Why I shot this little Ursa mini slow motion video
Since the sun had finally come out toward the end of what had been a very grey weekend, I packed the kids into the car with a basic picnic, our goto beach stuff and headed down to Wembury Beach near Plymouth, Devon, UK.
I also decided to take along our new Blackmagic URSA Mini 4k camera to continue getting to grips with this stunning camera. I was keen to get more accustomed with the cameras menus and general form factor. Also I really wanted to try and do a Ursa mini slow motion video tests.
All the clips (bar 1) were shot at 60fps in 4k, I then cropped into some of the shots a little. (Except the last one which was 120 fps in HD).
Ursa mini slow motion video kit:
I knew I needed to travel light as I’d no doubt be fetching the kids from deep rock pools plus heading down to the beach with a bag of beach gear including a variety of spades, diggers, BBQ and some frankfurter sausages.
Below’s a picture of the minimal rig. I carried it all down in the superb Lowepro Whistler backpack which I’d bought specially for the URSA mini plus lenses, ND filters, batteries and some industry grade sound kit (none of which was needed on this test shoot).
- Light weight Movofilm shoulder rig.
- Blackmagic URSA Mini 4k,
- Sigma 18-35mm lens,
- Hoya Variable ND filter.
- Switronics slim v mount battery.
- All cut and graded quick and simply in Premiere using Lumetri.
Some shots are obviously out of focus, others a little blown out but I still liked them for one reason or another so they still made this evenings late night cut. The Ursa mini slow motion video test shots were all done in part to make a nice video record of our kids surfing adventures but also to get to grips with the best ways of shooting with the camera.
This was all filmed with the simplest of rigs, camera, lens on a lightweight shoulder rig previously used for the Blackmagic pocket cinema camera.