Mexico’s first virtual Production game show was produced with Blackmagic Design, as “Club Cinépolis Desafío India” relied on Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K for cinematic production. Club Cinépolis, a leading global entertainment company with roots in Latin America, partnered with Mexico based production companies Bestia Lab and Simplemente, also the project’s systems integrator, for the 15-episode series, available on Cinépolis’ YouTube channel.
The new series was shot in Blackmagic RAW with Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K digital film cameras and captivated audiences every week with an average 150K viewers per episode, becoming a social media phenomenon. For the new series Club Cinépolis took production to the next level by shooting the second season within a studio at Foro Centro de Producción Virtual equipped with more than 200 meters of LED screens, putting eight contestants in the center of a cine multiverse to compete for a lifetime of free movie theater tickets and a trip to India. Each episode featured the contestants completing challenges in a different virtual world based on different genres, ranging from action to fantasy.
“Partnering with Bestia Lab to produce this revolutionary virtual game show in Mexico for Cinépolis was a huge adventure for us at Simplemente,” said Mónica Reina, cofounder and president of Simplemente. “Nothing like this had ever been done before, so we took inspiration for the set from ‘The Mandalorian’ and ‘The Batman’ as these two films relied heavily on virtual production environments.”
Here is some more information about the project:
With production to be completed in just 10 days, the team needed a reliable workflow that allowed them to achieve the cinematic results they were looking for within budget.
“We needed a mix of powerful cameras for this type of show, each with unique characteristics that would allow us to be versatile on set,” said Reina. “Three URSA Mini Pro 12Ks, positioned throughout the set, were easy to control remotely, and the ability to work with the resolution from 12K to 4K enabled us to zoom and recompose the images to create new shots, effectively doubling and tripling the amount of angles without having to rely on more gear or operators.”
She continued, “We also equipped ourselves with two Pocket Cinema Cameras 6Ks as they were easy to grab and move on set for alternative, close up shots of the contestants. We shot in 6K using these cameras as we wanted to take full advantage of the sensor and not have to crop the size of the image. Also, an URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 was mounted on a crane for a bird’s eye view of the contestants while they completed their missions.”
The cameras fed into an ATEM Constellation 8K live production switcher, complete with ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel 10, and an ATEM Mini Pro live production switcher incorporated various set feeds, which provided an overview of the entire set for logistical planning and was shared with remote production staff via Zoom to see how the show was coming together day by day.
“We selected the ATEM Constellation 8K due to its ability to handle a large number of inputs and work with high resolution signals in 8K, which was necessary for our technical requirements. The switcher allowed us to integrate all video sources and make complex transitions without loss of quality. In a production like ‘Cinépolis,’ this was essential to maintaining consistency in each take,” Reina noted.
To keep up with the nonstop pace of production, the team relied on seven HyperDeck Studio 4K Pro broadcast decks to record the camera feeds, with hard drives ready to go directly to editing, which proved to be a huge time saver.
“Being able to capture all cameras in one place also meant we could offer playback from any camera at any time,” added Reina. “This gave great confidence to our camera operators, who could always see the big picture of how the project was developing. It gave them all the immediate benefits of a live broadcast, and we also relied on DaVinci Resolve Studio for quick cuts and to review scenes during production.”
“We are so motivated to start shooting the third season of this fun show,” Reina concluded. “We are confident that with the Blackmagic Design workflow we’ve established, we are positioned for success and continued innovation. The integration we have across all our Blackmagic Design gear is truly remarkable and helps us achieve what is usually a complex production more easily.”