Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive Workshop

Apple Immersive Video is an exciting new format. By combining an 180-degree field of view, the highest resolution in a VR headset, and stereoscopic vision, you can transport your audience to exciting new locations without them ever leaving their couch! Immersive video production has compelling use cases for narrative, documentary, and commercial storytelling.

Filmmakers who are new to immersive will likely be keen to draw on their past experience with traditional 2D production to make their first immersive productions. While some techniques translate perfectly, many don’t work at all. How can you film close-ups with just a single focal length? How does composition work without a frame? Where can I hide lights if everything in front of the camera is visible? Our aim is to help you transition your existing skillset, to show you what immersive production has in common with traditional 2D production, and to help you learn where it must be handled differently.

This two-day course mixes creative and technical instruction. Cameras, grip equipment, and Apple Vision Pros will be available for you to use. Attendees will come away inspired, with hands-on experience with the Backmagic URSA Cine Immersive and DaVinci Resolve, and ready to start shooting their own professional immersive content.

Day 1 - Immersive Bootcamp

We will introduce the format, give you an opportunity to experience immersive content on the Apple Vision Pro, and get hands-on with the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive. We will shoot our first shots with the camera, show how to process those images in Resolve, and view them in the Apple Vision Pro. 

The immersive format is particularly sensitive to camera placement and movement. By deliberately making motion and placement mistakes, you’ll come away with a better understanding of how to make good immersive content.

Day 2 - Documentary & Narrative Focus

The second day will focus on documentary production with plenty of time to get hands-on experience with the camera. We’ll build the camera out with audio and monitoring accessories, look at appropriate grip equipment for documentary production, discuss key creative concepts, import the rushes into DaVinci Resolve, and view them on the Apple Vision Pro. Day two will also feature hands-on lessons will focus on narrative production. We’ll build the camera out with audio and monitoring accessories, look at advanced grip equipment for narrative production, discuss key creative concepts like blocking, demonstrate how to hide lighting in a scene with such a wide field of view, import the rushes into DaVinci Resolve, and view them on the Apple Vision Pro.

In the afternoon, we will summarise the lessons learned over the past two days, share additional resources for continued learning and answer remaining questions.