Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

HBO Max Creates Our Flag Means Death Using Blackmagic Design

15/08/2022

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
LINK: https://creativecow.net/hbo-max-creates-our-flag-means-death-using-bla...
See more stories from creativecow

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/07/2026

Broadcast Management Group Appoints Kathy Samuels as Director of Creative Services

Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has announced the appointment of Kathy Samuels ...

01/07/2026

Shade Launches Custom Objects and Automations

Shade has announced Custom Objects and Automations, a platform expansion releasing June 29, 2026, that adds database and workflow automation capabilities direct...

01/07/2026

FOR-A America Adds Two Regional Sales Leaders

FOR-A America has announced the addition of Jaz Wray and Fernando Cruz to its U.S. sales team. Both report to Ernie Leon, Senior VP and Head of Sales and Strate...

01/07/2026

NBC Sports To Present All 15 MLB Games Nationally on July 4 Weekend Star-Spangled Sunday'

NBC Sports will air all 15 MLB games nationally on Sunday, July 5, across NBC, P...

01/07/2026

Clear-Com Upgrades Wireless Communications for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune

Clear-Com has announced a wireless communications upgrade for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, deploying FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems across both prod...

01/07/2026

England Deploys Sony STATSports Live GPS Tracking at FIFA World Cup 2026

England's performance team will use Sony's STATSports APEX GPS tracking system to monitor player physical data in real time during FIFA World Cup 2026 m...

01/07/2026

Adder Technology Appoints Neil Hillier as CEO

Adder Technology has announced the appointment of Neil Hillier as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Hillier succeeds Adrian Dickens, who transiti...

01/07/2026

Bitcentral Splits Into Two Companies: Bitcentral and ViewNexa

Bitcentral, Inc. has announced a strategic transaction creating two separate companies. The Production and Playout business will continue as Bitcentral, now own...

01/07/2026

DAZN48 Creator Initiative Draws Global Participation for FIFA World Cup 2026

DAZN has announced results from DAZN48, its creator initiative for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Launched in April 2026, the program received thousands of applicatio...

01/07/2026

IDEA To Induct Daktronics Sarah Rose Into Hall of Fame

Sarah Rose, VP, global services, Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT), will be inducted into the Information Display and Entertainment Association (IDEA) Hall of Fame at t...

01/07/2026

Gravity Media Delivers Distribution and Streaming Services for World Economic Forum in Dalian

Gravity Media and the World Economic Forum's production team provided broadc...

01/07/2026

Insight Productions Launches Insight Storm, a 53-Foot Esports Broadcast Truck

Insight Productions has announced the launch of Insight Storm, a 53-foot mobile broadcast unit built for esports production. The truck is built around a Ross Vi...

01/07/2026

ESPN Announces America 250 Content Initiatives Across Platforms

ESPN has announced several content initiatives marking America's 250th anniversary, as part of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Celebrates America pro...

01/07/2026

At Cosm, FIFA World Cup 2026 Is a Coming-of-Age Moment as Shared Reality Becomes Bucket-List Entertainment

Eleven production kits, REMI workflows, and cloud distribution bring 40 World Cu...

01/07/2026

SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Draws Industry Leaders to Denver for Deep Dive on Evolving RSN Landscape

The conference also discussed the opportunities offered an industry that is endu...

01/07/2026

Mountain West Launches MW+ Streaming Platform Powered by Kiswe

The Mountain West Conference has announced the launch of MW , a direct-to-consumer streaming platform powered by Kiswe. The platform will carry live Mountain We...

01/07/2026

Tracktion unleash Waveform 14 DAW

New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...

01/07/2026

The Crow Hill Company release Brackish Pads

Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...

01/07/2026

Sweetwater & Andertons launch Darkglass Anagram Limited Edition Guitar Essentials

Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals Sweetwater and Andertons M...

01/07/2026

Call for NFVF funding applications to attend Film Festivals and Markets taking place from 01 August 2026 - 31 October 2026

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...

01/07/2026

FCC Plans to Auction 160 MHZ of Midband Spectrum

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

CBS Miami Launches Hope 4 Venezuela' Relief Effort

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

Riedel, SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive Integration

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

Gray Media to Buy American Spirit Media's TV Stations

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

Cascade PBS Launches App Solution Provider 'Local Public

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camerabag collection for modern hybrid creators

Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camera bag collection for modern h...

01/07/2026

Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition

Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition Brie Clayton July 1, 2026 0 Comments Volunteers use ATEM Mini Pro, Blackmagic Desig...

01/07/2026

Riedel, SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration WithSimplyLive Integration

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

PlayBox Technology Publishes State of Broadcast Infrastru...

PlayBox Technology has published State of Broadcast Infrastructure 2026, an in-depth industry research report examining the technologies, operational challenges...

01/07/2026

Jigsaw24 Appoints Alan Henry as Head of Sales for Media a...

LONDON, UK, 1 JULY Jigsaw24 has appointed Alan Henry as Head of Sales for Media and Entertainment, reinforcing its continued investment in helping broadcaster...

01/07/2026

Content Vault Partner with XMA to Distribute Universal Fi...

Content Vault, the patent-pending secure content distribution platform protecting high-value media from disclosures, theft and unauthorised access, today announ...

01/07/2026

Bitcentral Announces Strategic Evolution to Create Two F...

Bitcentral, Inc. a leading provider of enterprise software and digital media solutions for news, sports and entertainment broadcasters, as well as streaming pla...

01/07/2026

Adder Technology Names Neil Hillier as CEO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

IBCAP Opens New Anti-Piracy Lab in Denver

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

FCC Plans to Auction 160 MHZ of Mid-Band Spectrum

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

CBS Miami Launches 'Hope 4 Venezuela' Relief Effort

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

Groundbreaking First Nations Screen Business Accelerator launched through national partnership

Groundbreaking First Nations Screen Business Accelerator launched through nation...

01/07/2026

Chyron Launches the All-New Chyron Academy: A Reimagined, Hands-On Learning Experience for Live Broadcast Production

Chyron Launches the All-New Chyron Academy: A Reimagined, Hands-On Learning Expe...

01/07/2026

Amplium Captures Kawasaki Brave Thunders Game with Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive

Amplium Captures Kawasaki Brave Thunders Game with Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersiv...

01/07/2026

Boris FX Optics Expands Plugin Support to Apple Photos, Capture One, and Affinity Photo

Boris FX Optics Expands Plugin Support to Apple Photos, Capture One, and Affinit...

01/07/2026

UKTV appoints Matt Berry as General Manager to lead brand and marketing strategy

UKTV has today announced the appointment of Matt Berry to the newly created role of General Manager - Marketing, effective 1 July. Matt will take on this senio...

01/07/2026

Fussy asks Britain one simple question: Are you a Tosser?

Sky Zero Footprint Fund-backed TV campaign featuring Deborah Meaden challenges consumers to rethink everyday bathroom wasteWednesday 1 July 2026 Fussy asks Bri...

01/07/2026

New Sky research reveals postcode lottery leaving girls behind in sport

Constituency-level analysis reveals where girls miss out most on sport - and where targeted action could unlock more than £640 million in economic and health be...

01/07/2026

Riedel and SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive Integration

Wuppertal July 1, 2026 Riedel and SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive IntegrationRiedel Communications today announced an expanded collaboration wit...

01/07/2026

Apple Creator Studio gets smarter, faster, and more connected - UPDATE - Posted on 30 June 2026

Apple today introduced power-packed updates to Apple Creator Studio, a groundbre...