A groundbreaking Apple Immersive Video challenge places viewers on the coronary heart of France’s nationwide celebration, filmed with Blackmagic’s URSA Cine Immersive and completed in DaVinci Resolve Studio for Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. Let’s take a detailed take a look at the URSA Cine Immersive Bastille Day movie.
For the primary time, France’s Bastille Day ceremonies have been remodeled into a completely immersive expertise. Produced by Paris-based studio Immersive Flashback, the Bastille Day movie permits Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional customers to accompany President Emmanuel Macron from the Élysée Palace via the navy parade on the Champs-Élysées, guided by Macron’s personal narration. Captured totally with the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive, the challenge demonstrates how Apple’s spatial format can now deal with complicated real-world productions at a cinematic commonplace.
Capturing a presidential perspective
Director Frank-David Cohen’s objective was to “let the French expertise Bastille Day as by no means earlier than, proper alongside the President.” That translated into intimate, presence-driven visuals: the movie opens within the President’s workplace because the viewer waits in silence. A clock chimes, the door opens, and Macron enters the body to deal with the viewer straight. The end result feels pure and speedy — extra like reminiscence than broadcast.
A Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive digital camera behind French president Emmanuel Macron and his spouse on Bastille Day 2025 in Paris. Picture credit score: Blackmagic Design
Attaining that realism required technical precision and logistical management. Cameras needed to stay steady on the shifting presidential command automotive, so the crew carried out pre-shoot stabilization checks at a navy base to forestall movement discomfort contained in the headset. Coordination with France Télévisions ensured that not one of the immersive rigs have been seen within the dwell broadcast watched by tens of millions.
With the schedule dictated by the President’s actions, there was no time for relighting or retakes. “On the Élysée, we needed to transfer straight from workplace interiors into daylight with no time to regulate,” mentioned Cohen. “With Blackmagic RAW we might maintain rolling, realizing these transitions may very well be managed in put up with out breaking the workflow.”
Native immersive seize with out stitching
Not like earlier immersive productions – comparable to Bono: Tales of Give up (examine our video interview with director Elad Supply in case you missed it), which relied on a number of cameras and AI-assisted stitching to achieve Imaginative and prescient Professional’s demanding decision – the URSA Cine Immersive Bastille Day movie was captured natively on a single, purpose-built digital camera system.
As we reported from NAB 2025, the URSA Cine Immersive information twin 8K fisheye photographs to cowl a 180-degree discipline per eye. This design eliminates stitching errors and parallax mismatches whereas retaining shade accuracy and lens calibration knowledge via the complete pipeline. Mixed with DaVinci Resolve’s immersive put up instruments, launched earlier this 12 months, the workflow feels surprisingly acquainted to conventional 2D manufacturing – simply with vastly increased knowledge charges.
In our protection of the URSA Cine Immersive’s debut, Blackmagic emphasised that the objective was to make Apple Immersive Video sensible for skilled crews. Immersive Flashback’s Bastille Day movie now proves that promise in motion.
Macron on the Élysée, seemingly after being proven a few of the immersive Bastille Day footage on a Imaginative and prescient Professional headset. Picture credit score: Blackmagic Design
Spatial audio and a unified put up workflow
Every URSA Cine Immersive rig carried ambisonic microphones to report spatial audio aligned with the viewer’s perspective, complemented by directional microphones for dialogue and environmental cues. Put up-production befell totally in DaVinci Resolve Studio, combining edit, shade, and spatial audio inside one timeline. Paris-based Studio 31dB dealt with the ultimate sound combine, noting that Resolve’s Fairlight instruments now rival devoted spatial mixers in precision and monitoring management.
The movie’s seamless put up pipeline echoes Apple’s current Immersive Video workshops, the place the corporate trains filmmakers to deal with spatial storytelling inside acquainted NLEs. It’s one other indicator that immersive filmmaking is transitioning from experimental to mainstream — with instruments that don’t require VR-specific software program or proprietary rigs.
A brand new chapter in Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional filmmaking — and a glimpse of what’s subsequent
Because the first Imaginative and prescient Professional models shipped in early 2024, CineD has coated (right here, or right here) how filmmakers are adapting conventional manufacturing workflows to Apple’s new spatial format. Blackmagic’s URSA Cine Immersive was the primary skilled digital camera designed explicitly for Apple Immersive Video, unifying acquisition and post-production into one ecosystem. Now, as this Bastille Day movie premieres, Apple appears to be getting ready its subsequent step.
In response to a number of studies, Apple may already unveil Imaginative and prescient Professional 2 in October 2025 — presumably inside the subsequent days. The headset is rumored to characteristic a lighter design, improved battery effectivity, enhanced eye and hand monitoring, and Apple’s next-generation M5 chip, providing sooner real-time rendering for immersive content material. A extra inexpensive worth may it extra interesting for a bigger crowd.
These refinements might make Apple’s headset extra snug for prolonged viewing and, crucially, for professionals who must preview immersive footage contained in the gadget. Mixed with a stronger Neural Engine for AI-driven picture processing, Imaginative and prescient Professional 2 may additionally cut back latency and enhance playback smoothness for large-format immersive initiatives like this one.
If these updates maintain true, the timing couldn’t be higher. The URSA Cine Immersive Bastille Day movie proves that complicated event-based storytelling can now thrive inside this format. A lighter, extra inexpensive headset might lastly assist Apple’s immersive platform acquire the broader adoption it wants to maneuver past a technological showcase right into a viable inventive medium.
Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional in use. Picture credit score: Blackmagic Design
The place to expertise the URSA Cine Immersive Bastille Day movie
The Bastille Day immersive movie premiered throughout the European Heritage Days and is now accessible for public viewing on Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional at Maison Élysée in Paris. Sadly it doesn’t appear to be accessible for “non-public viewing” at residence from the Imaginative and prescient App Retailer.
Immersive video – a distinct segment to get into as a filmmaker?
For filmmakers exploring Apple Immersive Video, this challenge is a sensible case examine: single-camera stereo seize, metadata-rich RAW recording, ambisonic audio, and a unified put up workflow. It demonstrates that high-end immersive manufacturing not requires boutique setups or customized code, however can as a substitute move via acquainted skilled instruments – from Blackmagic digital camera to Resolve to Imaginative and prescient Professional.
As immersive filmmaking matures and Apple refines its {hardware}, we could also be witnessing the second it transitions from novelty to narrative instrument. The query now’s: how will filmmakers use this format to inform tales solely potential in three dimensions of presence?
