Blackmagic Design announced today that URSA EF and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K were used to shoot the popular TV drama series Utenai Keikan. Production of the show is also based around a number of Blackmagic Design products, and is graded using DaVinci Resolve.
Utenai Keikan, (means a cop who cant shoot), is a suspense crime TV drama series based on a novel by Yoshiaki Ando, depicting the strife and revenge drama of an internal police organization. The main character Reiji Shibazaki, played by the actor Shinnichi Tanabe, is a police inspector who had progressed through the ranks at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. However, he was trapped by someone and forced to resign. Shibazaki then swore his revenge and to regain his position back as the head at the police department.
Takahiro Imai, the DoP of this series, used URSA as the A Camera and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K as the B Camera. In my past, I have primarily shot with film cameras. This show is the first time that we have used the URSA as the A camera. Most of the scenes were shot with the URSA, with narrow shots needing a smaller camera as the only shots not done on the URSA. For these we used the Production Camera 4K. The shoots went very smoothly and the URSA has a great sense of stability like film cameras.
Imai continued: Usually, the sound of a cameras fan would be a problem when using similar sized cameras. However, since URSA adapted a water-cooling system, the operational sound was very quiet so that the shooting team gave it very high praise.
Blackmagic URSA Viewfinder was attached to the URSA and used for this series. Since I have a lot of experience in film shooting, I am used to creating scenes looking through a viewfinder. Therefore, to find a camera with a high quality viewfinder is one of the most important elements. Clipping highlights and crushing shadows can be easily caused if you were using a low quality viewfinder, making it hard to see the right color and brightness. However, the Blackmagic Viewfinder has no color bleeding and no further delay from the camera. Its quite amazing that you can get the Blackmagic Viewfinder at this price.
The show also uses Blackmagic Designs SmartView 4K monitors for on set monitoring and DaVinci Resolve Studio for color correction.
We used the SmartView 4K for monitor checking on set, Imai continued. I used it by switching two ways; one with the LUT on and the other keeping it as log. SmartView 4K is affordable and its battery drive is supported by 12V, so it worked as the ideal solution for shooting.
The show, which is shot in RAW, is graded at Tokyos Interceptor Inc production/post production house.
Even though the file size could be large, we decided to shoot all the scenes in RAW because it allowed us to get the perfect image that we wanted. During the test footage, we created the comparison of RAW and RAW 3:1. No one could tell the difference, so we decided to shoot in RAW 3:1. Its great that we could save up the data while keeping the quality we wanted, said Imai.
Genta Tamaki from Interceptor Inc., who is in charge of grading the show, explained: People definitely have a tendency to expect high contrasted hard-boiled images for a police TV drama. You do actually get a hard-boiled kind of impression at the first look, but this story is not a typical so-called morality play, with the hero running to solve crime incidents. Therefore, I got a specific request from Mr. Imai to draw a line from those typical images and make it unique, using different color tone. For that reason, I reduced saturation to lower the contrast on purpose.
Tamaki continued. For flashback scenes, I boosted up the saturation. The footage shot with the Blackmagic camera can keep all the colors remaining at the same levels, even when raising the saturation quite high. With other cameras, sometimes it could affect red too much and could fall apart. But with Blackmagic cameras, you get to shoot very flat footage without those problems, so its very handy. Even when I lowered saturation to make it look like black and white footage, I was not worried that some colors could be still left in gradation. How it fades its color was just impressively beautiful.
Imai added, A very useful aspect of shooting with URSA is that it has the monitor and the setting screen on the right side as well, so that both my assistant and I could check and operate. I felt that the design of the camera is more like a film camera, so it was very easy for me to use. Not just only the camera, but all the other peripheral equipment was affordable, so it was great that we could manage to shoot RAW even with the limited budget.
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the worlds highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Designs DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the companys Emmy award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.
###
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
Blackmagic Design announced today that URSA EF and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K were used to shoot the popular TV drama series Utenai Keikan. Production of the show is also based around a number of Blackmagic Design products, and is graded using DaVinci Resolve.
