Jake Fruia
Veteran director of photography, Stephen Jackson, talks about how he uses the Blackmagic Cinema Camera on the hit show, and how it’s benefited ‘Once Upon A Time’ through the past four seasons.
Having served as the show’s primary DP for it’s four season run, Vancouver based Stephen Jackson has an impressive resume of tv and film. His list of credits include director of photography on V, Cabin In The Woods, Hellboy 3, and 4400. Jackson describes how they decided to go with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera for ‘Once Upon A Time’, and how well it’s worked for them:
“When the show I worked on was thinking about replacing our aging cameras we looked at many possibilities. One of my camera people had been at NAB and seen the Blackmagic cameras and was very impressed. So after a little research I settled on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. As it was a replacement for our “crash cam” we bought the camera with the EF mount to continue with our Canon lenses,” said Jackson.
“I was so impressed with the ease of working with this camera and the images! The dynamic range and the colour palette is outstanding. The size and ease of mounting is also very helpful. We use it in cars and and on horses, dig a hole on the road and let horses run over it! The operators can just attach the handle to the top mounts and run with it. Love this camera so much we bought a second one with the PL mount for inserts!”
As always, for more info on Blackmagic’s wonderful array of cameras, be sure to visit BlackmagicDesign.com
