by FilmInk Staff
Nature Documentaries Freeze Epic Momentsin Extremely High Resolution with Blackmagic Cameras.
In the biting winds of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a Tibetan antelope leaps, its taut muscles tracing an elegant arc, hooves skimming the snow, kicking up snowflakes that glint in the sunlight as if frozen in time. Deep in the Qinling Mountains’ forests, a crested ibis takes flight, its wings captured in slow motion at nearly 10 times, revealing the delicate tremor of each feather.
These breathtaking scenes are from documentaries produced by Shaanxi Humanities Exploration Film and Culture Communication Co., Ltd., now broadcast on China’s national broadcaster’s flagship channel CCTV-1.
“Nature documentaries challenge both the technical and artistic skills of creators, and the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K is our most reliable tool to get it right,” said Chen Xu, general manager of Shaanxi Humanities Exploration. The Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K digital film camera has endured the harsh tests of plateau cold, tropical humidity and torrential rain, enabling the Shaanxi Humanities Exploration team to complete over a dozen CCTV documentaries, including “The Charm of Sanjiangyuan,” “Wild Homeland,” “The World’s Rare Crested Ibis,” “The Monkey King of Qinling,” “The Hermit of the Bamboo Forest,” “The Secret Realm of Qianjiangyuan Waterways,” “Dongzhai: The Secret Land in Central China,” “Wuliangsuhai: A Haven for Migratory Birds,” and “Changdao: The Animal Kingdom of the Yellow and Bohai Seas.”
Capturing Nature’s Fleeting Beauty at High Speed
Wildlife moves in fleeting moments, and capturing these split second shots often determines a documentary’s success. “For instance, when filming the Reeve’s pheasant, a national first class protected species, the male vibrates its stunning tail feathers during courtship at a high frequency. Using the URSA Mini Pro 12K’s 4K 240 fps mode, we recorded two males simultaneously vibrating their tails to court a female, capturing intricate tail fan details in slow motion that are imperceptible to the naked eye. These visuals even aided researchers in better understanding this unique Chinese bird,” Chen explained.
“In the wild, we travel light, so we need versatile, flexible equipment that meets diverse shooting needs,” Chen added. “The URSA Mini Pro 12K’s sensor supports 12K, 8K, and 4K, with in sensor scaling that maintains the full sensor frame when switching resolutions, keeping compositions consistent. It also offers a windowed mode for significantly higher frame rates. Switching between high and low frame rates is seamless, allowing us to seize critical moments. This is especially useful for wildlife close ups. To avoid disturbing animals, we often shoot from a distance with long lenses. Once, while filming mating battles of white lipped deer on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, they were far across a sandbar in the Tongtian River. Our 800mm lens wasn’t enough, so we used the 4K windowed mode, effectively adding a 3.3x crop, paired with a 1.4x teleconverter, successfully capturing all needed standard, time lapse, and slow motion shots.”
High resolution also delivers an extraordinary visual experience. “12K and 8K footage captures intricate details, like the fine texture of bird feathers or the translucent quality of insect wings, greatly enhancing the documentary’s visual impact and immersion,” Chen noted. “High resolution also grants greater flexibility in post production, allowing lossless cropping and zooming.”
Built for the Wild
Wildlife documentary filming often faces extreme environments. Chen recalled, “At -30°C on the plateau, the URSA Mini Pro 12K worked flawlessly. At 40°C in high heat, it never shut down due to overheating.”
Its durability is equally impressive. “During a shoot in heavy rain, water entered the camera’s Type-C port, preventing data writing to the SSD. We dried it with tissue and let it air out, and it resumed normal operation. Snow covering the camera on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau was routine, yet this 12K camera performed exceptionally in mountains, forests, and coastal areas, proving to be a reliable partner,” said Chen.
Advancing with Blackmagic Design
Shaanxi Humanities Exploration not only creates documentaries, but is also a pioneer in film technology. As one of the first companies in Shaanxi to adopt DaVinci Resolve into its standard workflow and later incorporate various Blackmagic cameras, the team has deep expertise with Blackmagic Design products.
“Blackmagic Design has democratised professional tools, making them accessible beyond the likes of BBC or National Geographic, empowering teams like ours,” Chen said. “The URSA Mini Pro 12K’s open design enhances our creative flexibility. Its interchangeable lens mount allowed us to switch from PL to EF, utilizing existing lenses like the Sigma 300-800mm for bright conditions or the Canon 200-400mm f/4.0 for low light. With adapters, we can even use vintage Zeiss, Leica, or Nikon lenses, giving them new life on this cinema camera.”
Regarding Blackmagic RAW, Chen noted, “It’s like an uncut diamond, offering immense post production flexibility. Despite being a RAW format, its file sizes are smaller than some common formats and run smoothly in DaVinci Resolve.”
Recently, the team acquired an URSA Cine 12K LF Body. Chen commented, “The URSA Cine 12K, a large format high end cinema camera, offers significant improvements in dynamic range, light sensitivity, and high frame rates. I’ve been following it since its announcement. The body only model gives cinematographers more options, making it affordable for long time Blackmagic users like us, while allowing us to build a complete system with existing accessories.”
A Tribute to Life Through Documentaries
From snowy plateaus to wetland plains, from birds to beasts, Shaanxi Humanities Exploration’s shots craft vivid ecological worlds for audiences. When asked why they chose the 12K cameras, Chen said, “We aim to preserve China’s ecological details in ways that surpass the human eye. Each frame is a tribute to life and an ecological archive for the future.”
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, colour 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 colour 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
