Singaporean Holiday Movie Hi Noel Shot on URSA Mini Pro 12K

Singaporean Holiday Movie Hi Noel Shot on URSA Mini Pro 12K

Brie Clayton January 29, 2025

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Small budget film delivers Hollywood quality Christmas story using Blackmagic Design cameras and DaVinci Resolve.

Blackmagic Design today announced that Singaporean production company Cande Picture's new film, Hi Noel, was completed using the Blackmagic URSA Mini 12K digital cinema camera and DaVinci Resolve Studio. Showing the world through the eyes of a child and his imaginary friend at Christmas time, the film was created on a small budget but was able to deliver a Hollywood level, charming story that included extensive use of greenscreen and VFX.

Hi Noel tells the story of a young boy named Leon whose world is turned upside down when he finds out his parents are about to divorce. Feeling lonely and lost, he creates an imaginary friend, Noel, whose charm and companionship bring comfort. Together, they begin a magical adventure that transcends the boundaries of reality and imagination. As their adventures unfold, Leon and Noel devise a plan to rescue his parents' troubled marriage.

The film stars actress and Miss Singapore Universe 2001 Jaime Teo, Gurmit Singh, and Zane Quek and Oscar Ow as Leon and his imaginary friend Noel. Production company Cande Pictures, made up of the husband and wife filmmaking team of Eric Wong and Careen Tham, shot and did post production on the film entirely in Singapore.

Wong, who is the director and DP for the film, has been using Blackmagic Design cameras since the introduction of the original Pocket Cinema Camera in 2013 and has grown to use URSA Mini Pro 12K as his main camera for films.

With 'Hi Noel', as a holiday film, we really wanted the colors to pop and be part of the story building process. At the same time, a lot of the film takes place in the imagination of Leon and also in the reality of real life Singapore. The combination of the URSA Mini camera with DaVinci Resolve gave us the creative freedom to make the film we wanted, Wong commented.

He continued: In particular, I really like the camera's high dynamic range and the resolution it gave us. We could shoot in all sorts of lighting and I knew we would get the shot.

Tham, who was the film's producer, editor and colorist, explained her approach to creating the look and feel for Hi Noel : I had a lot of different tasks. I had to keep a consistent look for the characters Leon and Noel, especially with their clothing and Noel's cap, no matter what time of day. But I also had to ensure that both characters looked different. And throughout the film I had to balance imaginary and real worlds. The camera gave me footage with all the range I needed to do what I needed in Resolve.

Several scenes in particular showed the advantages of using URSA Mini Pro 12K with DaVinci Resolve Studio. One of the films pivotal moments is on a brightly lit carousel in the city at night, which was shot using a single production light and the lights from the carousel. Another scene showed Leon and Noel at a city playground surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the city around them. Both scenes relied on the Blackmagic Design workflow to get the mix of magical and reality that Tham and Wong envisioned.

Tham explained: The camera captured a lot of the details that could have been washed out in the carousel scene due to the lighting. And it got me all of the data I needed for the playground scene to be able to grade it the way we wanted. With DaVinci Resolve, I was able to create amazing glow effects by bringing out the brightness of the carousel scene while also letting me add in a blue and creamy effect.

DaVinci Resolve Studio's 3D qualifier features were also used extensively with the film's various greenscreen scenes. She was able to isolate a specific color or range of colors in scenes, letting her focus on making items such as Noel's bright red cap or certain colors separating imaginary from real.

In the end, the film has an amazing magical feel throughout. We made it on a small budget but the camera and Resolve made it look big, Tham concluded.

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