Jake Fruia
Yesterday, Oscar winning documentarian Daniel Junge and Johnny Knoxville’s film “Being Evel” made its world premiere at the Sundance film festival. “Being Evel” was shot on Blackmagic Cinema Cameras, and post production completed with Teranex 2D Processors and DaVinci Resolve.
“Being Evel” chronicles legendary daredevil Evel Knievel’s life and “his impact on culture”. Director Daniel Junge (Saving Face, Beyond the Brick: A Lego Brickumentary) and Co-Creator Johnny Knoxville (Jackass) used four Blackmagic Cinema Cameras for the shoot in which they take a “…candid look at American daredevil and icon Robert “Evel” Knievel, while also reflecting on our voracious public appetite for heroes and spectacle.”
“With Evel Knievel, most people know his name, but many people do not know his life. When making this film, we wanted to capture the spirit of Evel in a way that would do him justice. Blackmagic’s products let us bring to life the vision we had for the film and do it in a way that was efficient and within our budget,” said Junge.
Beyond being just simple interviews, many were done across the globe in front of green screens for compositing later with the archival footage and effects. As Blackmagic explains, “Each interview was shot from various angles using four Blackmagic Cinema Cameras, which were then composited into a single unique backdrop for the film”. Junge expands on that by praising the cameras’ color space, as well as the level of detail captured that they were able to work with in post.
Blackmagic’s Teranex 2D Processor allowed the crew to convert all of their footage so as to help marry the freshly shot interviews with the older footage from the 50s. This let them utilize footage from numerous sources, “…everything from high end digital to Super8 and VHS tapes,” says Milkhaus compositor James Durée, who handled the films post production. The Teranex also allowed them to not only color balance the footage, but up convert the older footage to 1080p. Finally, DaVinci Resolve was used to color correct the whole film, as well as help create LUTs during production to keep a consistent feel throughout the shoot.
“Being Evel” premiered just yesterday at Sundance, and is Directed and Co-Created by Oscar winning Daniel Junge and popular actor/entertainer Johnny Knoxville. For more information on the film, see Blackmagic’s press release below and visit www.Sundance.org/projects/Being-Evel
Fremont, CA – January 23, 2015 – Blackmagic Design today announced that the film “Being Evel” was shot using Blackmagic Cinema Cameras, and post production was completed using Teranex 2D Processors and DaVinci Resolve. Co created by “Jackass” star Johnny Knoxville, along with director, co creator and Oscar winner Daniel Junge, the documentary will make its world premier at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Millions know the man, but few know his story. In BEING EVEL, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Daniel Junge (Saving Face) and actor/producer Johnny Knoxville take a candid look at American daredevil and icon Robert “Evel” Knievel, while also reflecting on our voracious public appetite for heroes and spectacle.
To capture the life of one of the most colorful celebrities of the 20th century, director Daniel Junge, who won a 2012 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short and a 2012 Emmy for Best Documentary for his film “Saving Face,” shot over 60 interviews to compliment a host of rich archival materials. To accomplish this, Junge and the film’s producers at HeLo chose to use Blackmagic Cinema Cameras as the main cameras for the production, as well as Teranex 2D Processors for extensive conversions and DaVinci Resolve for color correction.
“With Evel Knievel, most people know his name, but many people do not know his life. When making this film, we wanted to capture the spirit of Evel in a way that would do him justice. Blackmagic’s products let us bring to life the vision we had for the film and do it in a way that was efficient and within our budget,” said Junge.
Shot with Blackmagic Cinema Cameras in ProRes, the film’s interviews were done in various locations across the country in green screen studios so that compositing on each shot could be done later with archival footage and effects. Each interview was shot from various angles using four Blackmagic Cinema Cameras, which were then composited into a single unique backdrop for the film.
“We needed four cameras with the same high latitude, that could shoot in ProRes and be easily packed up as we scrambled from interview to interview. Most of the shots had multiple composites in them, and we had a large number of different types of environments with each set,” said Junge. “With the Blackmagic cameras, the color space of each was great, and we were able to get beautiful images. The cameras captured a huge amount of information which came right out of the camera ready to use in post. Having four cameras performing at that level and at that price was amazing.”
Once the interviews were captured, newly shot and archival footage going back to the 1950s had to be converted using the Teranex 2D Processor. All footage was sent through the Teranex 2D Processor, where an initial color balance was completed, and then footage was converted to 1080p. Final color correction was done using DaVinci Resolve, which was also used prior to shooting interviews to create LUTs to ensure that all of the interviews had a specific look and feel.
“Every piece of footage we used went through the Teranex. The Teranex was quick and we easily pushed our way through footage no matter what sort of format we were working with. And we got footage in everything from high end digital to Super8 and VHS tapes,” said James Durée, compositor of Milkhaus, who provided post production services for the film. “In particular, being able to color balance in the Teranex saved a lot of time down the line and made final color correction with Resolve much more efficient.”
