Blackmagic, key for the filming and post-production of 'Single Mother by Choice' (HBO Max)

Single Mother by Choice, film driven by HBO Max, was shot and finished with a selection of tools from Blackmagic Design.

The film follows the real-life pregnancy of Eva, a workaholic Latina who is determined to have a baby on her own terms and faces more than what she agreed to when she becomes pregnant in 2020. The film stars Selina Ringel and led by her husband, Dan Levy Dayman.

From the beginning, Dagerman tried to shoot the project with bit personal using the model Pocket Cinema Camera 6K: "I was very inspired by some friends who have created incredible feature films with a small team over a weekend, and I thought I could follow that model. My wife was working on another series, which was shot with the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K version, and I was surprised by the image quality."

Dagerman took advantage of the characteristics of the cameras, although there is one in particular that he values: the ability to shoot in Blackmagic RAW at 6K resolution, which offered great flexibility at the start and during the post-production process. "The quality in Blackmagic RAW was fantastic, and the 6K image gave us some room to resize and reframe in post-production. In terms of color, it was very rewarding to see what can be achieved with just a conversion table and some adjustments, and when we got to the final grading sessions, I found it incredible how much we can do with the material in Resolve," explains Dagerman.

Post-production with DaVinci Resolve Studio

The colorist Loren White was added in the post-production stage, in order to grade the images in DaVinci Resolve Studio. He was delighted with the material captured by Dagerman in Blackmagic RAW, as it offered him more flexibility in terms of lighting: "Because much of the film was shot in available light in front of laptops or against white walls, we did our best to add some shape to the images. We used Offset on highlights and shadows, along with vignettes, gradients, and grain. I feel like we were able to elevate the aesthetic to surpass what we naturally do."

The film, due to its unique characteristics and small crew, required an extensive grading process to provide visual coherence to the shots. The wide variety of tools available at DaVinci were instrumental in meeting this goal: "I've been using Chroma Warping since it was first added to the program. I love how you can manipulate colors to see what works best. On curves, you can do the same thing, but you have to go from panel to panel. With Warp, if any hue is chosen, I can instantly change all three values ​​at the same time. It's been an exceptional addition to the software."

In perspective, Day man feels “grateful” for the role that the tools of Blackmagic Design in Single Mother by Choice: "I was very satisfied with this camera, since the process of creating the film combined both worlds with a more traditional style of cinematography. The fact of being able to shoot with such image quality in Blackmagic RAW format and knowing that we had DaVinci Resolve to create the aesthetics was extremely important as a filmmaker and especially in these times of change in which technology is democratizing the recording process."

https://youtu.be/m-1dyJFwNQw