Blackmagic Design Case Study: Thriller Movie “Dark Noise” –PRONEWS: Digital Video Production Web Magazine

According to Blackmagic Design, the new thriller movie “Dark Noise” was shot with Blackmagic Design’s digital film cameras and used in post-production with DaVinci Resolve Studio. Audio post production also used the Fairlight Desktop Console, an audio control surface.

“Dark Noise” is the story of a young woman who was asked to record audio by the father of a biologist who went missing in a remote national park. She uses her voice as a clue to find her father, but she gets involved in a dangerous organized crime. The film features Imogen Sage, Karan Collie, Steve Le Mercand and others. Written and directed by Clara Chung, the film was filmed in Australia’s nature in the early days of the global Korona-ka.

Director Chung also acted as an editor / audio editor, while Ben Alan was the director of photography and color correction. Alain is the youngest cinematographer in history to receive an ACS letter from the Australian Cinematographers Association (ACS) and a CSI letter as a colorist from the Colorist Society International (CSI). .. His name is credited to more than 1,500 movies, television and commercials. Chung started his career in Tokyo, trained in New York, and has nearly 30 years of experience in the industry.

Dark Noise used Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K digital film cameras for shooting, and DaVinci Resolve Studio for color correction, editing and audio work. Alain commented as follows.

Mr. Alan:Blackmagic products give you a consistent vision from shooting to post-production. Without the Blackmagic Design product, we wouldn’t have been able to complete this piece.

In terms of filming, most of the work was filmed in the middle of the night in bad weather, in the deep woods hours away from Sydney. Due to the regulation by Korona-ka, Mr. Alan had to shoot with a minimum staff of only two people, himself and Chung. The Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K are small enough to give you a cinema-like image even in low lighting conditions, so Alain said he was able to get the shots he needed.

Mr. Alan:Both cameras are small and can be operated by one person, which was very helpful. Camera reliability was also very important as I was shooting in a place that would take an hour and a half to get all the help.

Also, I am a colorist, a cinematographer, and a cameraman, so I have a unique perspective. We know exactly what data we need for each shot. It’s important to know that your camera is getting as much data as possible, especially when shooting with minimal lighting in the middle of the night. Shooting with Blackmagic RAW gives you a huge amount of image information, but it requires less storage space.

During the shoot, Alain always had post-production in mind, especially audio post-production. The main character of the film is a voice professional, who uses voice as a clue to search for his missing father. The creative use of audio in conjunction with color correction is a feature of the film, and is the key to moving the story and viewers’ emotions. To achieve this, Alain expanded his post-production studio with the Fairlight Desktop Console and DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel.

Mr. Alan:With the introduction of the Mini Panel for color and the Fairlight Desktop Console for sound, these controls are easily accessible for the first time in a single studio.

For the first time in Dark Noise, Alain used Fairlight audio editing tools, including the Fairlight Desktop Console. The compact surface of the Fairlight Desktop Console features 12 touch-sensitive faders, pan knobs, a built-in LCD for each channel strip, channel control buttons, automation transport / navigation controls, and more.

Mr. Alan:Fairlight is designed entirely for mixing, so it has all the tools and processing you need. In addition, the Fairlight Desktop Console gives you the precise tactile controls you need for long productions.

By building his own studio, Alain was able to overcome the lockdown of Korona-ka and complete the film in time for its release in May 2022.

Mr. Alan:Color and audio impact the viewer at the same level, eliciting emotional and sensory responses. This was especially noticeable in “Dark Noise”, especially in the shadow areas. The control of audio, shadow and sound position by DaVinci Resolve is great.

While working at Fairlight, ah, I thought I should do the same with color in this scene. I was able to edit the audio in the console and then move on to color with just one click. With the Mini Panel, I instantly captured the visual inspiration for the scene. This kind of work has never been possible at such a high quality level.

DaVinci Resolve made it easy to harmonize color and audio, so working on “Dark Noise” was fun. I got great results by combining the effects. I think DaVinci Resolve can radically change the way video production is done. All the work is done with DaVinci Resolve, so the whole process is surprisingly efficient. You can quickly and efficiently mix / match different resolutions and audio formats to suit different delivery requirements. It was a great answer with the introduction of DaVinci Resolve.

“Dark Noise” will be released in theaters in Australia from May and will be distributed all over the world.