Cinematographer Blake McClure, ASC recently completed principal photography with the Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65 digital camera. Here, he shares his experiences on the shoot.
Cinematographer Blake McClure, ASC recently completed principal photography using the Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65 digital film camera, and shared insights about his experience with the camera.
Blake, best known for his work on high profile episodics such as The Dropout, Miracle Workers and Loot, chose the URSA Cine 17K 65 to shoot his most recent project. His introduction to the new large format camera came through seeing work shot by cinematographer Dylan Rucker. “When I saw a demo that Dylan shot, one frame stuck with me of a man sipping coffee in a kitchen, looking out over a ranch,” he said.
Portraits in Motion
“That single image hooked me. It instantly reminded me of medium format portrait photography. I could feel the camera’s proximity to the actor, the way the background fell off so gracefully, and how naturally the skin tones rendered. The tones were perfect. A simple frame, yet incredibly effective.”
Although he typically shoots episodic shows with a very static visual style, Blake wanted something different for his new project. He said, “In half hour shows, there’s rarely room for dynamic camera movement. I’ve always had to rely on lighting and colour to bring visual interest. Coverage is usually limited to over the shoulder shots, clean singles, and the occasional wide. I was looking for something new.”
The 65mm sensor on the URSA Cine 17K 65 gave McClure an opportunity to shoot with a different perspective. “A large sensor lets you get closer to the subject on a normal lens without distortion. We were shooting medium shots on a 55mm from about 7 feet away. To get the same field of view on Super 35, we’d need to use a 30mm lens or shoot at double the distance from the subject. I wanted the show to feel like a portrait, intimate and driven by relationships. I’ve always loved medium format photography, and this was the closest I’ve been to that in motion,” he said.
Camera Functionality
For first assistant camera [AC] Logan Hall, the camera’s functionality was important. “My only real experience with past Blackmagic cameras was the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro, which was a completely different form factor than what I was used to,” said Logan. “The URSA Cine 17K 65’s body is more familiar and allowed us, as ACs, to translate a more native workflow to this camera body.”
Using a cage system, Logan could configure the camera in any way he needed. “We could build the camera in almost any configuration that we could hope for, whether it be for studio work, on a Steadicam, or even on compact gimbals like the Ronin 2,” he noted.
An added bonus was the URSA Cine 17K 65’s second monitor built into the right side of the camera, a feature not seen in most other systems. “Having the two built in monitors was incredibly helpful,” he said. “There were many times where Blake was on set making adjustments, and no matter what side of the camera he was on, he was able to just glance at the monitor without having to go all the way back to DIT. I found the directors, assistant directors and even production assistants looking at the AC side monitor, which allowed them to see all the adjustments they were making on the fly, all while being able to stay close to the action.”
The Dropout
Compression Options
The advantages of the URSA Cine 17K 65’s distinctive RGBW sensor and its multiple compression options meant Blake could manage his data use on the fly. “We shot at open gate 8K, and the ability to shoot multiple high resolution formats without any image crop is a key advantage on this camera,” he commented.
“On the camera, you can either record at a constant compression setting, which is standard practice, or use the Constant Quality mode. We shot in Q3, which allocates more data to areas of high detail and less to static parts of the frame, reducing the overall data rate. You don’t notice it visually, but it means smaller file sizes. This made it an easier sell to the studio, since we weren’t asking them to approve a massive data storage footprint for the DIT or post production.”
Ultimately, it was the ability to tell a unique story with the URSA Cine 17K 65’s large format sensor that attracted Blake and made the most impact on production. “Every time a new actor came to set, they’d comment on how close the cameras were to them during a scene,” he said. “They assumed we were using super wide lenses for close ups, but once we showed them the frame, they couldn’t believe the look we were getting. The images really surprised everyone.” www.blackmagicdesign.com
