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Blackmagic Design announced that Director, Producer and Academy-Award Winning Writer John Ridley (“12 Years a Slave”) is using the URSA Mini 4K digital film camera on several television and film projects, including the TV mini-series “Guerrilla” currently filming in London, among others.

Ridley often has a spontaneous shooting style for which the URSA Mini 4K comes in handy. “My experience thus far with the URSA Mini 4K has been exceptional,” he said. “It is an amazingly versatile piece of equipment that allows me to not only use it in every phase of production, but to do so in a variety of ways.”

Using the URSA Mini 4K for previsualization (previz), Ridley notes that the camera’s efficient user interface allows him to “run and gun” with his thoughts focused on the scenes that he is building, rather than the complexities of filming. “I’m a freak for shooting before shooting, but I have found historically there were few, if any, offerings that had the durability of professional equipment, but that were also intuitive enough creatively so as not to collide with spontaneity,” he explained. “Importantly, I didn’t want a piece of kit I had to lug around in hopes I might need it. With an emphasis on the ‘Mini,’ the URSA Mini’s form factor allows it to be ever present. Even the tools that facilitate the greatest creativity can’t be of use when they are not at hand.”

In his role as Director on various film and television projects, Ridley is known to grab a camera himself to capture additional footage. “The URSA Mini 4K’s ability to grab and go has also allowed me to use it as a fill-in B camera that I’ve self-operated during production,” he said. “With the camera in hand, I’ve been able to record additional footage on the move without impacting our principle photography.”

He added, “On days when a true second unit proves to be as financially prohibitive as the workload is demanding, the option of using the URSA Mini 4K has proved to be invaluable. Though camera operating isn’t my primary skill set, with the URSA Mini 4K, I’ve gotten the shots I’ve needed and done so with broadcast-quality that has cut seamlessly into our project.”

As a self-taught camera operator, Ridley appreciates the URSA Mini’s ease of use, but is quick to note that the camera suffers no loss in ability when he has handed it off to well-seasoned camera technicians. “The camera is remarkably adept and ‘tweakable,’ allowing it to capture the best images in a variety of lighting conditions, from harsh to lowlight,” he said. “In post, as well, the workflow is as basic or demanding as the user wishes it to be. I have turned shot footage around in minutes to use in previz, and I have also put it through a post gauntlet that has had to pass international QC. In all instances, I have not been disappointed.”

Ridley concluded, “The URSA Mini 4K is a serious cinema camera with serious capabilities, and in less than a year, it has become an integral part of my creative process. I look forward to further exploring the camera and testing its seemingly endless potential.”



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About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Steinberg released WaveLab 9.0.30 and Nuendo 7.1.20 updates enabling WaveLab Exchange under Nuendo! The update for WaveLab also contains fixes for numerous issues as well as improvements to the user interface, incl. the ability to close all open files or refreshing the File Browser windows with an F5 key command. Download the new version (WaveLab Pro, Elements or LE) here. Steinberg also announced Mac OS X 10.12 Sierra compatibility for its line of audio interfaces: with the exception of CMC Series and Nuendo SyncStation, which are still being tested, all products are compatible with the latest Mac OS X. Read the full list here.

Video Devices announced the addition of a new set of features to the PIX-E Series of 4K-compatible recording monitors with the release of firmware 3.50. With this firmware update the PIX-E Series offers key playback functionality, including the ability to add, delete, and locate to cue markers, create a custom playlist, loop playback of individual recordings, regions or playlists, and more. These features, which are available as a free download for PIX-E5, PIX-E5H, and PIX-E7 owners, work with or without the optional PIX-LR audio interface accessory.



Reviewing regions within a recorded file becomes easy and efficient with the use of the new cue markers feature. Users can add cue markers both while recording and during playback. When combined with existing features such as pause and jog, users can now also set frame-accurate cue markers and later navigate to them with a quick press of the Fast Forward or Rewind buttons.

Another new playback tool is looping, which lets a user loop sections of a recording, the entire recording, or even an entire playlist of recorded files. You can loop forward, in reverse, in slow motion, or at high speed. A unique PIX-E7 only feature is an SDI In button that toggles monitoring and recording between separate video signals fed to the monitor's two SDI inputs. This is ideal for switching back and forth between dual camera shots. This feature is perfect for video assist and digital imaging technicians (DITs), so they can quickly compare framing and color balance on both cameras. The director can then view both shots from one device. Click the following link to the v3.50 download page.

Blackmagic Design released two new updates: Desktop Video 10.8.2 and DaVinci Resolve 12.5.3. The Desktop Video 10.8.2 software update adds support for keying in 1080p50, 1080p59.94 and 1080p60, support for 3G-SDI Level A in 1080p23.93 to 1080p30, and fixes audio playback compatibility for some monitors when using DeckLink 4K Extreme. It also fixes an intermittent bug which causes audio corruption during playback for DeckLink Duo, as well as user interface operability improvements for Blackmagic Media Express and performance improvements for draft mode output when using Media composer.

DaVinci Resolve Studio 12.5.3 adds support for XML version 1.6 so you can import and work with projects from the new Final Cut Pro X. In addition, this update also adds support for ACES 1.0.2 and ACEScct color science, along with improved MXF XAVC encoding, improved AAF importing from Media Composer, and improved Dolby Vision XML exporting. DaVinci Resolve 12.5.3 Studio also adds support for PostgreSQL 9.5.2 on Mac OS X Sierra.

Red Giant Software introduced Magic Bullet Suite 13, a major upgrade to their tools for color correction, finishing and film looks. This update to Magic Bullet Suite is packed with powerful new features, and for the first time ever, all of the color correction tools deliver real-time performance through Mercury Playback support in Adobe Premiere Pro. Every tool in the suite has been updated, and runs on the GPU! Professional color correction tool for filmmakers, Magic Bullet Colorista IV, includes Guided Color Correction, a simple Hollywood-tested, step-by-step process for quickly balancing your shot, as well as the new Colorista Panel, which turns Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects into a professional color grading environment. Also included is RGB Point Curves, Log support and ability to load LUTs into Colorista IV.



The Magic Bullet Renoiser is an entirely new product that gives your footage a cinematic texture and grain. Whether you've denoised your video, created CGI and motion graphics compositions, or even shot on a camera that produces virtually noiseless footage, Renoiser’s all-new, realtime, GPU-accelerated grain engine rebuilds your footage with a cinematic texture more genuine than anything you've seen before. Renoiser is fully-customizable, and includes 16 noise/grain presets based on real film stocks and popular movies, such as 16MM, 8MM and much more. Renoiser supports OpenGL/OpenCL (Adobe Mercury Playback), so it all happens in real time.