RTVCPlay series 'El Inquisidor', created with Blackmagic Design

The Colombian mystery series, produced by Valencia Producciones и RTVCPlay, El Inquisidor, was shot entirely on Blackmagic Design’s Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro models.

The series is about a young writer, Andres Erazo, who investigates the murders of missing women throughout the city for the newspaper El Inquisidor. In interactive mode, the viewer can help Andres solve the crime by taking on the role of an investigative journalist. By clicking on different objects, finding hidden clues and solving puzzles, users have the chance to unlock levels and access exclusive content during the course of the series.

Оператор Rubén Fernández relied on six Карманная кинокамера 4K units. Fernandez comments that “the camera’s affordability allowed us to include more units in our workflow and configure each for a specific function.” This helped the team to capture as much content as possible, which is extremely necessary for an interactive series. For example, several helmet-mounted cameras were used to record character perspectives that the viewer can later explore.

“Time is of the essence when you’re capturing so much content to support an interactive show,” says Fernández. “Because the affordability provided us with so many cameras, our directors were able to focus more of their time on set, rather than waiting for the camera department to break down one setup to put together another.”

“I was especially impressed by the Pocket Cinema Cameras’ superb low light performance,” he adds. “This crime drama features a lot of shadow and low light situations, and the camera’s ability to record Blackmagic RAW helped specifically when it came time for post.”

Fernandez and his team also took advantage of the compact size of the cameras, as the production team often placed the units in odd or awkward locations, for example, in complex car chase scenes. For such shots in particular, they relied on the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro model and its integrated neutral density filters, which offer an extremely compact and minimalist system without sacrificing aesthetics or image quality.

“We didn’t want to use external filters or matte boxes on a moving car rig,” explains Fernandez. “The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro’s built in ND filters allowed us to quickly change the amount of light entering the camera, all without the extra gear.”

Editing and color grading

For editing and color grading, Valencia Producciones relied on Студия DaVinci Resolve. “It was incredibly helpful to have so many tools in just one software,” added Fernández. “We didn’t have to jump from one program to another to get things done.”

“We took huge advantage of the collaborative workflow in DaVinci Resolve Studio as it enabled our editors to work on the same project, at the same time. This helped our concept editors, directors and producers have much shorter response times and move the project along quicker,” he says.

The DaVinci Resolve Studio cut module offered many benefits, as the team had the ability to crop and zoom, use the sync tray and preview content, among other tasks. Regarding color grading, Fernandez acknowledges that “we really enjoyed having the ability to group clips and make general adjustments easily and quickly. We were able to get our job done and move on to the next scene without a hassle.”

“From filming to editing, our Блэкмэджик Дизайн workflow helped us during every step of making ‘El Inquisidor.’ We just got nominated for Transmedia Project at the Premios TAL, which recognize the best in Latin American television, and we couldn’t be more excited. This shows the incredible results we’ve been able to achieve with this project and the warm support we’ve gotten from the public,” concludes Fernández.