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
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
08/10/2026
Modern venues have come a long way since the tinny, echoing audio of the mid 20t...
08/10/2026
ESPN's first Super Bowl production will stream in English and Spanish on Disney+, while the ESPN App carries the full slate of game, ManningCast, studio, an...
08/10/2026
From high-school videoboards to War Eagle Productions, the Opelika native is learning how to lead shows and capture big moments
The future of live sports produ...
08/10/2026
The Television Academy and Prime Video have announced a six-year agreement making Prime Video the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards beginning with the 20...
08/10/2026
Techex will exhibit at NAB Show New York 2026 (Booth 623, Javits Center, October...
08/10/2026
X Games has announced the appointment of Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer. Rogers previously served as COO of World Supercross and spent nearly a decade ...
08/10/2026
Fonn Group has appointed Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Spielmann joins from EVS, where he held sales and business de...
08/10/2026
The flagship program will originate from major PG events with a four-camera production, live distribution across PGTV, social platforms
Perfect Game is bringin...
08/10/2026
Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. More often, it happens at the point of collision: when worlds that have run on separate tracks begin to converge. That is...
08/10/2026
For decades, the production and broadcast services business has run on a familia...
08/10/2026
Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley have published The IP Converg...
08/10/2026
The NFL has announced the return of the Big Data Bowl, the league's analytics competition, now in its ninth year and again powered by AWS. Registration is o...
08/10/2026
Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with T l diffusion d'Alg rie (TDA), Algeria's national broadcasting network operator, for continued distribution of...
08/10/2026
Disney will livestream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027, alongside the game's broadcast on ESPN and ABC. All Disney subscribers in the United States wi...
08/10/2026
RHStv and Red House Streaming have announced an expansion of their partnership w...
08/10/2026
Gray Media has announced a distribution agreement with TEGNA and DAZN to simulca...
08/10/2026
SVG readers can save 10% on registration and receive a complimentary Solutions H...
08/10/2026
PROTON Camera Innovations GmbH has been named a recipient of a 2026 Technology a...
08/10/2026
Industry leaders discuss real-world cloud workflows for live game production, pl...
08/10/2026
The next-gen audio technology joins Dolby Vision as part of Apple TV's immersive F1 experience...
08/10/2026
David France, Jesse Short Bull, Mato Wayuhi, N. Bird Runningwater, Jodi Archambau, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, Amber Morning Star Byars, Holly Macarro, Nick Tils...
08/10/2026
Dynamic panning plug-ins get an upgrade
Sound Particles have just announced major updates for two of their popular dynamic panning plug-ins. Energy Panner 2...
08/10/2026
New expandable instrument boasts full DMNO engine
UDO Audio have just announced the upcoming release of a new, expandable synth that packs the power of the ...
08/10/2026
Two new subwoofers added to monitoring line-up
ADAM Audio's monitoring range has just been expanded with two new DSP-equipped subwoofers, the Sub8 PRO a...
08/10/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
08/10/2026
Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show New York We're looking forward to meeting up with you all at NAB New York on 21st-22nd October.
Cal...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will showcase its next generation of media orchestration services at NAB S...
08/10/2026
Clear-Com played a critical role in the production communications infrastructure for Rock in Rio 2026, one of the world's largest and most recognized music...
08/10/2026
Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Crea...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Ikegami announces a major expansion to its range of broadcast-quality live production cameras. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegami booth 708 at NAB New York, ...
08/10/2026
Calrec will be located at Booth 444.
Freedom to choose
The media landscape is evolving quickly, and the broadcasters best placed for what comes next will be...
08/10/2026
LiveU has announced that CRD Audiovisuel relied on LiveUs LU900Q intelligent production unit, with built-in native LiveU IQ (LIQ ) connectivity, to deliver live...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Marshall Electronics, a globally recognized provider of high-performance video solutions for broadcast, streaming, AV and professional production, will exhibit ...
08/10/2026
14-hour package also includes A Remarkable Place to Die season 2 as well as libr...
The Vampire Next Door Created with Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and DaVinci Resolve 
