Independent feature film Outlier was shot on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and posted in DaVinci Resolve Studio. The film was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic with limited cast and crew.
Trapped in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend James (Logan Fleisher), Olivia Davis (Jessica Strayer) is able to flee with the help of a kindly stranger, Thomas (Thomas Cheslek). Soon Olivia’s fear from past traumas begins to extend to Thomas, who claims he only wants to keep Olivia safe. But as she discovers Thomas is hiding a mysterious project from her, Olivia convinces herself she must flee once more, even if she knows she isn’t safe on her own. With no good choices, Olivia must face her fears to escape her past.
Filmmakers Nate Strayer and Isabel Machado-Rodriguez had decided to escape the pandemic in 2020 by relocating back to a family home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The plan was to quarantine with family, yet as filmmakers they had little patience to wait for the world to open back up before they produced a project. “After a long discussion about first feature films, budgets involved and what it would take for us to make a film sometime in the future,” said Strayer, “we decided ‘why not do it now while we have all this time?’ That night we all sat down as a family and started brainstorming what locations we had access to, and what types of stories we could tell using them.”
The result was the screenplay for Outlier, a thriller designed not only around available locations near their Michigan family home, but also limited cast and crew. With Strayer as director and Machado-Rodriguez as cinematographer, the two decided to shoot the project entirely on their Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K. “The idea that we could shoot a feature film that looks just as good as the films we love, on a tiny, lightweight, relatively inexpensive camera seemed too good to be true,” said Strayer.
Later, for reshoots, with Machado-Rodriguez unavailable, Strayer brought in long time collaborator and cinematographer Joe Failla to finish out the film. No stranger to the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, Failla was excited to continue the photography with the camera.
The process of starting the edit in DaVinci Resolve Studio while shooting made the most sense. Mike Hugo edited in DaVinci Resolve Studio. And Ryan McNeal at RKM Studios did the final grade using Resolve Studio.
