First scripted role-playing series brought to life with Blackmagic Design

The Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and DaVinci Resolve Studio software helped bring 'The Game', the first scripted role-playing game series, to life.

The Game tells the story of Brandon, a gamer who since the age of 15 has been obsessed with fantasy board games. When his girlfriend cheats on him with his brother and his fragility surfaces, he decides to post a classified ad on Craigslist looking for a group of fans of this type of game, but he comes across five misfits whose stability is questionable. Created by Matt Curtin and Lauren Henningn, and directed by Amanda Sonnenschein, the series takes place in the real world and in a fantasy universe that revolves around play.

At the start of pre-production, Sonnenschein decided to rely on Merlin Showalter to design the visual aesthetic of the series: "Since the project is a unique blend that combines elements of a single-camera comedy and aspects of an epic fantasy tale, it was very important that we develop different looks for each of these environments. To differentiate them, we decided to shoot the fantasy sequences with anamorphic lenses and a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, while for the scenes that take place in the real world, we use spherical lenses and shoot in the style of comedies filmed with a single camera," reveals the director.

To make this vision a reality, Showalter knew it was going to be imperative to use a camera that would allow him to quickly switch between lenses spherical and anamorphic. Finally, the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 It was chosen for its "versatility and image quality". From the cinematographer, he said: "As with most shoots, it was extremely important to be able to modify the unit settings quickly, even for the film crew. This camera gave us the opportunity to change the mounts and lenses, so that we could use the necessary optical systems in each case without too much prior preparation. In addition, the user interface made it easy to adjust the various parameters on the fly."

Advantages of using the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2

Sonneschein considers that the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 has been an extremely useful tool to be able to tell the story as it had been conceptualized, as the first seconds of the series reveal: "In the opening sequence of the pilot episode, I wanted to show the characters punching each other on the game table in slow motion. Zooming out of the face of Brandon, the game facilitator who is horrified, we see one of the players drastically hitting the board and throwing it to the ground along with the dice. The resolution and frame rate offered by the camera allowed us to film at 96 frames per second, thus achieving the necessary effect to exacerbate the comedic aspect of this sequence. The shots we captured in slow motion were some of my favorites."

The Storage of recorded material, among other aspects, was one of the most important considerations for Showalter, and for this reason he decided to record in Blackmagic RAW: "We wanted to achieve the best possible image quality, without losing sight of data management and post-production workflows. The ability to switch between consistent recording quality and constant data transfer speed made it easier to shoot on location, where the ability to change memory cards was limited, and in turn gave us the opportunity to choose when to get the most out of the camera, for example, when shooting visual effects shots. In addition, our goal was to achieve as much flexibility as possible during color grading and shooting in Blackmagic RAW in order to take full advantage of the capabilities offered by DaVinci Resolve."

The shoot involved many challenging moments, not the least of which is the favorite scene of Showalter, which featured "complex camera movement": "Brandon is horrified to see how this playful night turns into something absolutely chaotic. In this case, we moved the travelin back and simultaneously reduced the focal length, so that as the camera zooms away from Brandon's face, we can see the other players upset and fighting in a dramatic but silly way. Amanda and I were inspired by Caravaggio's old paintings. As a result, we shot at a high frame rate and increased the intensity of the light to make the scene more stylized and melodramatic. It took rehearsing and repeating several takes, but in the end we did it. Every time I watch this sequence I smile at it."

Editing and color grading with DaVinci Resolve

Sonnenschein was also responsible for Edit the pilot. Despite having no previous experience using the editing tools of DaVinci Resolve, highlighted how easy the transition to the program was: "It was my first time editing in Resolve, and I found it extremely simple. The interface is very simple to use. The Game It is, above all, a comedy, and as such, the accuracy of the cuts between one take and another is paramount. Making these cuts with millisecond accuracy was enjoyable for me in Resolve, rather than an arduous and exhausting task. The transitions I was able to pull off with Resolve brought out the humor in the scenes and helped make it clear that the action takes place in tandem in the real world and the fantasy world."

The colour, on the other hand, was the work of Todd Leykamp, who followed a style guide developed with Showalter in the pre-production phase. Color grading involved Distinguishing Between the Real World and the Fantasy Universe through changes in color saturation and lighting adjustments in specific scenes, such as those shot in slow motion: "Todd was able to increase the light intensity of the shots captured at a higher frequency to match the rest of the footage shot in the bar, which made it easier to use the images shot at the usual and higher frequencies," Sonnenschein explains.

Leykamp, looking back on the project, considers that one of the main challenges was the Lots of fantasy sequences and visual effects: "I developed a different style, of greater emphasis, but I made sure to use the same nodal structure as in the bar scene to maintain the concordance between the images. For digital visual effects shots, I frequently used Power Windows, in order to separate the different parts of the image and direct the viewer's attention to the dragon and the castle in particular. This made it easier to synchronize these scenes with the live action."

The pilot episode of The Game is available in YouTube.

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