I felt it fit perfectly with this story.
In the making of Bedlam, a film set in the shadowed corridors of 18th-century London, a production team found a way to close the distance between artistic ambition and financial reality. Director of Photography James Butler chose the Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65 not merely as a budget compromise, but as a genuine instrument for capturing the weight and texture that the story demanded. The production's integration of cloud-based workflows and anamorphic optics reveals something enduring about craft: that constraint, thoughtfully met, can become a form of creative freedom.
- An independent film set in 1750s London needed the visual gravity of large-format cinema — but without the costs that traditionally make it inaccessible.
- Firelit hospital corridors and near-darkness pushed the camera to its sensitivity limits, forcing the team to make precise, high-stakes decisions about exposure and shadow detail.
- A cloud-based pipeline allowed London editors to cut scenes in real time while filming continued elsewhere, compressing the gap between production and post before sets were struck.
- Custom rigging had to be engineered from scratch to mount large anamorphic lenses onto the 65mm sensor body, adding logistical complexity to an already demanding shoot.
- By holding apertures at T4–T5.6 and relying solely on period-authentic light sources, Butler kept the visual language disciplined — serving the story rather than showcasing the technology.
- The result positions this production as a working model for how independent filmmakers can reach high-end cinematography through strategic choices rather than conventional resources.
The London of Bedlam is a place of firelight and shadow, its hospital a dark maze of cramped corridors and desperate lives. To render this world with the weight it required, director of photography James Butler turned to the Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65 — a camera that could deliver medium-format texture and depth without the prohibitive cost of traditional 65mm systems. For Butler, who had long been drawn to the way medium format renders faces and holds depth, the choice felt essential to the story: a boxer named Jack Slack, played by Scott Adkins, attempting to rescue his sister from within those walls.
The production ran two URSA Cine 17K 65 units as primary and backup, with a Blackmagic PYXIS 12K held in reserve for high-risk sequences. All footage was captured in Blackmagic RAW at 8K with 5:1 compression — a ratio that testing confirmed offered meaningful savings in storage without sacrificing image quality. Proxy files were uploaded to the cloud as connectivity allowed, letting London-based editors begin assembling scenes while filming continued. Producer Kevin Harvey reviewed the accumulating work daily from Essex via DaVinci Resolve Studio, and by the time principal photography ended, a complete first cut had been reviewed within days of wrap.
Butler's visual language was built almost entirely from light sources that would have existed in 1750: sunlight, moonlight, and flame. In the hospital's lower levels, scenes burned close to the camera's latitude limits at around ISO 1250. Rather than underexpose and lose shadow detail, Butler chose to slightly overexpose and recover the blacks in grading. He paired the sensor with Hawk65 anamorphic lenses — a combination requiring custom rigging developed with Hawk and Ratworks Engineering to allow movement across cranes, tripods, and studio setups.
Throughout, Butler resisted the pull toward shallow depth of field, holding apertures between T4 and T5.6 to keep characters embedded in their environments. A pivotal scene lit only by diffuse moonlight found its emotional resonance through exactly this restraint. The technical decisions never overwhelmed the story — they served it. What Bedlam ultimately demonstrates is that independent productions, through careful choices and modern workflows, can reach the visual language of high-end cinema without the traditional weight of cost and logistics standing in the way.
The 1750s version of London that appears in Bedlam is a place of firelight and shadow, where the hospital that gives the film its name looms as a dark maze of cramped corridors and desperate scenes. To build this world, the production made a deliberate choice about how to see it: they chose the Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65 camera, a tool that would let them capture the texture and presence of medium-format film without the prohibitive cost of shooting traditional 65mm stock.
James Butler, the film's director of photography, had long been drawn to the look of medium format—the way it renders faces, the depth it holds, the sense of weight in an image. He believed that aesthetic was essential to Bedlam's story, which follows boxer Jack Slack, played by Scott Adkins, as he attempts to rescue his sister from the hospital. But independent film budgets don't stretch to traditional large-format systems. The URSA Cine 17K 65 offered a path forward. "I've always loved medium format and the way it represents faces and depth," Butler explained. "I felt it fit perfectly with this story."
The production deployed two of the Blackmagic cameras as primary and backup units, with a third—a Blackmagic PYXIS 12K—reserved for high-risk sequences. What made the technical approach distinctive, though, wasn't just the camera choice. It was how the team wove the camera into a larger system of work. They captured everything in Blackmagic RAW format, recording at 8K resolution with 5:1 compression after testing alternatives. The difference between tighter and looser compression ratios proved minimal for their purposes, but the savings in storage and data management were substantial.
The real innovation lay in how they moved the work. Proxy files were uploaded to the cloud whenever connectivity allowed, enabling editors working in London to begin assembling scenes while filming continued elsewhere. Producer Kevin Harvey monitored progress daily from Essex, using DaVinci Resolve Studio to review the work as it accumulated. This setup, Butler said, allowed the team to "close the creative loop"—to spot what else was needed before sets came down or actors became unavailable. By the time principal photography wrapped, all the material was already integrated into a shared Resolve project, and director Jon Sheikh and Butler had reviewed a complete first cut within days.
The visual language Butler constructed depended almost entirely on light sources that would have existed in 1750: sunlight, moonlight, and fire. In the hospital's lower levels, scenes were lit almost exclusively by flames, pushing the camera close to its lower latitude limits and requiring sensitivities around ISO 1250. Rather than underexpose and lose detail, Butler chose to slightly overexpose and then shape the blacks in color grading, preserving shadow structure and clarity. He paired the 65mm sensor with Hawk65 anamorphic lenses, a combination that demanded custom rigging work with Hawk and Ratworks Engineering to allow the camera to move on cranes, tripods, and studio rigs.
Butler resisted the temptation toward extremely shallow depth of field. He held apertures between T4 and T5.6, keeping characters integrated with their surroundings rather than isolated from them. One of the film's most crucial scenes—lit only by diffuse moonlight—achieved its emotional weight through this restraint, through the marriage of sensor and glass and the discipline of knowing when not to push further. The technical choices served the story, not the other way around. What emerged was a demonstration of how independent productions, through careful equipment selection and modern workflows, can reach for the visual language of high-end cinema without the traditional barriers of cost and logistics.
Citações Notáveis
I've always loved medium format and the way it represents faces and depth. I felt it fit perfectly with this story.— James Butler, Director of Photography
The cloud workflow allowed the team to close the creative loop and detect additional needs before sets were dismantled or cast became unavailable.— James Butler, describing the production's approach
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did Butler feel that medium format was so essential to this particular story?
Because the story is about rescue and desperation in a place designed to contain and control. Medium format has a presence, a weight to it. It doesn't let you hide in shallow focus or visual tricks. It forces the image to hold everything—the character and the space around them—in a kind of honest relationship.
And the firelight decision—was that purely aesthetic, or did it serve the narrative?
Both. Bedlam in 1750 would have been lit by fire and candles. But firelight is also intimate and unstable. It reveals and conceals at the same time. That's the emotional texture of the story itself.
The cloud workflow seems like the real innovation here. How did that change what was possible?
It collapsed the distance between capture and review. The editor in London could see what was being shot in real time, not weeks later. If something wasn't working, Butler and the producer knew immediately. They could adjust before the moment passed.
Did the camera choice limit them in any way?
Not in ways that mattered. The compression ratio they chose was tighter than some alternatives, but the visual difference was imperceptible for their purposes. What they gained was manageable file sizes and faster workflows. The constraint became an advantage.
What does this say about where independent filmmaking is headed?
That the old gatekeepers—the ones who said you needed millions of dollars and massive infrastructure—are becoming less relevant. The tools exist now. What matters is knowing how to use them in service of the story.