Blackmagic Design announced recently that Chalk Warfare 4.0, the newest installment of popular YouTube series Chalk Warfare, was produced using a full Blackmagic Design workflow, from production through post. This includes using URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2, Pocket Cinema Camera 4K shooting in Blackmagic RAW for production and DaVinci Resolve Studio for all of the film's post production.
The concept of Chalk Warfare is simple: Teams draw chalk weapons inspired by popular games and media, which become real when pulled off the wall, and the war begins. The first installment was limited to four guys in a park, but by episode 3, twelve players fight over a post apocalyptic warehouse set, drawing items such as space portals, chalk drones, energy weapons and even an Iron Man-esque full body suit.
10 years after the first episode, the Chalk Warfare series has garnered more than 125 million views. Throughout the process, the team found ways to increase the quality, by embracing new technologies as they became available. One of the things that made Chalk 3.0 look so much better is we switched from DSLRs to the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5K, said Wickert. It gave it a much more cinematic, polished look.
As plans began for Chalk Warfare 4.0, the team felt, as they had for each installment, the need to advance not only the story but also the technology used to tell it. A key element was to continue to embrace Blackmagic Design. It was always a fantastic experience working with Blackmagic products, said Wickert. We get so much quality and performance, and all for a competitive price. We felt we could improve the look of our films, capturing far more dynamic range and providing more options in post.
Chalk Warfare 4.0 producer Micah Malinics was excited to work with the newest cameras as well. Blackmagic's technology has been something I've been fascinated with since discovering them in college. I wasn't able to get hands on experience until the original URSA Mini Pro 4.6K came out, but I was blown away with the picture quality it packed in its size and price. As a producer, I knew this was going to be a game changer for cinematic YouTubers.
Production incorporated both the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2, as well as the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. For a small production, the flexible form factors allowed them to be more efficient. We would utilize a two camera setup to shoot double coverage on the flagship action scenes, said Malinics, and at times even splitting into two units to maximize the day, since some of our locations we only had a day or two to capture everything. The URSA Mini Pro also allowed us to use some of the cinema grade glass and peripherals that we already had access to, which continued to help us push our cinematic capacity on this project. We also used the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K for a lot of our behind the scenes footage. It's easy and versatile, and cuts well against URSA Mini Pro footage.
Chalk Warfare 4.0 truly took production to a new level, with shoots taking place in Los Angeles and South Carolina, and included an aerial unit for a sky diving sequence. One of the best things about Blackmagic is their different form factors. We could shoot a standard production unit on a set with URSA Mini Pros, then strap the smaller Pocket Cinema Cameras to sky divers, without any fear of the footage mismatching. The Blackmagic quality is consistent throughout their cinema products. We couldn't find that in any other brand.
A powerful aspect of shooting with Blackmagic Design products was the use of Blackmagic RAW. Using Blackmagic RAW really improved the look of the film, said Wickert. Especially outside, our production was largely naturally lit. Blackmagic RAW gave us the range needed to have options when it came to the environments we were shooting in. And being behind the rig on set, I enjoyed this because I am very run and gun it allows us to record the data needed to pull detail where we need it when it comes time to color. It was nice knowing the highlights were being captured, and I could focus on moving quickly to shoot our film.
With visual effects a major star in the project, it was important to capture as high a quality image as possible. Blackmagic RAW was the perfect solution to allow us to capture all of the necessary color and pixel information for the VFX work, while making it economically and logistically possible, without needing terabytes of storage on set, said Malinics. Being able to utilize all of the information on the 4.6K sensor and have real time playback with those files in DaVinci Resolve Studio, without the need of proxies, also helped quite a bit on the backend. As YouTubers, we tend to work pretty quick and dirty at times, so Blackmagic RAW helped us keep a small and fast workflow while having an exceptionally greater range of information to use than our previous DSLRs.
Post production was completed largely in DaVinci Resolve Studio, which Wickert found fast and efficient. A big issue we've face with software programs and editors in the past is that the software didn't utilize the full performance of our computers. Just because you may have great hardware, it doesn't mean your post production software is utilizing it. This film has a combination of extensive live action as well as many full CG sequences with no practical footage (aside from assets) so having a quick editor that is multithreaded and efficient that could handle all this material was a must. Resolve was up to the task, and truly made our workflow more efficient.
In true collaborative style, Chalk Warfare incorporated not only crazy sets and sequences, but combined a massive amount of computer animation work from both Wickert and in house visual effects artist Brendan Forde, as well as a variety of artists from across the country. Work included
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
30/04/2024
European telecom satellite company SES announced today that it is acquiring rival Intelsat for $3.1 billion. The deal, unanimously approved by both companies...
30/04/2024
Bob Bakish, chief executive of Paramount stepped down on Monday, effective immediately. Bakish, who was a staunch ally of Shari Redstone, controlling shareholde...
30/04/2024
Hotspring said the breakthrough had been achieved through the acceleration of machine learning technology
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 30, 2024
Ho...
30/04/2024
Speaking about the deal, Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of SES, said: it will bring value-added, efficient, and reliable offerings for both companies media customers
By Je...
30/04/2024
Paramount said the Office of the CEO is working with its board to develop a comp...
30/04/2024
LOUISVILLE, Ky. In another sign that broadcasters are finally using NextGen TV broadcasts to offer viewers new features instead of simply simulcasting existing ...
30/04/2024
OKLAHOMA CITY The Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame will induct Blaise Labbe, a group news director for Sinclair Broadcast Group, May 2 at the 54th Anniversary I...
30/04/2024
ATLANTA and ENGLEWOOD, Colo. Cox Media Group and Dish have ended a dispute over retransmission fees that lasted nearly a year and a half with a new multi-year ...
30/04/2024
Video transport solution provider LTN has announced that it is working with TelevisaUnivision to help the Spanish-language media giant migrate to IP-based video...
30/04/2024
ALAMEDA, Calif. Clear-Com has released details about how it played a pivotal role in the seamless coverage of the recent solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 by NBC K...
30/04/2024
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company is adding Seth Walters to its sales leadership team as head of CTV sales, effective April 29....
30/04/2024
The force was strong at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Saturday night, April 27, 2024, as the night netted the ballpark's first official sellout crowd of...
30/04/2024
Revry, a network celebrating queer culture. said its second annual NewFront presentation will be a cabaret-type spectacle showcasing the spirit of the LGBTQ+ co...
30/04/2024
Family Entertainment Television (FETV) said that the Western series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp will be joining the network's afternoon lineup startin...
30/04/2024
Bob Bakish, president and CEO of Paramount Global, will depart the company as Paramount explores a merger, according to numerous published reports. The reports ...
30/04/2024
Value accretive transaction underpinned by 2.4 billion (NPV) of readily executable synergies.
Creating a stronger multi-orbit operator with 60% of revenue in...
30/04/2024
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Order intake: 5.0 billion, up 47% ( 46% on an organic basis1 )
Sales: 4.4 billion, up 9.8% ( 7.9% on an organic basis)
All f...
29/04/2024
(L-R) Mark Gatiss and Polly Walker on set
Monday 29 April 2024 Further casting is now confirmed for Bookish (6x70), a brand-new drama created by Emmy Award-wi...
29/04/2024
A groundbreaking initiative offering training and mentoring to 30 women journali...
29/04/2024
Even though we've been doing this for over 40 years, a spark of excitement r...
29/04/2024
L3Harris is delivering manpack radios to U.S. Army CH-47 Chinooks as part of the Air-to-Ground Networking Radio program, providing seamless, resilient communica...
29/04/2024
He writes in Defense One: Despite the near-universal acknowledgement throughout the U.S. government and defense industrial base of the criticality of resilient ...
29/04/2024
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/04/2024
Codemill aims to revolutionize media workflow efficiency at this years NAB Show by introducing Just-In-Time (JIT) playback technology in Accurate.Video Validate...
29/04/2024
April 29, 2024
-- TF1 Chooses Broadpeak to Power Targeted Advertising for New...
29/04/2024
LOS ANGELES Allen Media Group (AMG) has partnered with LG Electronics to bring 223 Local Now FAST channels to LG's free streaming service, LG Channels, avai...
29/04/2024
OTTAWA Ross Video has announced the introduction of Raiden, a data-driven weather graphics software that combines data gathering, processing, and visualization ...
29/04/2024
Panalux, a leading rental provider of lighting and power solutions for the motion-picture industry and part of Panavision's end-to-end service offerings for...
29/04/2024
Cobalt Iron Inc., a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced that it has received a patent on its technology for dynamic autho...
29/04/2024
SDVI, the leading platform provider for cloud-native media supply chains, today announced that Rally Access Workstation, a fully managed solution for editing in...
29/04/2024
Premier Sports, a premium sports broadcaster, has selected QuickLink's Remote Commentary solution for introducing professional, high-quality remote commenta...
29/04/2024
Glookast has chosen Jigsaw24 Media as the only UK channel partner to represent their portfolio of ingest and workflow optimisation products. The agreement, sign...
29/04/2024
Clear-Com played a pivotal role in the seamless coverage of the recent solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Leveraging its cutting-edge Eclipse HX Digital Matrix i...
29/04/2024
PlayBox Neo will promote its complete range of television channel management, graphic branding and playout solutions to EMEA region media content owners and bro...
29/04/2024
Lingo, RuPaul's word-twisting game show, returns for season two on CBS Friday, May 24. Two episodes air that night, and stream on Paramount Plus, too....
29/04/2024
ESPN and Amazon Prime Video are reportedly close to scoring television rights to the National Basketball Association, according to published reports....
29/04/2024
Judge Judy and Hot Bench, CBS Media Ventures' genre-leading court shows, have been renewed through the 2025-26 TV season in more than 95% of the country, Gr...
29/04/2024
Premier Sports, an Irish-based premium sports broadcaster, has selected QuickLink's Remote Commentary solution for introducing professional, high-quality re...
29/04/2024
The awards celebrate the craft of behind-the-scenes TV talent and the best programmes of 2023
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 29, 2024
The awards cel...
29/04/2024
The team at Milk had to create and deliver the VFX and environment work for the royal residences featured in the drama from scratch
By Jenny Priestley
Publis...
29/04/2024
CEO Bob Bakish is expected to leave the company as early as today, with a new leadership committee likely to run the company on an interim basis
By Jenny Pries...
29/04/2024
Albena Ivanova, director, media and entertainment and strategic products at CHAOS talks to TVBEurope about her route into the industry
By TVBEurope Staff
Pub...
29/04/2024
The acquisition gives Grand Technix the opportunity to expand its footprint in the audio visual and broadcast technology sectors
By Jenny Priestley
Published...
29/04/2024
29 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces James J. Robinson's debut feature First Light
First Light
Principal Photography is underway on Firs...
29/04/2024
Capitol Broadcasting recently became the inaugural company honored with inductio...
29/04/2024
Tonight on House of Zwide: Zanele tells a surprised Zola that Faith fully suppor...
29/04/2024
Tonight on Scandal: A line is crossed and a mother starts to lose focusDon't miss Friday, 26 April's riveting episode of South African soapie Scandal! o...
Blackmagic Design announced recently that Chalk Warfare 4.0, the newest installment of popular YouTube series Chalk Warfare, was produced using a full Blackmagic Design workflow, from production through post. This includes using URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2, Pocket Cinema Camera 4K shooting in Blackmagic RAW for production and DaVinci Resolve Studio for all of the film's post production.
