The Vampire Next Door Created with Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and DaVinci Resolve
Brie Clayton May 20, 2024
0 Comments
Blackmagic Design today announced that New Zealand Son Films used Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K digital film camera to shoot The Vampire Next Door horror film. The film, which was also graded using DaVinci Resolve and Blackmagic Cloud, is the latest in a string of popular horror and comedy films from the prolific filmmakers, who have made 16 feature films since 2015 that have been viewed by millions of people around the world.
Starring Alex Matthews, Jessica Ferguson and Bella Chadwick, The Vampire Next Door is a coming of age horror film that follows 20 year old Cameron as he discovers he has a female vampire, Victoria, living next door who enlists him to help her avenge the murder of a former lover. Cameron, who is also desperately in love with his high school crush Diane, reluctantly agrees and goes along on the adventure, until he discovers all is not what it seems.
The film from Sean and Taylor King, the father and son founders of New Zealand Son Films, is now available around the world on a number of global streaming services. Together they have written, directed and produced all of the company's films, which can be seen in 160 countries on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Tubi, Flix, Plex, and 16 other platforms.
Both filmmakers take pride in creating films with blockbuster quality visuals at independent film budgets, mixing physical and digital effects and using different visual styles, such as shooting their recent film noir Devil in a Dress in black and white.
Sean described their process for creating the look of the film: For The Vampire Next Door,' we wanted to create our own lore. Without spoiling anything, our goal was to have Victoria and Diane be variations of past vampires in film, with subtle differences in features between the two.
We started playing with a look for the film in Resolve months before production and would pull in stills from films we liked in these genres to see how they looked on the scopes. Then we did some lighting tests and using that footage, created a LUT in Resolve to load into our Pocket Cinema Camera 6K.
Shot almost entirely with the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K paired with vintage Nikon manual lenses, the majority of The Vampire Next Door was shot at night or in low light situations. The film also includes a large number of moving car shots, fight scenes and has a mix of practical and VFX work. It was shot in 6K 5:1 compression and delivered in 4K and 2:35 formats. The versatility of the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K was an important reason why the filmmakers used it on The Vampire Next Door.
The Vampire Next Door' was shot with the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K using a variety of rigging. Steadicam, car mounted, a crane, sliders and a monopod were used a lot for small camera moves. The size of the camera allowed us to move it quickly and get it in tight places, Sean said.
For the car shots, we used a 60W LED mounted to the hood for a face fill light. For the basement shots, we used small tube lights mounted to the ceiling with some flickering and others for color. And during a big flight scene, we had the Pocket 6K on a gimbal and monopod. Taylor could push in or pull back to create more action in the frame. The scene was lit with candles, practicals in the lamps and one soft box, he added.
The workflow between Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and DaVinci Resolve gave the filmmakers a lot of options for creating scenes, especially with shooting at night or in low light situations. This was especially important since any vampire film needs to embrace the art of working in the near dark.
We found that even in scenes where the actor was moving from dark to light, by overexposing the actor's face by one stop, the dark areas would have very little noise. In Resolve during post production, any noise that was left was easily removed with the combination of noise reduction tools that Resolve has built in. And with the Pocket's large image, we could reframe and push in shots during post.
For drone shots that were done with a different camera, the Kings also relied on DaVinci Resolve to make sure the footage perfectly matched the look of the film shot on Blackmagic Design cameras. By using DaVinci Resolve's color management features and creating a node tree, they could quickly apply a set look to all drone footage, saving time better used for creative editing instead of repetitive matching of each shot.
Taylor explained: We stared using Blackmagic cameras in 2017 because of price, and they gave us the most value for the money. We've stuck with the cameras because of the look and reliability. Over the last seven years, we've shot in South America, Europe and all over the US. From the Mojave Desert in summer to below freezing temperatures, the cameras have never failed to perform.
The Vampire Next Door' is our 16th film using Blackmagic cameras. The skin tones look great and the workflow from camera to Resolve is seamless. Over the years, Blackmagic keeps improving the color science, and now with Blackmagic RAW combined with cloud proxies, our workflow is more streamlined than ever, he concluded.
May 22, 2024Creating a Particle Man Resolve FusionA simple but effective use of particles driven by an animated 3D
May 22, 2024J SPORTS Installs Blackmagic Design Workflow for On Demand StreamingBlackmagic Design today announced that J SPORTS Corporation has adopted a Blackmagic Design
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 supporti
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
28/10/2025
Bilbao, October 28, 2025 - AgileTV, a leading technology solutions company for t...
28/10/2025
Disney, NBCUniversal, FOX, Paramount Each Achieve Double-Digit Monthly Growth
...
28/10/2025
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company has announced an agreement to sell WRTV, its local ABC-affiliated station in Indianapolis, to Circle City Broadcasting for $...
28/10/2025
Berklee College of Music and Berklee Valencia Named to Billboards 2025 Top Music...
28/10/2025
NEW YORK As AI usage continues to spike, a new study from IAB delves into an important aspect of how AI is transforming the advertising business with new data s...
28/10/2025
Charlie Jablonski, a broadcast tech pioneer who helped shape the modern era of Olympics television coverage, died Oct. 25 at his home in Lake George N.Y., the N...
28/10/2025
VIENNA, Austria Bitmovin has launched Bitmovin Observability, a new stand-alone video data solution that delivers real-time insights into video playback. The so...
28/10/2025
LOS ANGELES LucidLink, the file streaming platform, has announced a Frame.io integration and expanded mobile capabilities at Adobe Max....
28/10/2025
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced that it has joined the Ama...
28/10/2025
Lightware, an industry leader in connectivity and signal management solutions, has announced a major update to its Taurus
platform, which now delivers flawless...
28/10/2025
Following a successful mid-September International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, Hiltron Communications will promote its full range of satellite communi...
28/10/2025
Open Broadcast Systems has chosen MC&S (Media Consulting & Services) as a reseller to help strengthen its presence in France.
With over twenty years of experi...
28/10/2025
Bitmovin, leading provider of video streaming solutions, has launched Bitmovin Observability, a new stand-alone video data solution that delivers real-time insi...
28/10/2025
Ease Live, the leader in interactive TV technology, today announced the successful launch of interactive graphical overlays for UEFA Champions League matches fo...
28/10/2025
LucidLink, the file streaming platform, today at Adobe MAX announced a Frame.io integration and expanded mobile capabilities, streamlining collaboration and hel...
28/10/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has promoted Nick Hasenecz to general manager of WNDU, its NBC affiliate in the South Bend-Elkhart, Ind., market....
28/10/2025
Applications Open for Berklee Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant Boston nonprofits can apply by December 12 for funding to support community projects that ...
28/10/2025
These appointments come at a pivotal time for ABC, as the organisation continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of a digital-first media ecosystem. The ne...
28/10/2025
Scripps Research awarded $4 million to advance platform for neurodevelopmental disorders The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) grant support...
27/10/2025
You can touch this: Haptics becoming central to the virtual live experience By Adrian Pennington
Friday, October 24, 2025 - 09:12
Print This Story
The vid...
27/10/2025
A tale of two trailers: France's Stop & Go doubles up with its new hybrid tr...
27/10/2025
Pro Padel League Stages City's Cup Finals Inside NYC's Hammerstein Ballr...
27/10/2025
World Series 2025: Sportsnet Delivers Made-in-Canada' Moment for a Nation U...
27/10/2025
ESPN Extends Partnership With Sony's Beyond Sports To Expand Animated Altern...
27/10/2025
Reid Davenport attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Life After at The Ray Theatre on January 27, 2025, in Park City, UT. (Photo by Robin Marsha...
27/10/2025
As the days grow shorter and the nights get darker, there's nothing like getting swept up in a story that sends shivers down your spine. In honor of spooky ...
27/10/2025
UPDATE: Both parties have reached a new carriage agreement....
27/10/2025
LONDON As Hollywood jumps into the production of mini-dramas, a new study from Ampere Analysis finds that more than one in 10 internet users have watched drama ...
27/10/2025
LONDON Yealink, a provider of unified communication and collaboration solutions, has joined the NDI ecosystem with the availability of its SmartVision 80 premiu...
27/10/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has named Chris Conroy as general manager of its stations in Cleveland, leading WOIO, a CBS affiliate, The CW station WUAB and Telemundo outl...
27/10/2025
ESPOO, Finland European connectivity leaders Nokia and Ericsson, have partnered with Berlin's Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), to shape and drive ...
27/10/2025
PHILADELPHIA Comcast has expanded NOW TV Latino, its Spanish-language live TV and streaming offering, adding five more channels from Univision, ViX Premium with...
27/10/2025
Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics, will present its latest products and solutions at InterBEE 2025 (Hall 5, Booth 5218) Makuhari Messe in Chiba, ...
27/10/2025
Back to All News
City of Shadows, the New Netflix Thriller Arrives on December 12
Entertainment
27 October 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Downl...
27/10/2025
Abu Dhabi, UAE October 27, 2025: Space42 (ADX: SPACE42), the UAE-based AI-powe...
27/10/2025
Monday 27 October 2025
Sky Business is excited to announce the launch of Sky Bu...
27/10/2025
Monday 27 October 2025
Sky Sports and Baller League UK have extended their partnership into a second season of the six-a-side competition, ensuring Sky Sports ...
27/10/2025
Back to All News
City of Shadows, the new Netflix thriller arrives on December 12
Entertainment
27 October 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Downl...
26/10/2025
Obituary: Charlie Jablonski, Industry Leader and Long-Time NBC and NBC Olympics ...
26/10/2025
Back to All News
Hiroshi Abe Joins All-Star Cast in Newly Revealed Main Trailer...
26/10/2025
Back to All News
Love Is Blind: Italy Coming to Netflix on December 1st
Entertainment
26 October 2025
GlobalItaly
Link copied to clipboard
THE ADAPTATION...
26/10/2025
This year's ROSCon conference heads to Singapore, bringing together the global robotics developer community behind Robot Operating System (ROS) - the world&...
26/10/2025
Back to All News
LOVE IS BLIND ITALY coming to Netflix on December 1st
Entertainment
26 October 2025
GlobalItaly
Link copied to clipboard
THE ADAPTATION ...
25/10/2025
LOS ANGELES As the popularity of short-for vertical videos from mobile devices continues to soar, vgames, Pitango and a group of Hollywood executives and celebr...
25/10/2025
LONDON The AI-powered VFX toolkit Slapshot has launched a professional-grade AI camera tracking tool the company said is designed to deliver precise camera sol...
25/10/2025
NEW YORK NAB Show New York said its 2025 edition wrapped up its program on Oct. 23 with 11,500 registered attendees from 95 countries, reinforcing its status as...
25/10/2025
NEW YORK Vimeo said it rolled out new AI-powered features and creative tools that it said will make professional video production faster, smarter and more rewar...
25/10/2025
HOUSTON Regional sports network Space City Home Network has upgraded its audio control room with a Solid State Logic System T S300-32 audio console as part of t...
The Vampire Next Door Created with Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and DaVinci Resolve 
