Fremont, CA, USA – Friday, February 17, 2023 – Blackmagic Design today announced that the first scripted series focusing on tabletop roleplaying games, “The Game,” was shot using Blackmagic Design cameras. The project was also edited and color graded using DaVinci Resolve Studio.
“The Game” follows Brandon, a gamer who has been obsessed with all things tabletop fantasy since he was 15. But when his girlfriend cheats on him with his brother, leaving him a fragile shell of a man, he puts out a Craigslist ad for an ordinary group of roleplaying nerds. Instead, he stumbles upon five questionably stable misfits. Created by Matt Curtin and Lauren Henning, and directed by Amanda Sonnenschein, “The Game” takes place half in the real world and half in a fantasy gameplay world.
Early in the process of pre production, Sonnenschein connected with cinematographer Merlin Showalter and began to design the visual aesthetic for the series. “Since the project is this unique hybrid of single camera comedy and fantasy epic, it was really important to me that we cultivated distinct visual styles for each,” said Sonnenschein. “In order to differentiate our worlds, we decided to shoot our fantasy sequences with anamorphic lenses and a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, while using spherical lenses for the non game portions, which we shot like a single camera comedy show.”
Showalter needed a camera system that allowed for quick transition from spherical to anamorphic shooting styles. “We chose to shoot with the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 cameras for their versatility and image quality,” said Showalter. “As on most sets, the speed of moving from setup to setup was key, including for the camera crew. The URSA Mini Pro G2 gave us the opportunity to swap lenses and mounts so we could use the optics that we needed on a few moments’ notice, while the intuitive user interface allowed us to quickly make adjustments on the fly.”
Sonnenschein appreciated the capabilities of the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 digital film cameras in helping her tell her story. “For the opening sequence of our pilot, I wanted to show the characters embroiled in a physical fight across the game table in slow motion,” said Sonnenschein. “As we track back from the horrified face of Brandon, the Game Master, we see one of the players dramatically knocking the board with all the dice to the floor. The URSA Mini Pro G2’s resolution and frame rate capabilities allowed us to film at 96 frames per second, which gave me the effect I needed to make this sequence as over the top and comedic as possible. The slow motion shots we captured ended up being some of my favorites in the whole project so far!”
Considerations such as camera original footage storage was front and center on Showalter’s mind, and he chose to shoot with Blackmagic RAW for that reason. “We wanted the highest quality image possible while keeping our data management and postpipeline in mind,” added Showalter. “Being able to switch from constant quality to constant bitrate helped us stay on top of days where we were on location with limited ability to turn over cards but have the flexibility of choosing when to get the absolute most out of the camera, like for visual effects shots. We also wanted to be able to get the most flexibility in the color grade and take full advantage of DaVinci Resolve by capturing in Blackmagic RAW.”
Being new to DaVinci Resolve Studio’s editing capability, Sonnenschein, who also served as the pilot editor, appreciated the easy transition from other software. “This was my first time editing in Resolve, and I found it a very easy transition,” said Sonnenschein. “The editing interface was very straightforward to work with. ‘The Game’ is first and foremost a comedy, and with comedy in particular, split second precision in cutting is paramount. Resolve made executing those millisecond cuts a pleasant, rather than painstaking, task. The seamless transitions I was able to achieve using Resolve heightened the humorous takes and helped clarify that the real life action is occurring simultaneously with the fantasy world.”
Colorist Todd Leykamp joined the project through creator Lauren Henning and was excited to jump aboard. Sonnenschein sent Leykamp a style guide developed with Showalter early in pre production, and Leykamp graded the pilot in DaVinci Resolve Studio. “It was a lot of fun creating looks for the different worlds that could stand apart but would also complement each other,” said Leykamp.
Grading involved differentiating the real world and the game world using color saturation changes and adjusting lighting in specific scenes, such as those shot in slow motion. “Todd was able to dial up the lighting for those high speed shots to match the rest of the footage in the bar, which made shooting at a high speed and standard frame rate much more usable,” said Sonnenschein.
Leykamp added, “For the look of the bar scene, I mostly used secondary windows to make sure skin tones and luminance were consistent as we jumped around the table and saw people from different angles. I also tried to track the table top as much as possible since it was picking up the most direct light and detracting from the actors. I wanted the bar scene to look a little darker to evoke nighttime, so I made sure to keep the backgrounds nice and dark and focused on getting the light source to feel more like it was coming overhead than from windows or exteriors.”
For Leykamp, the fantasy sequences, and the many practical and visual effects elements involved, provided a unique challenge. “I used a different, more ‘poppy’ look, but made sure to retain the same node structure from the bar to keep everything matching and epic,” continued Leykamp. “For the VFX shots in the fantasy sequences, I used a fair amount of Power Windows to break up the image and mold the audience’s eye to the castle and dragon specifically. This helped the VFX shots synchronize with the live action fantasy shots.”
Showalter’s favorite scene involved a complex camera move. “Brandon is in a state of shock as his game night unravels into chaos,” said Showalter. “We staged this fun camera move where we simultaneously dolly backward and zoom out, so as the frame expands from Brandon’s face we reveal the other characters fighting and freaking out in a very dramatic but silly way. Amanda and I were inspired by old Caravaggio paintings, so we shot in a high frame rate with the URSA Mini Pro G2 and lit the scene to feel extra stylized and melodramatic. It took a few takes and quite a bit of rehearsal but we eventually got the shot. Every time I watch that sequence it makes me smile.”
The pilot is now available on YouTube @thegameseries. Follow “The Game” on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter @thegame_series and on YouTube @thegameseries.
Press Photography
Product photos of URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2, DaVinci Resolve Studio and 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
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Fantasy Roleplaying Series The Game Shot, Edited and Graded with Blackmagic Design
