AZP/BlackBoxTV - 'Reawakening'

It's been a long time coming but the premiere of 'Anthony E. Zuiker Presents' on BlackBoxTV has finally arrived. And we're kicking it off with Reawakening. Directed by Robert Legato (two-time Academy Award winner for VFX on Titanic and Hugo), written by Adam Simon (Haunting in Connecticut) the film is a modern day retelling of Frankenstein in which a police officer descends into merciless evil as he gets an unusual opportunity for vengeance. 

Orlin Dobreff and I produced the film, alongside our BlackBoxTV producing team, Steak House and Valerie Stadler. It was a great pleasure working closely with Rob on this one and watching it all come together from solely a producing stand point was a new experience. Corey Wallace, the phenomenal composer who created the music for Dark Revelations was brought on to bring a new twist to the typical noir sounding music and exceeded all our expectations.

We shot the film on the ARRI Alexa. As Rob explains: "I used the ARRI Alexa and recorded it in LOG space (which means it has the same dynamic range as film) and is very low contrast and needs a LUT (Lookup Table) to make look like a regular contrasty and saturated image. The same camera and system used on features. Just much more flexible in post to change the look than a 7D or 5D but can ultimately look the same."

I was even fortunate to direct 2nd Unit on the short, which was a lot of fun.

Here's a short behind-the-scenes interview with Rob and star Travis Fimmel: