Canal+ brings MotoGP to a new immersive experience

Filmed entirely with the new Blackmagic URSA Immersive Cinema Camera and finished in DaVinci Resolve Studio (Blackmagic Design), Canal+ produces an immersive documentary for viewers to enjoy on Apple Vision Pro.

MotoGP has always tested the limits of what audiences can see and hear on screen. For its latest project, Canal+ set out to capture not just the speed but also the quieter moments that define a race weekend. Filmed entirely with the new Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive camera and finished in DaVinci Resolve Studio, the sports documentary is part of a new generation of immersive workflows for capture, postproduction and viewing on Apple Vision Pro.

Produced in collaboration with MotoGP and Apple, the documentary follows world champion Johann Zarco and his team during their dramatic home victory at the French Grand Prix in Le Mans.

It was captured using the URSA Cine Immersive camera with dual 8160 x 7200 (58.7 Megapixel) sensors at 90fps, delivering 3D immersive cinema content to a single file mixed with Apple Spatial Audio. The MotoGP sports experience places viewers in the heart of the action, from the pit lane and paddock to the podium.

“MotoGP is made for this format,” said Etienne Pidoux at Canal+. “You feel the raw speed, and you see details you’d otherwise miss on a flat screen. It puts you closer to the machines and the team than ever before.”

To place the viewer at the center of the action, Canal+ deployed multiple URSA Cine Immersive cameras. “We had two cameras on pedestals and one on a Steadicam,” explained Pierre Maillat of Canal+. “The idea was to be able to swap quickly between Steadicam and fixed setups depending on what was happening in the moment. The Steadicam setup was extremely valuable,” noted Pidoux. “It made us more reactive in a fast changing environment and gave us more agility while filming.”

“Immersive video changes how you shoot,” added Pidoux. “You plan more, shoot less, and you rethink composition because of the 180 degree view, especially in tight or crowded spaces like the pit lane.” Lighting was also a consideration inside the team garages. “We added some extra light to compensate for the 90 frames per second stereoscopic capture.”

Spatial audio

Each camera was paired with an ambisonic microphone to capture first order spatial audio, the ambisonic mics were supplemented by discrete microphones for interviews and other critical sound sources. “We recorded in ambisonics Format A for the immersive mix and channel based for other sources,” Maillat noted. “Everything was timecoded wirelessly and synced on both the cameras and the external recorders.”

A portable production cart with a Mac Studio running DaVinci Resolve Studio, alongside an Apple Vision Pro, was set up trackside to monitor and test shots in context. “This approach allowed us to check the content right after shooting and helped us verify framing while still on location,” said Maillat.

Canal+ had a second Mac Studio running DaVinci Resolve Studio and an Apple Vision Pro set up at the hotel in Le Mans to handle media offload and backups. With 8TB of internal storage, recording directly to the Media Module, the crew could film more than two hours of 8K stereoscopic 3D immersive footage on the track without needing to change cards.

Postproduction took place in Paris, where Canal+ used a Mac Studio running DaVinci Resolve Studio for editing, color grading, and audio mixing. “We could even preview the stereoscopic timeline directly in Apple Vision Pro, crucial for immersive grading,” explained Maillat.

Spatial Audio was mixed using DaVinci Resolve Studio’s Fairlight. “Initially, we planned to use a different digital audio workstation (DAW), but DaVinci Resolve Studio and Fairlight was the platform that gave us both creative flexibility and the high quality deliverables for Apple Vision Pro,” explained Maillat.

“Filming with the URSA Cine Immersive camera and viewing it in Apple Vision Pro, we found incredible moments we’d normally treat as background,” Pidoux concluded. “Cleaning the track, helmet close ups, the crowd, they all become part of the experience.”