Ed Sheeran records a virtual concert with Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K cameras

Ed Sheeran performed 10 songs in a virtual concert recorded at the Electric Light Studio agency (THEM) in London using a RAW-based workflow for the entire process, from recording with cameras Blackmagic Design until post-production.

Sheraan was the headlining artist of the virtual music festival iHeartRadio Like Tango y Pandora Live. The performance included the song for the first time Bad Habits from his latest album.

Mark Cuniffe, a specialist in production and lighting design, was in charge of the creative plan, approved by Ed Sheraan and the American radio platforms. In this way, ELS only had to dedicate itself to capturing all the necessary material in one day.

Dan Massie, director, producer, and co-founder of ELS, says, "We were tasked with recording all 10 performances, but in two very distinctive styles. Each song had a different setup, and for some of them we didn't even know what the lighting setup would be like until shooting, so we had to make a lot of decisions on the fly."

"The challenge of working with multiple cameras is always the same: how to get enough good shots without the main unit ruining them. I wanted to mount one camera on a rig so that I could use it as the main camera and have the rest of the plan revolve around it," he adds.

The cameras

Massie and cinematographer Ben Coughlan later opted to purchase four units URSA Mini Pro 12K mounted on platforms, Steadicam mounts, travelines and tripods, and a model URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 to work with the camera in your hand.

“Additionally, we use a Pocket Cinema Camera 6K mounted on a platform, which allowed us to effectively capture two shots of different sizes,” explains Massie.

In general, for multi-camera shots, spherical goals, but ELS wanted to combine them with other anamorphic style ones, so the URSA Mini Pro 12K versions were equipped with lenses Angenieux In the best way y Anamorphic Cooke.

Because the tracks were for different HD outputs, ELS filmed in 4K a 25 f/s with a 16:9 aspect ratio for one of them, and for the other at 23.97 f/s with a 2:39 aspect ratio.

"I love the images the URSA Mini Pro 12K delivers, and the Blackmagic RAW format was ideal for our workflow. We shot the footage in Blackmagic RAW Q5, as it offers consistent quality while keeping all the data in smaller files, which is very useful for a multi-camera setup," says Massie.

"Working in post-production with the Blackmagic RAW format is exceptional and also keeps all the teams involved happy, thanks to the file sizes, which do not require a lot of storage drives. All the information is there and offers flexibility during grading."

Post-production

The images were edited and graded by Andy Morgan in ELS con DaVinci Resolve.

Massie remembers that "the previous afternoon we had a pre-lighting rehearsal, and filming would take place the next day for twelve hours with a crew of 35 professionals, but with a very intense setup and schedule. It was incredible to overcome the challenge of filming so many performances in such a short period of time."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZNWEPqZ7zw