'Arctic Vets', filmed with Blackmagic's Ursa Mini Pro 12K camera

The production was carried out by the independent studio Entertainment One (eOne), with Andre Dupuis and Scott Wilson (Echo Bay Media) as director of photography and sound engineer, respectively.

Arctic Vets, the new original series of the CBC, was filmed with a digital film camera Ursa Mini Pro 12K of Blackmagic Design in format Blackmagic RAW. Additionally, DaVinci Resolve Studio software was used for grading, along with Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and Ursa Mini Pro 4.6K G2 to capture extraordinary images of wildlife, including polar bears, wolves and arctic foxes.

The 10-episode series currently airs on Fridays at 8:30 p.m. (local time) on the CBC channels, Canada's public broadcaster, and offers an intimate look at the wildlife that lives in the northern region of the country and the veterinarians of the Assiniboine Park Conservancy, who work tirelessly to keep the animals safe.

The production was carried out by the independent studio Entertainment One (eOne), while Andre Dupuis y Scott Wilson (Echo Bay Media) served as director of photography and sound engineer, respectively.

Dupuis acknowledges that "we wanted to film the widest variety of environments possible, so we divided the production team into two groups. The first traveled with an Ursa Mini Pro 12K and a Pocket Cinema Camera 6K to remote locations, along with several veterinarians, in order to capture images of the polar bear migration. For its part, the second group remained on the Assiniboine Park Conservancy grounds with two Ursa Mini Pro 4.6K G2 units, a Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and two Pocket Cinema Camera 4K”.

Traveling to Churchill, a small town in northern Manitoba known as “the polar bear capital of the world,” Dupuis and Wilson knew they would need equipment that would allow them to capture exceptional images of these animals while maintaining a safe distance.

4K, 6K and 8K with the same camera

“All nature shots were filmed with the model Ursa Mini Pro 12K, in order to obtain sharp, high-resolution images," says Wilson. "Being able to record in 4K, 6K and 8K with the same camera is truly amazing and is ideal for any filmmaker, as it allows them to adapt to the needs of the production."

"The Ursa Mini Pro 12K allowed us to film wildlife with long-range lenses to stabilize shots and zoom in, while still retaining a high level of detail in post-production. As the mastering was done in 4K, it was essential to be able to crop the center of an image without losing definition. This was essential when filming the animals, as it gave us the opportunity to keep a safe distance, as they can be unpredictable, while also offering us a degree of flexibility in the Additionally, the camera's resolution, 12-bit Blackmagic RAW format, and 14 stops of dynamic range gave us the latitude to capture the polar bears in the snow and under a relatively gray sky.”

Although the team generally kept their distance, sometimes the veterinarians' missions involved getting up close to the animals. On one occasion, a polar bear had to be transported to a location near the border with Nunavut in northern Canada to be released into the wild. Wilson used the model Pocket Cinema Camera 6K on a stabilizer in order to capture close-ups of the bear's transfer by helicopter.

“In these cases, you have to proceed quickly, especially if the animal is under the influence of a tranquilizer,” says Wilson. “The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K allowed us to do this safely and was very useful for filming alternate takes, thanks to its compact design and ease of use.”

"We had an arsenal of equipment during filming, and one of the big advantages on location was the Blackmagic OS operating system. This allowed crew members to switch between cameras easily, as they all functioned similarly, allowing them to adapt to various situations in the blink of an eye," says Wilson.

Arctic Vets was filmed in format Blackmagic RAW, which requires a lower transmission speed, and thanks to this, eOne was able to speed up the transfer of images and maintain their quality without needing to increase storage space. In turn, the study worked with JAXX Creative in Toronto to grade the series.

According to the colorist Dave St. Louis, "when processing a large amount of recorded material quickly and remotely, you need to have a tool that won't let you down. In this sense, DaVinci Resolve Studio allowed us to simplify our workflow and manage RAW images without any problem."