United States. The independent production company Rhythmic Films relied on two Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro cameras and Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve Studio software for its production and editing process of "The Spy Who Never Dies", a feature film from the Australian platform STAN.
This implementation represented a great change in the production dynamics for Rhythmic Films, as the entire feature film was carried out with the products of the Blackmagic Design brand.
Specifically, filming relied on the two Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro digital cinema cameras. While the editing process, color grading and visual effects were done at DaVinci Resolve Studio, as part of a radical change in the dynamics of independent production company Rhythmic Films.
Plot of "The Spy Who Never Dies"
This comedy film starring Paul Paul O'Brien and Georgia Walters follows the story of Brad, an international spy, who falls in love with a veterinary doctor named Veronica who would seem to lead a peaceful life. A series of hilarious events and situations are triggered as Brad investigates a group of Russians, confronts a mysterious character named Trident, and attempts to build a normal relationship outside of his spy world.
Production challenges
Although The Spy Who Never Dies is to date the most significant project of Rhythmic Films, the production of this feature film was affected by the pandemic, a restriction that forced this company, based in the city of Wollongong in New South Wales, to redesign its procedures to counteract capacity limitations.
These measures meant that the filming was carried out in different blocks, so that the time between filming was used to, among other things, eliminate unnecessary sections and thus maximize the scarce time available on the set.
Corey Pearson, film and photography director of the project commented: "When Covid appeared, we began to explore solutions that could give us more flexibility, which were also compact and agile and, in turn, retained the cinematic aspect. After doing hard research and doing thousands of tests, we decided to start using Blackmagic Design products and were very satisfied with the results. The Pocket 6K Pro's dual native ISO sensor and colorimetry are striking. This allowed us to achieve the cinematic look we were looking for."
Importantly, the film The Spy Who Never Dies included 700 visual effects shots, which included scenes made entirely with computer graphics. That's why Rhythmic Films made the decision to completely revamp its editing studio, which now focuses on the DaVinci Resolve Studio program and the Blackmagic RAW format.
"The Blackmagic RAW format was revolutionary for us. It completely redefined our work dynamics for the better. Recording in 6K RAW allowed the ingestion of data in Blackmagic RAW format directly on the hard drives, without requiring proxy files, so we were able to play them in real time in DaVinci Resolve Studio for offline editing," pearson said.
Benefits obtained with Blackmagic Design
Greater efficiency and reduced price is what this new equipment offers to Rhythmic Films, a company that maintains that it will be able to continue creating feature films for Internet platforms, such as Nine Network (STAN), which are always in search of more original regional content.
Pearson commented: "We plan to continue using Blackmagic Design cameras and the same working dynamics in our upcoming projects. It will be a matter of time until other large-scale productions adopt solutions that optimize the process."
