- What's up everyone.
My name is Joshua Kirk. Welcome back to another video.
In this video, we're going to be talking all
about rigging out the Ursa Mini G2, the 4.6k.
Weapon of a cinema camera.
And we're talking specifically about rigging it out
in a really small form factor.
So I've got it here just with a side handle
with a top screen, just with the V-mount on the back.
And it's just a really beautiful, compact cinema package
to be able to take straight out of the bag
when you're on shoots
and capture a whole bunch of really awesome B-roll shots
that you might not be able to get when it's fully rigged out
for a cinema package.
And that's the beautiful thing about this Ursa Mini G2,
is that the more you rig it out,
the more capable it becomes on big cinema productions,
but likewise, you can also strip it right down,
throw the EF mount back on it, throw a DSLR lens,
and then you've got this package
that you can hold really easily with one hand,
run around and capture some awesome footage.
So we're going to be talking all about that in this video.
Okay. So this is the camera all built up
for this run-and-gun style B-roll Ursa Mini Pro set up
and let's start with the body.
So we've obviously got the Ursa Mini Pro G2.
We've just got a simple tripod plate.
When we rig the camera up larger,
we often like to add a VCT plate,
which is really sturdy on the tripod.
But for the sake of stripping this right down,
it's just a simple tripod mount.
We do have the EF mount on the front of the camera.
Again, it's just another great thing about the Ursa is
that we can change these mounts out.
So when we do a little light set ups like this,
I often like to use a DSLR lens.
And that is actually because the focus throw
on the DSLR lens is much shorter than a cine lens.
So it allows you to hold the camera in one hand
and pull focus with the left hand like this.
And it's actually really easy to adjust the zoom
and the focus all manually holding the camera like this.
So we've got the lens on the front.
We often use these Canon AL lenses,
also the Sigma 18-35.
On the right here,
again, I've taken off that SmallRig base plate
that a lot of people use on the side
and I've simply put the Blackmagic side handle on here.
The side handle is connected via the link cable,
which we'll look at it a bit later.
But the link cable allows the side handle
to trigger start, stop recording.
If we move around, we've obviously got a V Mount battery,
which powers our entire rig.
One single battery powers the audio, powers the monitor,
and obviously powers the camera.
On the left-hand side here,
you'll see that we are running the Samsung T5 drive.
Now this is because we often use the SSD caddy at the back,
which sits in between the battery and the camera.
But because we've, again,
reduced the size of this particular rig,
we need a way to record into SSD external media.
Solely because we don't like using the CFast cards.
One is pricing.
The second is just our workflow in the studio.
So what we do is we run a USB-C right angle adapter
out of the side there,
and then it's getting fed up into the T% drive,
which is actually mounted on the back of the monitor there.
Now on the back,
we have an SDI port coming out of the back of the camera,
and this is running into the screen.
Now we're going to have a look at cable management
a little bit later in more detail.
But simply for the set up,
we've got an SDI out of the back
that is running into the Shinobi in the front.
The Shinobi has a cage,
which is mounted to the camera via a NATO rail
attached to the top.
And it also has a SmallRig Magic Arm,
which allows the screen to be moved
and flicks around accordingly.
Alright, so let's have a look
at cable management really quickly.
We've got a whole range of cables on the set up,
but as you can see, it's all really streamlined
at the back end of the camera here.
We have a SDI coiled cable coming out of the back port,
and this is fed up into the screen.
We also have a LANC cable, an LANC cable,
and this is a trigger cable coming from the remote
at the bottom here.
This is also going up and I'm actually using this cable
to wrap around the SDI cable and the power cable
to keep everything nice and snug here.
So this LANC cable comes up.
It wraps around these cables and then gets fed back around
into this LANC input here.
The SDI cable also helps secure the LANC cable
in the camera, so this here is really snug.
In terms of power supply,
this D-tap to DC power cable here is powering the monitor,
and this is actually quite a long cable.
So what I've done is I've fit it out of the battery.
It's going through this section here,
it's wrapping around the battery once more.
And when it comes up,
it's getting fed back through this coil,
through the main coil of the SDI,
which is this section here and then up into the screen.
Now this is a view of the screen.
So we've got the SDI cable and the DC power cable coming up
from the back end of the camera, which we saw before.
And that is wrapped around underneath the T5 drive
into the monitor there.
The DC cable, which you can see,
actually comes around this SDI port,
wraps around and then goes into the back of the monitor.
As you can see,
everything is really snug because of the coil.
And the way I've worked it,
the monitor can be wrapped around forward,
back, left and right, rotated.
And all the SDI cables, the DC power cable
and the USB cable for the T5, all flows really beautifully.
Now, arguably one of the most important cables
is the data cable for the T5 drive.
I've chosen to rig the T5 drive up
onto the monitor.
To achieve this, I've mounted the T5 on the back
and used a right angle adapter to come out of the T5
and this threads round into the screen.
You can see I've used a 2-zip tie method here to secure.
One zip tie to the cable and then one to the monitor.
And this actually anchors this down really nicely,
as well as a locking connection on the bottom
of this T5 adaptor here.
This particular cable,
I've had to shave off the plastic to fit it into this mount,
but with the mount connected and the zip ties,
this T5 drive is rock solid.
And lastly, you can see the T5 drive is looped around
and connected via a right angle USB-C into the camera.
And I actually operate the camera
with the screen closed like this.
So this screen actually allows another protection point
for the USB-C cable, so if this gets yanked,
the screen is actually protecting it.
So as you can see with this cable management,
everything is rock solid.
So these cables can be yanked around,
but because they're all so secure
and the mounting points and secured together,
I don't have to worry and stress
about cables getting snagged
and potentially breaking my set up.
When I want to change the battery over,
all I simply do is pull the D-tap out
of the battery plate, pop off my V-lock,
bring on my next V-lock, mount it down,
put the D-tap back into the top of the battery,
and then I'm away, going it all over again.
So as you can see, this camera is really light.
It's a really nice compact form factor.
And it allows me just to be really flexible on set,
particularly when I'm trying to do B-roll pickups
or get into angles that is just not simply viable
with a big easy rig with this rigged out
with a big cinema lens and cinema package.
So I'm simply just holding it like a,
almost like a gun. I'm just cradling it.
And I'm able to focus on my screen.
Use my left hand to focus and to zoom.
If I want to get low,
it's really easy just to move this camera around.
Super flexible.
The one thing this camera doesn't have is, obviously,
a top handle, but if you're creative,
you can also extend this screen out
and simply hold the Magic Arm like a top handle,
if you just need a couple of shots like this.
And I find that that works beautifully well when I need it.
So now once I'm done shooting,
what I'm going to do is simply just take the lens off.
Pop the front cap on.
And then with the screen here, I can do a few things,
but I can simply just lay it flat like that.
And now I have a really solid compact camera
that I can actually just drop straight
into my hard case in transport like that.
I think the reason why I'm so excited about the set up is
that you have literally the full capability
of the Ursa Mini Pro 4.6k G2.
So you've got 4.6k up to 120 frames per second,
and Blackmagic RAW.
And that's an incredible image and such a small form factor.
And by putting these few accessories around the camera,
it's actually a really practical way of using the Ursa.
Well, here you have it.
That is the Ursa Mini Pro 4.6k G2
rigged out with just the essentials
and just enough to be able
to create a really functional camera
for picking up B-rolls,
even on the biggest commercial shoots.
I think if I could give myself one piece of advice
when I first started out,
it's just to calm down a little bit,
when it comes to camera rigging,
I think for a lot of new cinematographers,
they feel the need to rig their cameras out as big
as possible, just because they see the pros do it.
And I would encourage you to really think
about what are you trying to achieve when you're shooting.
Are you literally just trying to get a few B-roll shots?
Are you shooting majority interviews
where this thing's just going to be stuck
on a tripod anyway?
Really think about the types of shots that you are wanting
to get and build your rig according to the shots.
Don't build your rig according to how cool it might look
when you have a full VCT base plate
with rods and a matte box, follow focus units.
All good, great things
that you definitely will need eventually
when you come across bigger commercial shoots.
But when it comes to your specific type of filmmaking,
maybe this is all you need.
Maybe you just need a simple Ursa with a battery and a lens.
You don't even need the screen.
You don't need the side handle.
You could simply hold the Ursa like this
without even touching the handle and simply just pull focus.
And that might be all you need.
So build your rig according to the footage
that you might shoot,
rather than how cool it's going to look
at the end of the day.
I'm really keen to do a whole bunch more camera rig builds.
And we are going to look at a whole lot of different builds
for the Ursa Mini Pro G2 coming up.
One of the primary ways we use this
is using the easy rig with the Vario 5.
And we obviously want to add weight to that
when we're using the easy rig
to get those beautiful cinematic shots.
We use Sony lenses.
We want matte boxes to control the filters,
all that sort of stuff on the front.
And so we're going to look at that in the future.
But for now, if you've stuck with me until the end,
thank you so much. I appreciate you.
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Thanks for viewing this video. I appreciate you once again.
And if you haven't noticed already,
I've shot this entire video using the iPhone 13,
which I'm enjoying.
It's actually been a bit of a mission shooting this video
with the lighting and using FiLMiC Pro
because I've never used a phone to shoot video before,
but what do you think?
Leave a line in the comment box below.
I'll see you in the next one.
(calming music)