FREMONT, CA — Chris Conley, wide receiver for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, recently shot Quarantime, a short film created during isolation. Conley used Blackmagic Design’s Ursa Mini Pro G2 digital film camera for the shoot, capturing footage in the Blackmagic RAW format. He then edited and color graded the project himself using DaVinci Resolve Studio, which he learned at home during football’s hiatus.
While Conley is known for his work on the field, he has a passion for filmmaking and made several short films prior to his NFL career, including the viral Star Wars fan film, Retribution.
Quarantime marks the first time he stepped beyond the roles of writer and director to also serve as DP, editor and colorist.
The project was shot at home with Conley and his wife Brianna playing themselves. The storyline follows that of a newlywed couple who spend part of their first year of marriage in isolation. The film premiered in July and is currently available via Conley’s YouTube channel, FlightConley.
“I figured that this experience was common for a lot of people and wanted to share my view of it,” says Conley of the project’s inspiration. “Shooting at home was a unique situation since the space was rather small. It made us get creative about creating angles and the illusion of space.”
Using the Ursa Mini Pro G2’s Blackmagic Camera Control app allowed him to be both behind and in front of the camera, as he juggled multiple roles.
“Shooting during quarantine limited the number of people I could use to help,” he recalls. “Setting up lights, moving equipment and running the camera is a lot to do by yourself. Luckily with the camera’s wireless capabilities, I was able to start and stop recording remotely.”
While Conley credits the Ursa Mini Pro G2’s built in ND filters and touch-screen monitor’s easy readability with helping him stay nimble and quick during shoots, the one of the biggest benefit he calls out was being able to shoot and edit in Blackmagic RAW.
“The workflow efficiency of Blackmagic RAW and the ease of having access to similar information from the camera to DaVinci Resolve Studio helped make the whole process flow smoothly. Editing in DaVinci Resolve Studio’s cut and edit pages felt natural after shooting on the Ursa Mini Pro G2.”
In post, Conley started by using DaVinci Resolve Studio’s cut page to quickly put together his first timeline. “With the hotkeys mapped, putting together a rough cut was extremely fast and efficient,” he explains. “My favorite thing about DaVinci Resolve Studio is the flexibility and control you have over the color. As someone who is not a colorist, I had the ability to tweak the image and get it to a place that I liked with minimal amounts of practice. There is so much more you can do in the program as an experienced colorist, which is what’s exciting, as I think about continuing to explore with future filmmaking projects.”
As a newcomer to editing and grading, Conley learned to not let that limit the film.
“I started by reading and watching tutorials, and then practicing and emulating looks,” he recalls. “After about three weeks, I felt confident enough to do it with my own footage in DaVinci Resolve Studio.”
Taking on all the roles to shoot a short film was daunting, but Conley ultimately realized that he knew more than he gave myself credit for.
“I just needed to take a moment to put these skills to the test on my own. For better or worse, I needed to just create so that I could learn from my mistakes and build confidence. Should my lack of experience stop my creativity? Definitely not. My biggest obstacle was me limiting myself as a creator.”