Behind-the-scenes of Sundance’s Top Films
Blackmagic Design’s reach was felt at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, with more than 35 selected films, episodic series and projects being shot and completed with Blackmagic Design products.
Fusion Studio was a VFX tool of choice for films such as Luce and 4 Feet: Blind Date, while DaVinci Resolve was a staple in the post production process for highly anticipated films such as The Farewell, The Mountain, Native Son, Them That Follow, Big Time Adolescence, and more. Additionally, Blackmagic Design’s cameras were used on projects such as It’s Not About Jimmy Keene,The Dispossessed, The Ghost Behind and Playhouse.
The Sound of Silence
Breaking Down Luce’s VFX with Fusion Studio
Lucien Harriot, president of New York-based Mechanism Digital, used Fusion Studio for his VFX work on Luce, the Sundance U.S. Dramatic Competition film starring Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Tim Roth, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and more.
According to Harriot, “Some of the shots were quite challenging. For example, one particularly long shot orbited several times around an actor standing in a high school lobby, and we had to remove the camera crew’s reflections from all of the windows and trophy cases. Fusion Studio’s tracking tools came in very handy on those tasks.”
For more information on how Fusion is being used for VFX and motion graphics on some of today’s leading indie projects, blockbuster films and hit TV shows, visit Blackmagic Design’s website. With a track record of more than 30 years, Fusion is one of Hollywood’s leading VFX tools. In addition to the standalone version, it’s now been integrated into DaVinci Resolve 15, giving users a true 3D workspace with more than 250 tools for compositing, vector paint, particles, keying, rotoscoping, text animation, tracking, stabilization, and more.
In a new series of videos from Blackmagic Design, you can learn how to use DaVinci Resolve 15’s Fusion page to create VFX. Designed with help from certified trainers and professional VFX artists, the video will teach you the fundamental concepts of the Fusion interface and its node-based toolset, including how to composite images, track objects, blend and merge layers, pull keys, work with 2D text, and use the paint tools.
Big Time Adolescence
In a second video, you can learn more about Fusion’s 3D workspace within DaVinci Resolve, including step-by-step how to work in 3D, build animated 3D text, create a custom, shiny glass material for its surface, and then animate it. You’ll even learn how to add particle systems and create some environmental elements to complete the scene. By the end of the video, you will have created an animated 3D flying text effect with glowing, swirling particles. Example projects and media are available for download so you can get the most out of the training videos and follow along as you go.
Midnight Family
Sundance Projects’ Production and Post
Some of the films created with Blackmagic Design include Sundance award winners such as Clemency, the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic winner, for which DIT Peter Brunet and DP Eric Branco used a Smart Videohub 12×12 for routing, SmartView Duo for monitoring, and DaVinci Resolve and an UltraStudio Express for grading on set; The Infiltrators, the Audience Award: NEXT and NEXT Innovator Prize winner, which was graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio by Mark Todd Osborne of MTO Color at Buffalo 8 Post Production; American Factory, Directing Award: U.S. Documentary winner, which was graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio by Ken Sirulnick and Steve Pequignot of Glue Editing & Design; Midnight Family, U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography winner, which was graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio by Phaedra Robledo of Cinema Maquina, who also used an UltraStudio 4K Extreme for capture and playback; and Honey Boy, U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Vision and Craft winner, which was graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio by Alex Bickel of Color Collective and for which DIT Ernesto Joven used DaVinci Resolve, Smart Videohub 20×20, SmartScope 4K and UltraStudio Express.
The Infiltrators
For a full list of all the other Sundance films, projects and episodic series that were created with Blackmagic Design products, visit Blackmagic Design’s website.
