--
Blackmagic Design today announced that the Golden Horse Award-winning film Alifu, the Prince/ss was shot with its URSA Mini 4.6K digital film camera and graded by colorist Zoe Chang with DaVinci Resolve Studio and the DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel.
Photos courtesy: Modern Cinema Production Co
Directed by Yu-lin Wang, lensed by DP Pan-yun Wang and starring Utjung Tjakivalid, Yi-lan Chao, Pong Fong Wu and Chu-seng Chen, Alifu, the Prince/ss is a drama that tells the story of 25-year-old hair stylist Alifu and his friends as he is torn between realizing his dream of becoming a woman and inheriting the chief position handed down by his father, since he is the only son of an aboriginal tribal chief. The film won Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Golden Horse Film Festival 2017 and was also selected for the Asian Future section of the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival.
On a tight budget of only $250,000 USD for the whole project, director Yu-lin Wang needed a digital film camera that was affordable but still capable of providing high-end footage. As a longtime user of the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K and Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Wang was confident in the image quality produced by Blackmagic Design's cameras and decided to use the URSA Mini 4.6K camera for the film.
In addition to the powerful features at a low cost, the URSA Mini 4.6K's size fits me perfectly, and it doesn't feel heavy when shoulder-mounted. Plus, most of our interior scenes were actually shot at locations such as old buildings and bars in Taipei where the space was tight, but it was very easy for me to carry the camera around, following actors or setting it up in a bar's small restroom or bar counter section, said Pan-yun Wang.
To save costs, the crew decided not to use lights whenever possible and to make the most of natural light sources instead. Artificial lights were used only when natural light was too dim. For night scenes, only specific areas were lit up, so most of the footage looked very dark.
The lack of lights created challenges for colorist Zoe Chang, who is known for her excellent DI work on popular Chinese films Monkey King 3: Kingdom of Women, Devil and Angel, Our Shining Days, Black & White 2: The Dawn of Justice, Cook Up a Storm and End of Summer.
Director Wang still wanted us to produce a high quality film at a low cost. I have been in the DI field for many years, but I still couldn't relax when faced with such a challenge, said Chang.
Chang didn't understand the director's vision until she saw the RAW footage shot with the URSA Mini 4.6K in DaVinci Resolve Studio for the very first time. With its 15 stop of latitude, I saw the details hidden in the highlights and blacks, which could be retrieved. What amazed me the most were a couple of backlit interior scenes shot at a window. I had never before handled a high-end digital film camera that could retain the scenery out of a window in backlit footage, she recalled.
She explained how she handled the looks of the film, I didn't want to go with a greenish look for the blacks as it would make the character's face look very dirty, especially since Alifu is a Taiwanese aborigine whose skin tone tends to be dark, and since most of the scenes were not well-lit. Plus Alifu is a transgendered person and he is a stylist, a profession that produces beauty, so I wanted to help build the character, who is sensitive and sentimental, with carefully handled skin tone and rich colors.
When setting the look for the film, I produced three tones for the director to choose from. For the first one, the blacks inclined towards reddish brown and the areas in the midtone that had neutral colors were tinted with water blue, so the characters could stand out from the background. For the second tone, the said colors were enhanced a little bit more. For the third tone, there was not too much grading for a natural, neutral tone.
The director chose the second color scheme as the tone for all daylight interior and exterior scenes. However, the film consists of three major stories: Alifu and his tomboy roommate; the civil servant who becomes a drag queen at night; and the transgender pub owner and the plumber she loves. As such, Chang continued to make further refinements depending on scenes and stories.
She explained with a couple of examples, For the scenes full of lust, I added more purple. For pub scenes, with the help of DaVinci Resolve Studio's Power Windows, I was able to increase the saturation for the colors of the lights in specific regions, so the image matched the intoxicating music. A dark grayish blue look was produced for hospital scenes. For night interior scenes, I would tint the windows and areas near the windows with dark blue while enhancing the warm tone near light sources to increase the depth of space. In the seaside and railway station scenes, as well as the scenes that the son of Alifu and the tomboy are in, the warm tone of the highlights was enhanced.
When Alifu gets back to his tribe for the hereditary succession ceremony after changing his sex, I gave up the reddish brown tone in the blacks and gave it a little bit of blue instead to set off the traditional red clothing. To avoid affecting the lip color while enhancing the red on the clothes, different colors on the clothes and headdresses were isolated and enhanced, and DaVinci Resolve Studio's Power Windows and tracking were very useful and accurate, saving a lot of time.
Pan-yun Wang commented on the DI work for the film, Zoe crafted each frame with her experience and skills, so the details and colors were perfectly shown to the audience. Especially for the clothes and headdresses worn by Alifu and the hereditary succession ceremony scene, vivid colors and well-matched
North America Stories
12/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Everything You Need to Know for Next Week's Big Sho...
12/12/2025
Hailey Gates at the Atropia premiere (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
12/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the elimination of Federal federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and changes in the way they...
12/12/2025
Wisycom and DPA Microphones announce the appointment of Ren Moerch as Group Product Director, Wireless, a strategic leadership role that will guide the combine...
12/12/2025
SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, in conjuncture with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Entertainment Technolog...
12/12/2025
Keepit, the vendor-independent, cloud-native data protection provider, today announced a strategic go-to-market relationship in Poland with Ingram Micro, a lead...
12/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking Open Gate 48P RAW recording w...
12/12/2025
Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) once again played a critical role in delivering flawless wireless coordination and support at the 2025 Latin Grammy Awards a...
12/12/2025
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), together with the Video Services Forum (VSF), the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadc...
12/12/2025
DHD audio will demonstrate the latest additions to its range of digital audio production solutions on Booth 321 in Hall B6 at Hamburg Open 2026. The show will b...
12/12/2025
Chaos today announces the release of V-Ray for Blender, update 2, bringing its award-winning rendering technology to even more Blender users by adding support f...
12/12/2025
Lighting specialist UltraLEDs has launched Precision LED Tape, a high-CRI lighting solution designed specifically for professional film, TV, and studio use.
P...
12/12/2025
Zixi, the Emmy Award-winning leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that Roi Sasson has joined the company as Vice President, Engineer...
12/12/2025
BitFire (bitfire.tv), the leader in software-defined live production and IP transmission, today announced a strategic partnership with Appear, a leader in high-...
12/12/2025
LOS ANGELES The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) today said futurist Robert Tercek, creative technologist Jessie Hughes from Leonardo.AI and Emmy-winnin...
12/12/2025
HUDSON, Mass. BitFire and Appear have struck a strategic partnership aimed at offering broadcasters, sports leagues and streaming platforms a faster, more flexi...
12/12/2025
The broadcast industry is evolving faster than ever. #IPWorkflows #remoteproduction, and next-gen audio systems are reshaping how teams design, deliver, and sca...
12/12/2025
LOS ANGELES The payroll and production accounting platform Wrapbook has announced the acquisition of Cinapse, a modern scheduling platform for film and televisi...
12/12/2025
DEHLI Ross Video has announced that it is expanding and restructuring its commercial and technical teams in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation...
12/12/2025
LONDON Following the success of its UK launch in January 2025, Rise AV, the global not-for-profit initiative dedicated to supporting and advancing women in the ...
12/12/2025
SAN FRANCISCO Ad-supported streaming service Tubi next week will launch Matter Casting, a new casting standard that will enable seamless mobile-to-TV viewing di...
12/12/2025
LOS ANGELES The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) today said futurist Robert Tercek, creative technologist Jessie Hughes from Leonardo.AI and Emmy-winnin...
12/12/2025
In Las Vegas's T-Mobile Arena, fans of the Golden Knights are getting more than just hockey - they're getting a taste of the future. ADAM, a robot devel...
12/12/2025
Scripps Research team pioneers an efficient way to stereoselectively add fluorine to drug-like molecules A new method uses a novel catalyst and inexpensive fluo...
11/12/2025
ESPN's Aims for Spectacular With Heisman Trophy ShowEvent firsts include 1080p HDR production airing on both national broadcast and cableBy Dan Daley, Audio...
11/12/2025
SVG Students To Watch: Frankie Patton, University of ColoradoThe 2025 grad is hitting the ground running as a PA on national broadcastsBy Brandon Costa, Directo...
11/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Technology Exhibits Preview, Part 3By SVG Staff
Thursday, December 11, 2025 - 7:24 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The 2...
11/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: What Makes Gen Z, X, and Y Fans Tick? Dave Gavant of WSC Sports Go...
11/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: 5G, MXL, Spectrum Loss, and Outerspace on Tap for Tues...
11/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: David Levy, Turner Titan and Master of Al...
11/12/2025
SVG Launches Follow the Money' Podcast: Go Inside the Sports Media Biz with...
11/12/2025
A Deep Dive Inside Game Creek Video's Bird and Magic Mobile Units, Home to A...
11/12/2025
How Sound Effects for Monsters Funday Football' Emulated the Sonic Soul of ...
11/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: CSP Mobile Productions' Len Chase on Upgrading Tr...
11/12/2025
New satellites for the SDA Tranche 1 Tracking program in production at L3Harris&...
11/12/2025
The Meadowlands system, a compact and mobile version of the CCS, uses ground-based radio frequency units to disrupt satellite communications....
11/12/2025
The L3Harris demonstration united tactical communications devices, counter-UAS c...
11/12/2025
Throughout 2025, L3Harris delivered innovative solutions to U.S. and allied warfighters across every domain.
With an unrelenting commitment to excellence, our...
11/12/2025
A Majority of the World's Population (51%) Identify As Soccer Fans
The 2025 MLB postseason notched 58.2 billion viewing minutes, up +24% from the prior y...
11/12/2025
WALTHAM, Mass. Video-over-IP software provider Zixi said Roi Sasson has joined the company as vice president, engineering....
11/12/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. In a move that highlights the growing competition between broadcasters and CTV platforms for local advertising, LG Ad Solutions has announ...
11/12/2025
Boston Conservatory Earns Several Best of Accolades in 2025 Highlights include a faculty Grammy win, a seventh consecutive year on Playbill's list of co...
11/12/2025
RASTATT, Germany Lawo and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) have partnered to launch the SMPTE ST 2110 Practical Lab, an immersive ...
11/12/2025
PHILADELPHIA Comcasts Xfinity operating brand has announced the launch of new national video plans with all-in pricing that the operator said will provide custo...
11/12/2025
After eight years of declines, MoffettNathansons new Cord Cutting Monitor for Q3 2025 shows that pay TV subscribers to linear TV packages rose by 303,000, the f...
11/12/2025
Happy Holidays from Berklee Enjoy this years holiday student-performance video.
December 10, 2025
By
Office of the President
Dear Berklee community,
As w...
11/12/2025
Back to All News
The Teaser Trailer and the Key Art of Motorvalley, the New Ser...
11/12/2025
Back to All News
Trailer for the Fourth Season of Alpha Males
Entertainment
11 December 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
DERECONSTRUCT OR DIE
Do...
11/12/2025
Unveiling what it describes as the most capable model series yet for professional knowledge work, OpenAI launched GPT-5.2 today. The model was trained and deplo...
-- 
