Cirrus created immersive flight demos for its aircraft using URSA Cine Immersive cameras and DaVinci Resolve, capturing a pilot’s eye view as the aircraft soars above the Arizona desert.
Cirrus is a personal aviation developer and manufacturer of the SR Series piston aircraft, the single-engine Vision Jet and the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) – the first FAA-certified whole-airframe parachute safety system included as standard equipment on an aircraft. To date, worldwide flight time on Cirrus aircraft is over 19 million hours.
Cirrus has created immersive flight demos for its Cirrus SR22T aircraft using Blackmagic Design URSA Cine Immersive digital film cameras and DaVinci Resolve Studio post production software. Capturing the aircraft soaring above the beauty of the Arizona desert, the Cirrus Global Sales Team is using the content to demonstrate its newest innovations to prospective and current customers at any location using the new Cirrus ‘Let’s Go Fly!’ app for Apple Vision Pro.
Immersive Collaboration
Cirrus collaborated with Rogue Labs, an immersive media and spatial app development studio, to produce the content, hiring XBrand to capture the aerial cinematography. The shoot took place above Arizona, starting in Page and following the aircraft to Sedona, recording spectacular views of Horseshoe Bend, Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon it flew.
Cirrus’ Director of Media Anthony Bottini said, “We wanted to capture famous desert Southwest landscapes. The region’s dramatic geological formations, deep canyons and vast open spaces demonstrated the freedom and visibility that the Cirrus flying experience encompasses. Shooting in these environments required careful attention to horizon stability, cockpit spatial layout and the viewer’s perceived immersion, especially when portraying altitude, aircraft motion and the excitement of flying your own personal airplane.”
To show different angles and the experience of flying the aircraft, URSA Cine Immersive cameras were used to capture footage on the runway and in the cockpit, and were rigged in aerial gimbals on the nose and rear of a twin prop aircraft that filmed air-to-air footage of the Cirrus SR22T in flight. The cameras were housed in two custom built rigs from Immortal Camera so they could be flown at high speeds on the fixed wing camera ship, allowing the team to capture never before filmed immersive footage of the aircraft in flight.
Into the Pilot’s Seat
Anthony said, “We wanted to place viewers directly in the pilot’s seat and give them a first person sense of flight. To achieve this, we used a Technocrane for the ramp intro to create a smooth, cinematic transition into the aircraft. Inside the cockpit, we built a custom rig that positioned a camera in a natural pilot eye position without disrupting aircraft operation.
“For air-to-air sequences, we mounted the cameras on a fixed wing aerial platform, allowing us to capture dynamic, close formation visuals that translate exceptionally well in an immersive format. Simply put, we pulled out as many stops as we could to give viewers a singular, unforgettable experience.”
John Racine, Rogue Labs’ creative and technical director, said, “All of the setups delivered scenery and movement that pulls the audience into the story. The ability to record the air-to-air footage from outside the airplane amazed us – I don’t believe we could have achieved it with a different setup.”
Opening Up the World
“Beyond the URSA Cine Immersive itself, we kept our kit as simple as possible,” said Anthony. “The camera’s integrated design meant we didn’t need a complex set of peripheral equipment to achieve high quality immersive capture, which made it easier to move quickly between environments and mounting configurations.
“Our goal was to create an immersive flight experience for Apple Vision Pro that highlights the accessibility, capability and beauty of the Cirrus SR Series aircraft. We wanted viewers to understand how Personal Aviation opens up the world and how much of the American Southwest one can see in just a few hours when flying themselves.”
'Personal Aviation' is a key concept for Cirrus. Rogue Labs’ President Cory Hill commented, “We aimed to capture the beauty and emotion of being a Cirrus aircraft owner and having the ability to fly wherever you want, whenever you want. We chose the URSA Cine Immersive for its fidelity and the quality of the footage, as well as its ease of use. The simplicity of such an impressive camera really makes it straightforward to capture stories and views in a way that has hasn’t been achieved before.”
Anthony agreed that the URSA Cine Immersive is a natural choice for shooting immersive 8K and noted that the camera’s workflow integration with DaVinci Resolve Studio also made post production much more efficient, allowing the team to focus on the creative side while maintaining the technical precision that Apple Immersive Video requires.
Immersive Workflow
He said that Cirrus first explored developing new ways to approach flight training and aircraft sales with Apple Vision Pro a few years ago. Now, with access to the Blackmagic Design workflow for creating Apple Immersive Video content, they’re better able to take advantage of giving customers virtual access to their aircraft.
“Being able to capture true immersive 8K 90 fps imagery, with a workflow designed specifically for spatial formats, has made an enormous difference,” Anthony noted. “While many cameras can approximate immersive footage, the URSA Cine Immersive is purpose-built for it, allowing us to maintain consistency between cockpit, Technocrane and aerial platform shots. Its integration with DaVinci Resolve simplified the ingest and editorial process, reducing technical friction and letting our team focus more on creative decisions.”
The Cirrus Global Sales Team will be equipped with Apple Vision Pro and the Cirrus ‘Let’s Go Fly!’ app, so they can share the immersive experience at events, meetings, tradeshows and during their travels. The company chose this sales approach because it ensures that even if someone can’t see a Cirrus aircraft in person, they can still experience what it feels like to fly one.
“We believe that immersive storytelling will become a powerful tool for sharing the freedom and capability of Personal Aviation through the eyes of a Cirrus pilot or passenger. Not everyone lives near a Cirrus location or has access to an aircraft, and immersive content gives us a way to bring that experience directly to them. It allows prospective pilots and airplane owners to emotionally connect with the idea of flight in a meaningful, first-person way,” said Anthony.
“We’re also proud to be the first aviation OEM to produce an immersive film in this format. Incorporating air-to-air sequences was especially rewarding because of how they allow viewers to experience the sense of flight in a way that feels more authentic and emotionally engaging than traditional video. It’s the closest anyone can get to flying a Cirrus without actually being in the aircraft.” www.blackmagicdesign.com
