Fremont, CA – October 09, 2015 – Blackmagic Design today announced that the new film by director Timothy Woodward Jr., “4GOT10,” was shot entirely on Blackmagic URSA PL cameras. The new modern western film recently debuted and stars Dolph Lundgren, Johnny Messner, Vivica Fox, and Danny Trejo. The film was also graded using DaVinci Resolve Studio.
“4GOT10” is the story of Brian Barnes (Johnny Messner), who wakes up in the desert wounded with no memory and no idea why he’s surrounded by eight bodies, a van with four million in cash and a van full of cocaine. Brian is pursued by notorious drug lord Danny Perez (Danny Trejo), DEA Agent Rooker (Dolph Lundgren) and the corrupt Sheriff Olson (Michael Pare).
“4GOT10” is directed by Timothy Woodward Jr, who has starred in, directed and produced dozens of films and TV shows, with cinematography by Pablo Diez. The film was shot in various parts of California, and the filmmakers strove to create a modern western look and feel, including a high contrast throughout, reminiscent of famous spaghetti western films of the 1970s.
“4GOT10” is an action packed film with gunshots and explosions dominating many of the sequences. We shot much of the film with live fire, which can be an issue for many digital sensors. Because of the global shutter on the URSA, however, we had no issues capturing any of the flashes, explosions or sudden camera movements that would typically cause a jello effect in other digital cameras. This is fantastic as the film features many moments that could have been potentially problematic on other cameras,” said Diez.
“Also, the URSAs’ secondary monitors came in handy throughout the shoot. I was able to use the monitors closest to the camera operator as a scope (histogram) and for easy, quick access to the menu system. The exterior monitor became essential to our 1st Assistant Camera Tania Espinosa, allowing her to easily access menus and make any necessary adjustments without any interference to the primary monitor,” continued Diez. “And after, because URSA let me shoot in ProRes, it made it incredibly easy to achieve excellent results in all aspects of post production.”
To shoot the film, Diez used URSAs as both the A and B cameras, shooting in ProRes 4444 with Schneider Cine-Xenar glass.
“As a director of photography it is important to be able to know the capacities of the camera and work with them to reach the highest image potential. We’ve been able to achieve a naturally beautiful image by working within certain parameters and aiming to really bring out those midtones,” said Diez. “And the URSA’s reproduction of midtones and the ability to retain and reproduce accurate skin tones is wonderful. Sometimes people forget about the most important aspect of images: rich and well distributed midtones. Here is where the URSA sets itself apart.”
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.
