Prada and National Geographic team up on a documentary filmed in 8K with Blackmagic

Cinematographer Troy Edige chose the URSA Cine 12K LF and Pyxis 12K cameras from Blackmagic to film 'National Geographic x Prada', a documentary with fashion elements that was filmed on locations in Japan and Hawaii to support the Sea Beyond conservation initiative.

The program Sea Beyond, supported by the UNESCO, has evolved over five years; Initially, it focused on fabrics made from recycled plastics and has since expanded its reach to global education initiatives. This year's films focused on two stories: one about a Japanese foundation that teaches children about ocean management through activities such as beach litter drives, and another about a freshwater conservation program in Hawaii that shows how these bodies of water connect to the ocean.

To shape these pieces, the director of photography Troy Edige had the directive to maintain the own authenticity of an observational documentary, while capturing the sophisticated aesthetics of the brand Prada. In addition to the main four-minute short films, Edige also had to deliver material for social networks of 15 and 30 seconds duration, which featured brand ambassadors Benedict Cumberbatch (in Japan) and Letitia Wright (in Hawaii), as well as Sea Beyond ambassadors and students from key ocean education initiatives in both countries.

It was not a simple project: the times were reduced and the visual finish should to be first class. As Edige puts it, "We would fly in, explore for a day, and then shoot the next day with limited preparation. Sometimes we only had 90 minutes to capture an entire scene, including moving dialogue, reverse shots, background shots, and drone shots, all with a small crew."

Blackmagic in the Edige workflow

Edige comes using Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 for years as his favorite camera for filming documentaries. While it valued its cinematic image quality and size, and last year upgraded its camera suite by purchasing a unit URSA Cine 12K LF and one 12K boxes, protagonists of this filming.

"The fundamental factor was that the sensors of camera A and camera B coincide. In fact, we ended up using a stabilizer much more than expected due to the large number of different configurations we used. I did not hesitate to resort to a stabilizer, because I knew that we could intersperse the recorded images perfectly in the montage. This freedom meant that the attention was completely focused on the narrative," says the director of photography, who also highlighted the "excellent balance between cinematographic quality and usefulness for shooting documentaries" of both devices.

In response to the question about what was the highlight of the recorded material, Edige pointed out the skin tones: "They looked incredibly natural, with much more depth. The foliage was another big test, as green and yellow hues are often difficult to manage in uncontrolled documentary environments, demonstrating markedly improved separation."

The production was filmed in Open Gate and 8K with a 3:2 aspect ratio, which provided greater vertical height for formats intended for social networks. This was key for the phase of post-production: "I don't frame a scene thinking about how to reframe it, but I always shoot the frame I want. However, having that additional sensor area gives you flexibility in production without having to sacrifice anything."

During the calibrations, the colorist was able to develop a single color volume for the entire project, rather than adjusting shot by shot, which dramatically improved efficiency in post-production. Edige filmed the images in Blackmagic RAW with a 8:1 compression, which made it easy to organize hours of material for the documentary, while recording in-house proxy files eliminated a step from the on-location work process.