Fremont, CA - March 9, 2020 - Blackmagic Design today announced that DP Zak Mulligan used its Pocket Cinema Camera 4Ks to help capture FX’s new docuseries “The Most Dangerous Animal of All.” The series also made use of DaVinci Resolve Studio for color grading, which was completed by Partner and Senior Colorist Shane Reed of Los Angeles based post production studio Apache.
Based on The New York Times bestselling book of the same name, “The Most Dangerous Animal of All” is a four part documentary series that explores Gary Stewart's search for identity. As Stewart searches for the father who abandoned him, he believes his father is the Zodiac killer, one of the most infamous serial killers in American history.
Mulligan and his team had a tight production schedule and a modest crew but wanted to capture several angles for each interview setup, so they chose two Pocket Cinema Camera 4Ks. He explained, “Over the course of a year, we were traveling across the U.S. with a small crew and a rather large camera package. We wanted more coverage to match our A cameras but couldn’t travel with additional cameras of that size. Luckily our two Pocket Cinema Camera 4Ks fit in a single carryon case and were a breeze to travel with.”
“The cameras were easy to rig anywhere with a very small grip package, and we were able to pull off some car rigs that would’ve been impossible using bigger cameras, especially with our small crew,” he added. “Also, because the camera is so small and light, I was able to easily shoot handheld when needed, instead of having to rig up our other bigger, heavier cameras.”
Mulligan also found the camera’s cinematic image quality especially useful when capturing the right look for the footage.
“I shot nighttime vérité of the book’s author walking around Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K’s dual native ISO mode was extremely useful,” he noted. “We wanted to work with the most dynamic range and color information we could get out of the camera, and I was surprised at how well we could match the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K footage.”
“The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K was immensely helpful due to its small size and an image quality that punches well above its weight class,” Mulligan concluded. “Our main challenge was getting the coverage we needed with a small crew traveling around the country. The price, weight and size of the Pocket Cinema Camera 4Ks easily filled that need.
“The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K provides the image quality we expect out of larger cameras in a compact and affordable camera body. It’s useful on any size production, whether as an A camera for independent films and documentaries or as a crash camera or insert camera on larger productions.”
Press Photography
Product photos of Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, DaVinci Resolve Studio as well as all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.
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.
