Alex Zarfati’s Fail Safe Shot with Blackmagic PYXIS 12K
Camera’s full frame sensor supports anamorphic shooting for psychological short film.
Blackmagic Design today announced that filmmaker Alex Zarfati shot his short film “Fail Safe” with Blackmagic PYXIS 12K and Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K digital film cameras. The project was captured in Blackmagic RAW and relied of the PYXIS 12K’s full frame sensor and open gate capability to achieve a cinematic anamorphic look, with editing and color grading then completed in DaVinci Resolve Studio.
“Fail Safe” follows FBI agent Frank Russo as he descends into the investigation of journalist Casey Addison’s murder. What begins as another homicide unravels into something far more disturbing when Russo discovers Addison’s fail safe: a hidden trail of evidence designed to surface if she ever disappeared. As he follows the fragments she left behind, the case begins to feel less like an investigation and more like a trap, pulling Russo toward a truth buried beneath power, silence and something rotten hiding in plain sight.
“From a filmmaking standpoint, I wanted it to feel a bit fragmented and psychological. You’re not just watching the story, you’re experiencing it the same way Frank is, piece by piece, as things start to unravel,” began Zarfati.
From the beginning, the team knew they wanted to shoot anamorphic, using SIRUI Anamorphic Lenses and occasionally DZOFILM Arles Primes, depending on the scene.
“We started the project on the URSA Mini Pro 12K, which has been my A camera for six years, but we were losing some of the vertical image because of the crop with the camera’s Super 35 sensor and our full frame anamorphic lenses,” Zarfati said. “When we switched over to the PYXIS 12K and were able to shoot open gate, it immediately gave us a much larger image area to work with. That meant less of a vertical crop and a better overall anamorphic frame, which was a big deal for the look we were going for.”
“It’s kind of crazy how much you get from the PYXIS 12K: the sensor, the resolution and the dynamic range. It all really shows up when you’re in tough lighting situations,” he continued. “We had a lot of scenes with really dark environments and very bright highlights in the same frame, which is usually where some cameras start to fall apart. But the PYXIS 12K held onto so much information in both the shadows and highlights that it almost felt like cheating at times. For me, it’s pretty close to the perfect balance between size, flexibility and image quality.”
Keeping the camera builds lightweight and geared towards handheld operating meant extra flexibility when the team needed it most. “On a lower budget project like this, where you need a lot of coverage and you’re working with a smaller crew, handheld provides a ton of flexibility. It allowed us to move quickly, reframe on the fly, and get the shots we need without slowing things down,” explained Zarfati.
Zarfati also underscored how shooting in Blackmagic RAW meant ultimate flexibility in post: “Being able to adjust things like color temperature, highlight rolloff, and even ISO when needed, gave us a lot more control after the fact. It took a lot of pressure off on set, knowing we had that extra room to refine the image later without it falling apart. Additionally, having access to all that information made it easier to really dial in the look we were going for. We wanted the image to feel dark, textured and uneasy, with deep shadows, warm practicals, and a high contrast look that made the world feel both grounded and oppressive. The visual tone is such a big part of the storytelling for this film.”
“Fail Safe” was Zarfati’s first time cutting a film start to finish in DaVinci Resolve Studio. “I don’t see myself going back to anything else after this,” he said. “It handled everything well. Even working with large files, I didn’t run into any crashing issues, which was huge for a project like this.
“One of the biggest advantages, though, was the handoff to color. Since Resolve is pretty much the standard for color grading, it made that process incredibly smooth. There was no back and forth or complicated relinking; my colorist could just pick it up and go, which saved a lot of time and made the whole workflow feel seamless.”
“Blackmagic has always been part of my workflow. It’s what I started on when I first got into filmmaking, so I’m familiar with the system. I’ve always loved how intuitive the interface is, and more importantly, I’ve always trusted the color science and the image you get out of it,” noted Zarfati.
“‘Fail Safe’ was independently funded, so we had to be intentional about where the money was going. I didn’t want to overspend on a camera package if it meant taking away from the actual production. But at the same time, image quality is everything to me; I wasn’t willing to compromise on that,” he continued.
“That’s really where Blackmagic stood out. You get an image that competes at a high level, but at a price point that actually makes sense for independent filmmaking,” Zarfati concluded. “For us, it allowed us to put more resources into the film itself, such as locations, lighting, production value, while still capturing a cinematic image that holds up.”
“Fail Safe” will be available September 2026.
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