Feature Film Mind Body Spirit Captured and Graded with Blackmagic Design

Filmmakers create found footage look and authentic YouTube content with Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and DaVinci Resolve Studio.

Blackmagic Design today announced that horror/thriller feature film “Mind Body Spirit” was shot by DP Blake Horn with a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro digital film camera, with color grading completed by Colorist Nicholas Lareau using DaVinci Resolve Studio. The camera was essential to helping Horn create an elevated found footage look, while Lareau used DaVinci Resolve Studio to finetune the cohesive, natural feel and then amp up the horror tones in post.

In the film, Anya (Sarah J. Bartholomew) is an aspiring yoga influencer who embarks on a ritual practice left by her estranged grandmother. As Anya becomes obsessed with the practice and its power, things quickly turn from spiritual, self help to dark and sinister as an otherworldly entity takes control of her yoga videos and her life.

“‘Mind Body Spirit’ is about the challenges of personal identity in our current digital world. Through social media and 24/7 access to information, you feel the pressure of constantly being judged by your peers but simultaneously hunting for the dopamine rush of receiving attention,” explained Horn.

“With that in mind, we went for an elevated found footage feel. We wanted it to look like Anya was shooting this film herself which meant flatter lighting and simple camera movements. As the film evolves and the horrors of Anya’s reality come to light, we went for heavier contrast and moved the camera in ways that reveal Anya is not alone. We shot a lot of this at wider focal lengths between 11mm-16mm. I believe the longest lens we used was 35mm for just one shot,” Horn added.

Horn noted that the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro was his first choice due to its small size, light weight, 6K resolution, and Blackmagic RAW capability.

“Since we wanted this film to look like it was a series of YouTube videos, we shot with a camera that our character Anya could potentially afford and film herself with. The size and weight made it extremely versatile and brought a level of flexibility that allowed us to make bold decisions on the day, and we were never bogged down by a technical limitation,” he explained. “We could hop from setup to setup very quickly with a tiny camera team (Horn and 1st AC Sean Singer), and at any given moment, we were able to switch from a stationary YouTube setup to a handheld POV/selfie camera to a 360 degree panning shot or a floating gimbal look. Having quick setups allowed the collaboration between the directors and myself to be extremely flexible and obtain exactly the type of feel for each scene.”

With the found footage showcasing Anya’s evolution, the goal during color grading was to create a cohesive, natural feel by delicately balancing and shaping the light source Horn had intentionally created, while enhancing the horror atmosphere as the film progresses.

“We decided to lean into and enhance the light and colors on a scene per scene basis, making sure Anya is the focal point,” said Lareau. “Some of that shaping was done to illicit more of a fright response as the film swings into horror territory by keeping things hidden or trying to manipulate parts of the frame to guide where the eye lands.”

“I did a lot of subtle shaping with windows, and with the ability to import DCTLs, I was able to further refine some hue, saturation and density parameters,” Lareau explained. “There was a fair amount of dark sequences with a single light source where I made use of Resolve’s HDR wheels to create my own ranges for the whites and darks to craft the contrast more precisely, such as moments in the attic.”

A handful of night scenes where the camera moves through the house stood out to Lareau. “These were fun as we had to animate and keyframe windows to move on and off to balance the light coming through different rooms,” he noted. “Also, we could play up some of the colors away from our more natural feel. We pushed in some cyan and let the reds and yellows become more saturated. We also occasionally adjusted the exposure in a way to let things feel more silhouetted than they were originally captured, which helped the horror vibes.”

“I loved the collaborative creativity that surrounded this project,” concluded Horn. “Alex and Matthew (Writers and Co directors Alex Henes and Matthew Merenda) created an atmosphere of saying yes, and every crew member was on board for the found footage style. The project was the perfect blend of technical and creative.”