That Sugar Film, a documentary by director Damon Gameau which
recently premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, was
shot using the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and Production Camera 4K. The film was
graded using DaVinci Resolve.
The film aims to uncover how sugar affects a healthy body, and features Gameau
consuming only foods that are supposedly ‘healthy’. The experiment takes him
around the world to visit various people and grocery stores. The production
schedule was divided into two parts: a global travel shoot with minimal equipment;
and an intense set of green screen productions, which resulted in 200 VFX shots
interspersed throughout the film. For the travel based footage, the team primarily
shot on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, while using the Production Camera 4K for
green screen shots.
Cinematographer Judd Overton said it was really important to make the film
accessible, educational and entertaining for both children and adults, which meant
making it as visual as possible. This meant including a large amount of green
screen work and VFX shots, and so travelling was done with an entire production kit
in their backpacks.
“For me, the Blackmagic cameras are about the latitude and great image I can get
in such a small, easy to carry design,’ said Overton. “With the 40 day worldwide
road trip we were on, I shot in ProRes and mostly handheld or on my shoulder with
a small rig. It really was amazing to be able to throw a couple of cinema quality
cameras in my backpack and just go to where the shots needed to happen.’
For the green screen productions Overton shot in RAW on the Production Camera
4K. He explained that he was looking for high resolution and the ability to shoot in
RAW to get everything he could out of the shots. Once footage was shot, the offline
edit was completed at production company Madman Production, with online, VFX
and final grading using DaVinci Resolve at VFX head Seth Larney’s home studio in
Australia.
“The image quality, latitude and ability to easily grade and push around footage
with the Blackmagic cameras were perfect for the film. And I love how the cameras
made the entire post workflow so easy,’ said Overton. “I have been a Blackmagic
camera customer since the first camera shipped, and this film really showed how
powerful they are for getting amazing images and being flexible enough to use in
any shooting environment.’
Watch The Sugar Film
trailer
