right foundation,\u201d he said. \u201cThe secret sauce ended up being the three strip Technicolor look. I mixed it with the Kodak neg and print LUT until we were getting a lot of beautiful and unique colours that ended up paying homage to old Westerns.\u201d The camera gave him room to work. \u201cThe dynamic range and sensor latitude helped the grade in terms of keeping as much detail from the sky to the ground as possible,\u201d Gebremeskel said.<\/p>\n That latitude mattered because of how hard the camera had been pushed on location. \u201cWe\u00a0pushed the Pocket 4K to another level, and even Mesgen and his team were surprised by how much quality had been captured on each take,\u201d Flores\u00a0said.<\/p>\n Gebremeskel leaned on a\u00a0couple of DaVinci Resolve Studio tools to move quickly through a\u00a0feature\u2019s worth of shots. \u201cI\u00a0absolutely love the Magic Mask. It\u00a0has been a\u00a0life saver across all types of projects, from commercials to episodic to features,\u201d he said. \u201cThe recent addition of Node Layers has changed my workflow,\u201d he added, describing how it lets him ripple a\u00a0base grade across a\u00a0whole scene without the slower work of grouping shots by\u00a0hand.<\/p>\n For Flores, the camera was inseparable from what the film became. \u201cI\u00a0took the risk of shooting my first feature on my own Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K to capture the punk, indie, raw, free spirited feeling of the movie,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018Where in the Hell\u2019 wouldn\u2019t have felt the same without it. The\u00a0Blackmagic gave us the best of both worlds, a\u00a0filmic look and a\u00a0budget friendly, lightweight\u00a0package.\u201d<\/p>\n Where in the Hell is now available to buy or rent on Amazon.<\/p>\n About Blackmagic\u00a0Design<\/p>\n Blackmagic Design creates the world\u2019s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, colour 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\u2019s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company\u2019s Emmy\u2122 award winning DaVinci colour 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by FilmInk Staff Colorist blends vintage film looks to shape the desert Western\u00a0feel. 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