Rob Grant films 'Alive' with Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and with DaVinci Resolve

The Blackmagic Design camera was used in a large number of shots during the filming of the film, including close-ups, action shots and low-light scenes.

The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K the Blackmagic Design It has been used to film action shots during the filming of the horror movie Alive. For its part, grading was carried out in DaVinci Resolve.

Produced by Cranked Up Films and Good Deed Entertainment, the feature film stars Thomas Cocquerel, Camille Stopps and Angus Macfadyen, and was directed by Rob Grant, in addition to having the participation of Charles Hamilton as head of photography, and Brendon Rathbone, who was in charge of grading.

Alive tells the terrifying story of a seriously injured man and woman who wake up in an asylum with no memory of who they are or what happened.

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, foreboding 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 used the Blackmagic unit and a homemade shock camera with a lens Panasonic short and flat 16 mm.

Jules Vincent, screenwriter and producer of the film, comments that "due to the limited budget, we could not afford to add days to the shoot or reschedule the shots, because it took too long to film insert 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.”

The feature film, filmed in Calgary (Canada), immerses the characters and the spectators 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 caretaker's domain, outside the asylum.

Complete post-production

“Throughout the film, it was fun to try to see how far we could go with the darkness of the images, making some parts of that abandoned hospital visible 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,” explains Rathbone. “Resolve is the only program I use when grading and it helped me achieve the look we wanted for Alive“.

On the other hand, he points out that "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 to not only carry out grading quickly and efficiently, but also do things on my own to stay within budget, for example, replacing skies or improving the appearance of blood."

During a scene in a bright white bathroom that included a bathtub filled with bloody water, Rathbone turned to DaVinci Resolve's color wheels and contrast controls to make precise and subtle adjustments, with the purpose of creating a sense of greater drama and marking the difference between the darkness and dirt of the asylum, and the cleanliness and sterility of the bathroom.

"A bathtub full of bloody water and uncomfortable tension help highlight the body horror of the film and create a unique look without standing out in a negative way. The other environments are colder and darker, which is ideal for conveying the feeling of abandonment of the hospital, but it was nice to escape into this kind of sanitary place, with purer whites," adds Rathbone.

Likewise, Rathbone used the tools of noise reduction DaVinci Resolve to sharpen dark images.

"The noise reduction offered by the program is very advanced. During this project, Blackmagic released two updates between the start of filming and the final delivery of the film, so we were able to take advantage of the new tools without reshaping the material. This was a huge help on a feature film like this, with so many dark scenes," he notes.

“In addition to its value, which in my opinion is unmatched, it's like a swiss army knife. It makes it easier to work with copying, editing, grading, audio, special effects and mastering. Whether you want to use one program for everything or not, it is still very useful to have so many features, even if only for the purpose of reviewing recorded material or received files,” concludes Rathbone.

Alive It premiered in US theaters in September and is now available on various platforms, such as Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, DirectTV and Fandango.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3HUMs5EPr0