Fremont, CA, USA – Wednesday, October 4, 2023 – Blackmagic Design today announced that award winning DP Judd Overton used Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K OLPF and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K digital film cameras to shoot season two of “Killing It,” the hilarious hit Peacock original comedy series. The new season was also graded using DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software by Colorist Siggy Ferstl of Company 3.
“Killing It” follows single father Craig Foster (Craig Robinson), who teams up with his Uber driver, Jillian (Claudia O’Doherty), to enter a state sponsored snake hunting contest in hopes of becoming a successful entrepreneur. Following a first season that saw the show become a global sensation, the second season continues to follow Craig and Jillian’s pursuit of the American dream.
Both seasons were shot by Judd Overton, an Australian director of photography based in Los Angeles. Overton has more than 20 years of experience shooting a wide range of films and television shows, including “No Activity,” “Young Rock,” “God’s Favorite Idiot,” “Ghosts” and both seasons of “Killing It.”
“The look of ‘Killing It’ is heightened naturalism. We want the show to feel real and relatable so that when the ridiculous situations occur to our everyday heroes, we keep the audience grounded. A real ‘that could actually be happening out there somewhere right now’ vibe,” Overton explained.
The show is set in the harsh swamps of Florida. Overton used the Blackmagic Design cameras frequently to shoot in tough natural locations while maintaining a look and feel that was relatable for the comedy, and still ensuring great footage for stunts and action scenes.
Shooting “Killing It” was a unique challenge with the addition of dangerous animals that make up a huge part of the story. Overton had to plan on working with snakes and other fierce creatures, on top of numerous action scenes, which included group fights, falling office trailers and a large amount of vehicular mayhem. Overton relied on URSA Mini Pro 12K OLPF and Pocket Cinema Camera 4Ks for these scenes, using Blackmagic RAW and shooting with Gecko Vintage 66 and Canon K35 lenses.
“With all filmmaking, time is your constant challenge. We had a great number of stunt scenes this season and using the Pocket cameras for car rigs and night scenes, and the URSA Mini Pro 12K OLPF for actions sequences, really helped us make our days and added an amazing energy and production value to the show,” he continued.
“Even though this season we had fewer animals than the wall to wall snakes of the first season, we had a range of other terrifying and untrainable creatures. When working with animals you need to be ready for anything and shooting high speed with multiple Blackmagic cameras guaranteed we were able to get the moment we needed, even when the alligator struck out at our fluorescent lights,” Overton said.
One of the season’s most dramatic moments is when Craig’s new transportable office is being brought in on a crane. Craig had finally secured his plot of land, his first big step towards the American dream, and was ready to make it big. Unfortunately, his dreams came crashing down to earth as his office drops from a construction crane in front of him.
“This was a shot we only had one chance to get, and I had complete trust that the Blackmagic cameras would get what I needed. To accomplish the sequence, we used the high speed capacity of the Blackmagic cameras to show the massive impact of the trailer as Craig’s dreams come metaphorically crashing down, and it worked great,” he continued.
“I’ve long been a fan of how Blackmagic cameras capture cinematic images for seamless post production, and the 12K OLPF is a great development for the Blackmagic range. And because I shoot for a number of other shows, the fact that the 12K OLPF camera is now approved by the streamers really opens the door for it as either a main camera or additional body for those big action sequences,” Overton finished.
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.