Black-ish HACKED: Unauthorized Episode

[Akin A]

https://youtu.be/PQwgpRb6Rw8

This is a spec project, not associated with ABC or the producers of Black-ish.

I created a character for myself, wrote my dialogue, filmed myself in a front of a green screen and used visual effects to edit myself into scenes from Black-ish, Season 5, while changing the context of the conversations to create a new story.

Everything was done by me, in my studio. I was actually talking to a photo of the other actor on my laptop or phone, to give me an accurate eyeline.

This took 24 days to complete.

TECHNICAL STUFF
---
CAMERA:
RED Epic Dragon
OLPF: Low Light Optimized (LLO)
Resolution: 6K FF 6144x3160
- downscaled to a 1920x1080 timeline.
REDCODE: 6:1
Frame Rate: 23.976 FPS
Shutter: 1/48s
ISO: 500
Color Temperature: 5600K
Color Space: DRAGONcolor2
Gamma Curve: REDgamma4

LENSES:
Rokinon 85mm F/1.4
Sigma Art 50mm F/1.4

LIGHTING:
Falcon Eyes RX-18T 504 LED

AUDIO:
Microphone: Sennheiser MKH 416
Audio Mixer/Recorder: Sound Devices MixPre-3

POST-PRODUCTION:
NLE, VFX, Color Grading: Davinci Resolve 15
- Export: DNxHD 1080p 36 Mbps 8-bit
Image Editor: Adobe Photoshop CC 20
DAW: Ableton Live 9 (for music)

#BlackishHACKED

 

[Hugh Scully]

That’s amazing. Really excellent edit. I like the way you cut in the reaction shots and how you managed to make the dialog work. Very imaginative. Now I got to get to the gym...

 

[Akin A]

That’s amazing. Really excellent edit. I like the way you cut in the reaction shots and how you managed to make the dialog work. Very imaginative. Now I got to get to the gym...

Thanks, Hugh!

Yeah, the reaction shots really sell the conversation. Sometimes I wanted to use a certain scene, but there were not clean images of the other character reacting, so I couldn't use the scene. Good reactions also allow me to speak for a longer period of time without the scene feeling fake or boring.

Lol, glad it inspired a workout!

 

[Alan Greene]

This is amazing, well done!! I love the continuity with the gray hoodie in the conference room. Really enjoyed this.

 

[Akin A]

This is amazing, well done!! I love the continuity with the gray hoodie in the conference room. Really enjoyed this.

Thanks, Alan!

Lol! Nice catch! That was actually a coincidence! I didn't even realize that the original guy was still in the frame at first. I cropped him out of that shot before I started shooting my part. Then I shot the scene and reframed that shot (zoomed out again) to show more of the cake and noticed that we were both wearing a gray shirt and raised our arms at a certain moment, so I edited it to sync up on time.

I prep the editing by cropping, making clean plates and doing a rough edit on all of the shots for every scene before I do any filming. By that point, I don't even remember what was originally there, unless I go back and watch the original.

 

[Darius Lyles]

I love all the HU love! Great job man

 

[Akin A]

I love all the HU love! Great job man

Thanks, Darius!

HU! :thumbsup:
I had to be careful to not make my character sound like an alum, like myself. There's a limit to how much love a non-alum would show for a school, lol!

 

[francois tour]

Well done, Blending was finely executed.

 

[Akin A]

Well done, Blending was finely executed.

Thanks, Francois!

I made sure to add more blur to this one than I did in the past to match the original episode footage. It's mentally hard to purposely wipe out all of the detail of a 6K R3D, but it's necessary to look real.
I set the blur in Resolve to .54 on most shots, added extra blur to the edges of the chroma key and debayered at 1/4 resolution.

The typical sitcom flat lighting made the lights easy to match.

 

[Akin A]

Any other thoughts?

Btw, the keying was all done in Resolve's Color tab, using the 3D Keyer, which I find to be great and fast.
The Fusion tab isn't usable on my system for 6K R3Ds, even at low debayer quality.