Locations & Gear

Location

The story takes place in the old capital city of Ethiopia, Ankober, and the nearby town Debre Sina. The road between the two locations will also be part of the shoot as the lead characters set off on a two-week journey from Debre Sina to Ankober. My story involves unique spaces like traditional church schools, the palace, an open field and court, rivers, farms, etc. All are already in place because the original look of these two locations is maintained in order to attract tourism. Two lodges located in Ankober, Amanuel Church and the remaining part of the old palace, can serve as ideal locations for the story

Gear

For this look, I prefer to use the Blackmagic Cinema Camera because it is a digital film camera designed for true, dynamic, wide-range shots with cinematic quality. It is also suited for higher resolution, global shutter and a more creative depth of field than the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K models. It also features a large Super 35 size sensor and professional PL or EF lens mounts, so it is the perfect choice. I can get incredible ultra HD images with 12 stops of dynamic range for feature film quality shooting. The minimal crop factor lets me shoot with super wide angle lenses so I can get images that are big and beautiful, and have the dynamic range to capture highlight and shadow details far beyond that of any traditional video camera. I can choose between models with PL, EF or MFT lens mounts so I can use the world’s best and most technically sophisticated lenses. The PL models allow me to use professional cinema lenses from companies such as Panavision™, ARRI™ or Zeiss™. I can even use vintage PL cinema lenses for when I am shooting period work where I want to recreate the look of that time period by using lenses that were used in the old days! (The EF models let me use high-resolution Canon™ photographic lenses for amazing quality, while the passive MFT model allows super small lenses and the flexibility to adapt to other lens mounts. The raw footage will be color graded with DaVinci Resolve for a cinematic look and tone of the film.