In 2018, two-time Emmy award-winning cinematographer Roy Wagner and acclaimed director Rob Adetuyi (“Bring It On”, “Stomp the Yard”) partnered up for their newest production, “STAND!”

STAND!, a historical musical set in 1919 Winnipeg, recalls the infamous general strike that shut down the entire city. The period piece was shot on many of the actual locations where the events occurred. Not only did they need the appropriate tools to best tell their immensely visual story, but they also had to overcome a handful of challenges - including a tight budget and three-week shooting schedule.

The first challenge arose when they found that no crew in Winnipeg had worked with the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro. At Roy’s request, Blackmagic Design sent a technology consultant to work alongside them to quickly get the entire camera department up to speed on the Mini, answer questions, and address any issues.

Next up was building production ready rigs. Essentially, the camera department would be starting off with nothing but a camera body, an EVF, and a lens. The crew overcame the lack of rental houses in Winnipeg that could supply Ursa Mini accessories by partnering directly with Wooden Camera for the feature film production. 

By working directly with the lead camera operator, Wooden Camera was able to build custom configurations to best support Roy Wagner and his crew. Two cameras would be switch between handheld and tripod, the third would live on a Steadicam. The technical lead recalls, “Having had good experience with Wooden Camera in the past, and knowing their products and customer support to be excellent, as well as a very comprehensive product line that would meet our needs, they were [our] obvious call.”

The production team told Wooden Camera, “The quality of the Wooden Camera accessories was excellent. Functional, well-designed, solid: top plates, side plates, handles, baseplates, adapters, power solutions… everything we needed. The Winnipeg crew was so impressed that they wanted to purchase a lot of the accessories once we wrapped. [In the end], we became our own camera house. It was a lot of work for the tireless ACs, but Wooden Camera came to our rescue. And when the 1st AD shouted, “Roll camera!” on day one, everything went exactly as planned. The cameras performed perfectly as did the accessories necessary to create a very special feature film.”

August turned to September and the crew shot a stunning feature film in historic Winnipeg, Canada despite the fundamental challenges they faced. STAND! is is set to be released in the Fall of 2019. You can follow their progress on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Photos by Tor Johansen | Contribution by Jody Eldred