FREMONT, CA — Stephen Jackson, the director of photography for ABC’s Once Upon a Time, regularly uses Blackmagic Design’s Cinema Camera EF (www.blackmagicdesign.com) on the show, particularly in scenarios where the camera can be damaged.
Once Upon a Time is consistently in the top 20 and is currently in its fourth season.
Jackson, a Vancouver-based director of photography, has worked on a number of popular shows and films, including V, Hellboy 3, Cabin in the Woods and
4400. He has been the primary DP for
Once Upon a Time since its debut and has employed the Blackmagic Cinema Camera for various shots on the show.
“When the show I worked on was thinking about replacing our aging cameras, we looked at many possibilities,” he notes. “One of my camera people had been at NAB and seen the Blackmagic cameras and was very impressed. So after a little research I settled on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. As it was a replacement for our ‘crash cam,’ we bought the camera with the EF mount to continue with our Canon lenses.”
Jackson adds that the camera is easy to work with and that he’s impressed with the imagery it captures. “The dynamic range and the color palette is outstanding,” he notes. “The size and ease of mounting is also very helpful. We use it in cars and on horses, dig a hole on the road and let horses run over it! The operators can just attach the handle to the top mounts and run with it. Love this camera so much we bought a second one with the PL mount for inserts!”