HBO Max Creates Our Flag Means Death Using Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton August 15, 2022
0 Comments
Blackmagic Design today announced that the HBO Max series Our Flag Means Death used extensive Blackmagic Design products to create the stunning imagery for the pirate comedy.
After trading in the seemingly charmed life of a gentleman for one of a swashbuckling buccaneer, Stede Bonnet, played by Rhys Darby, becomes captain of the pirate ship Revenge. Struggling to earn the respect of his potentially mutinous crew, Bonnet's fortunes change after a fateful run in with the infamous Captain Blackbeard. Created by David Jenkins and starring Darby and Taika Waititi, Our Flag Means Death is executive produced by Waititi, who also directed the pilot, alongside Showrunner Jenkins, Producers Garrett Basch, and Dan Halsted.
One of the earliest challenges in creating the pirate adventure was visualizing the extensive storyline set on the high seas. Virtual Production Designer Sam Nicholson, ASC and his visual effects (VFX) team at Stargate Studios were tasked with using virtual production to make principal photography both manageable and cost effective. Nicholson's solution was to capture ultra high resolution imagery of actual ocean footage, stitching together the multiple plates, then displaying them on a massive 30 foot by 160 foot LED wall that would surround the practical pirate ship built on set.
We tend to take impossible tasks and make them possible, said Nicholson. How to shoot stable 48K 360 degree plates from a boat off of Puerto Rico is complex problem solving to the extreme.
The task was challenging on several levels, including how to acquire the footage, manage the massive amounts of data, process it all seamlessly, and then deliver the imagery to set. Nicholson focused on a single pipeline solution using Blackmagic Design to create a streamlined approach. To start, he chose Blackmagic RAW for the most flexible camera format and planned to run it entirely through DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, grading, VFX and audio post production software for processing to maintain the most efficient pipeline possible.
Nicholson's team started tests by shooting HDR plates with a 360 degree, eight camera stabilized rig using Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro digital film cameras placed at 45 degree increments. To cover 360 degrees, a lot of processing is involved in creating a seamless image between the cameras, added Nicholson.
The cameras were controlled using an ATEM Mini Extreme live production switcher, which was able to simultaneously trigger recording on all cameras, while also ensuring each camera had matching timecode.
As the process evolved through testing, the final plate shoot in Puerto Rico brought a refined approach, using a 270 degree multi camera array with five Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K digital film cameras mounted on a stabilizing head, providing better control and even higher resolution. The Stargate Studios plate shooting team synchronized the five cameras for a total horizontal resolution of 60K.
The Blackmagic 12K cameras gave us very high overall resolution with very efficient data output, explained Nicholson. Each take was five minutes, times five cameras at 12K resolution. So, the daily data transfer of camera originals from high speed SSDs to mass storage on location was a great solution.
Shooting in Blackmagic RAW, the team was able to view real time playback in DaVinci Resolve Studio at multiple resolutions. Blackmagic RAW filled a critical niche in our high resolution imaging, continued Nicholson. With any imaging system it's critical to pick the right workflow, the right gear and the right approach to data management. Recording in camera is easy. But then you have to offload it, transfer it, transcode it, distribute it, color time and process it to make it usable on set. Blackmagic RAW was very efficient in addition to looking great.
In preparation for first unit photography, the Stargate Studios team processed the footage, stitching plates together in DaVinci Resolve Studio's Fusion page, and then created a live feed from multiple DaVinci Resolve Studio seats through the ATEM Constellation 8K live production switcher. The final color timed composite was then fed into Epic's Unreal Engine for camera tracking and off axis distribution to the 20K LED wall. While the live feed worked well, Nicholson found it valuable to record the final graded imagery to a disk based recorder for quicker access. The HyperDeck Extreme 8K HDR recorder played a critical role of recording the massive resolution images from DaVinci Resolve Studio and making them ready for instant playback.
While a pirate comedy like Our Flag Means Death seems like an unlikely a project to embrace virtual production, the key for Nicholson was telling a convincing story, whether the viewer was aware of the magic behind the scenes or not. Virtual production comes in all sizes and shapes, said Nicholson. It can be one OLED monitor all the way up to an LED wall the size of a football field. And ultimately, if it feels real, it's better for everybody, from the actors to the director and, of course the viewer. But at any level, if you look at it and say to yourself, this looks real,' then we've done our job.
###
Enjoying the news? Sign up for the Creative COW Newsletter! Sign up for the Creative COW newsletter and get weekly updates on industry news, forum highlights, jobs, inspirational tutorials, tips, burning questions, and more! Receive bulletins from the largest, longest-running community dedicated to supporting professionals working in film, video, and audio.
Enter your email address, a first and last name, and let us know what you'd like to see more of in the message!
.grecaptcha-badge{visibility:hidden}.meow-contact-for
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
08/09/2026
Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced a multi-year agreement with A E...
08/09/2026
Spectra Logic today announced the availability of Media Insight, a new capabilit...
08/09/2026
Rogers Communications and Quebecor have announced a 12-year sublicensing agreement for French-language national NHL games beginning with the 2026-27 season. TVA...
08/09/2026
Skyline Communications and Bridge Technologies will demonstrate two integrations...
08/09/2026
Boland Communications will make the European debut of its 4K55HDR7SNB 55-inch super-narrow-bezel monitor at IBC2026 (Stand 12.C57, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Ateme and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a collaboration comb...
08/09/2026
Haivision has joined the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme as part of t...
08/09/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced price reductions on its PYXIS 6K and Cinema Camera 6K models, effective immediately through Blackmagic Design resellers worldwid...
08/09/2026
AI-Media will demonstrate its LEXI Suite at IBC2026 (Booth 5.C34, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin and Ad Insertion Platform (AIP) have announced the first live deploymen...
08/09/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate story-centric media workflows at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), connecting newsroom production, content ma...
08/09/2026
M2A Media and Ateme have announced a partnership integrating Ateme's video processing solutions into M2A Media's MediaToAnywhere platform for live sport...
08/09/2026
Ikegami will exhibit at IBC2026 (Stand 12.A31, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), including a Day 1 introduction of new cameras in the UNICAM XE series. Additiona...
08/09/2026
Broadcast industry analysts will be gathering plenty of insights at the 2026 IBC Show this weekend in Amsterdam, but Caretta Research has offered up some though...
08/09/2026
SENSHI and DAZN have announced a global broadcast partnership that will bring SENSHI's live events free to viewers in more than 200 markets. The partnership...
08/09/2026
New architecture built with Evertz will bring 4K HDR to Monday Night Football, N...
08/09/2026
Built for rap producers, by rap producers
Sauceware Audio, the independent plug-in company founded by Grammy-nominated producer Jacob (Travis Scott, 21 Sava...
08/09/2026
Classic Sound Techniques design revived
Warm Audio's latest release delivers a meticulous recreation of the preamp circuitry employed by the Sound Techn...
08/09/2026
Latest soft synth inspired by the Memorymoog
XILS Lab have just launched a software instrument that draws its inspiration from Moog's iconic Memorymoog,...
08/09/2026
The Airport Chaplain takes off as SBS's biggest launch of 2026
8 September, 2026
Media releases
1.67 million viewers on National Total TV to date
Best...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Mo-Sys, the world-leading developer of virtual production, camera robotics and image tracking technology, has completed a business restructuring, which has incl...
08/09/2026
New York, September 8, 2026 The TSAmediaHUB audiovisual contribution and distribution infrastructure developed by Telef nica's Audiovisual Services area re...
08/09/2026
Expanded Riyadh operation brings Asharq and Thmanyah services together on a resilient on-premises Pebble platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, content mana...
08/09/2026
Techex, a pioneering leader in live video workflows, will showcase its broadest software feature set to date at IBC 2026 (Stand 2.B45), extending its lead in so...
08/09/2026
Visitors to Grass Valley's booth at IBC2026 will be introduced to new Framelight X capabilities that connect content acquisition, management, editing and pu...
08/09/2026
BCNEXXT will showcase the latest evolution of Vipe at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B09), introducing a series of innovations designed to deliver higher-quality audience exp...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Ad Insertion Platform (AIP), a leading innovator in advanced ad insertion technologies, to...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics and augmented and virtual production, is announcing a major package of enhancements to its Suite 7 soft...
08/09/2026
Big Blue Marble is supporting TDF, French infrastructure and network operator, broadcasting Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and radio services, as a techno...
08/09/2026
Agents work inside a single production environment, from incoming wire copy to a live studio show...
08/09/2026
Building on their strategic partnership, Ceeblue and Layercake make the unthinkable possible: scalable sub-second streaming over standard DRM, SSAI, and CDN wor...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics, augmented and virtual production, is completing the environment for fast-paced broadcast production wi...
08/09/2026
A SaaS portfolio built to work together, helping operators grow audiences, monetise smarter and run leaner, on their own terms
At IBC 2026 (stand 1.B49) Synam...
08/09/2026
Accedo, global provider of video streaming software and services, has been selected by PlayOn Sports, a national leader in high school sports technology, to exp...
08/09/2026
LiveU, the leader in live IP-video solutions, is enabling The Associated Press to take global newsgathering to the next stage with intelligent connectivity and ...
08/09/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced the latest evolution of it...
08/09/2026
Compact, power-efficient X Platform performance brings broadcast-grade reliability and ultra-low latency to space-constrained remote production (REMI) workflows...
08/09/2026
Zixi, the leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Kiloview, a leading provider of professional IP video encoding and decoding solutions, t...
08/09/2026
Collaboration gives content owners scalable CDN capacity and broadcasters enhanced flexibility, including for C-band transition planning
Quortex today announce...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Telos Alliance and Pluxbox Announce Dynamic Media Facility Integration Partnersh...
08/09/2026
J nger Audio Showcases Industry-First S-ADM Cloud Workflow at IBC 2026
Search
Dolby, MainConcept, Techex and J nger Audio will showcase the industry's ...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Sky Go gets a major upgrade for Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers
Today, Sky launches a new version of the Sky Go app for Sky Glass ...
08/09/2026
Documentary thriller simulating a Russian attack on UK soil will culminate in a live final episode reuniting the playersTuesday 8 September 2026
Trailer releas...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Jamie Demetriou and Amelia Dimoldenberg to host next t...
08/09/2026
Wuppertal September 8, 2026
Riedel Introduces New OnAir Headset PlatformRiedel Communications today announced the launch of its new OnAir headset platform, a...
HBO Max Creates Our Flag Means Death Using Blackmagic Design 
