International. The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K model was used to shoot action shots during the filming of Alive, a horror film released last month in American theaters. For its part, the color grading was carried out in DaVinci Resolve.
The film tells the terrifying story of a seriously injured man and woman who wake up in an insane asylum without remembering who they are or what has happened. Produced by Cranked Up Films and Good Deed Entertainment, the film stars Thomas Cocquerel, Camille Stopps and Angus Macfadyen, and was directed by Rob Grant, as well as Charles Hamilton as head of photography, and Brendon Rathbone, who was in charge of color grading.
The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K model was used in a large number of shots during the filming of the film, including close-ups and action shots. These scenes show dark and foreshadowing images of various utensils used in the asylum, for example, syringes and medicine bottles, along with the hands that use them. For this purpose, Hamilton employed the Blackmagic unit and a homemade shock camera with a short, flat 16mm Panasonic lens.
"Due to the tight budget, we couldn't afford to add days to the shoot or reschedule the shots, because it took too long to shoot insertion or detailed shots. In this sense, the Pocket Cinema Camera model allowed us to save time and money, since Rob had the possibility of resuming the recording of the scenes that we could not finish, without there being a difference between the quality of the material filmed with the Blackmagic camera and that of the images captured with the other units", said Jules Vincent, the film's screenwriter and producer.
The film, filmed in Calgary (Canada), immerses the characters and viewers in a bloody, unreal and overwhelming environment. The images alternate between the dark interior of a dilapidated-looking medical institution and the bright environment they face in the caregiver's domain, outside the asylum.
"Throughout the film, it was fun to try to see how far we could go with the darkness of the images, making visible some parts of that abandoned hospital in order to provide some information to the audience, but at the same time without revealing too much, so as not to lose the emotional tension of the scene," Rathbone explained. "Resolve is the only program I use when ætheling and it helped me achieve the look we wanted for Alive."
On the other hand, he commented: "In the case of independent feature films, and particularly horror films, it is necessary to have a complete post-production program. Resolve offers a huge variety of tools and unparalleled stability, which allowed me not only to carry out color grading quickly and efficiently, but also to do things on my own so as not to go out of budget, for example, replace skies or improve the appearance of blood."
