The VFX of 'Marinette' were recorded with the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K

The URSA Mini Pro 12K camera Blackmagic was used by cinematographer Xavier Dolléans to capture the shots that would later include VFX for 'Marinette'.

Marinette tells the story of history of Marinette Pichon, a pioneer of French women's football and one of the most prominent players in this sport. MPC, a company specialized in visual effects with extensive experience in terms of crowd generation, would play an important role in this production, always under the direction of the director of photography Xavier Dolléans (AFC).

After multiple conversations with Laurent Larapidie, visual effects supervisor at MPC, Dolleans decided to form a independent team of the main production with the purpose of organizing the extras and signing the scenes in which the intervention of the VFX would be required to duplicate the audience. Larapidie He remembers what the process was like: "I had to fill entire stadiums with just 70 extras. We filmed them from different angles, often changing props, clothing and positions. It was a long process, but the ability to work independently on this part of the film allowed us to save a lot of time during production. We used computer simulations of the audience for the long shots, but by having real people, we had the opportunity to achieve convincing effects."

Dolleans y Pichon They decided to capture these scenes with a unit URSA Mini Pro 12K, a “very well designed camera that is easy to use.” "It only took a few instructions from the technical team and I was ready to start recording. In addition, it is relatively light, and we could place it on a slider, which gave us greater mobility. This made it easier to handle on the grass and change angles," Larapidie explains. The Blackmagic cameraman was equipped with anamorphic lenses Orion of Atlas Lens, and most of the visual effects shots were recorded in 8K resolution at a frequency of 48 f/s and an aspect ratio of 2:39, so that they coincide with the images captured by the main cameras.

The rolled material reached Niranjan Siva, visual effects supervisor, who was pleased to be able to work with “4K EXR files obtained from the originals in 8K resolution” as well as employ a “dynamic grading based on the ACES color space”, which allowed “enlarging the image without sacrificing quality.” Dolléans, looking back, is satisfied with the performance of the URSA Mini Pro 12K in Marinette: "In the film industry, it is common for visual effects managers to have to perform miracles from material that does not have enough detail or resolution. With Blackmagic's 12K sensor, this problem does not exist."

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