ABC Kid's Caper Crew Shoots Australian Adventure with Blackmagic Design

ABC Kid's Caper Crew Shoots Australian Adventure with Blackmagic Design

Brie Clayton June 11, 2026

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DP Judd Overton and team bring Wes Anderson inspired charm to Australian screens with URSA Cine 12K LF.

Blackmagic Design today announced that Easy Tiger Productions, the acclaimed Australian production company behind some of the country's most celebrated shows, used Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF digital film camera to shoot Caper Crew, a new live action children's comedy series now streaming on ABC Kids.

Supported by Screen NSW and commissioned by the ABC in association with the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF) and Screen Australia, Caper Crew follows Amelia and Kai Delaney, whose quiet lives are turned upside down when their con artist grandmother, Queenie, mysteriously arrives. Set up director Guy Edmonds was joined by directors Stef Smith and Shelly Lauman, with scripts by an ensemble of Australia's leading children's writers.

The show is set in the town of Woodspring, which lost its luck and its golden meteorite in 1990, and has been frozen in a kind of analog limbo ever since. No smartphones, kids out on adventures, and a handmade aesthetic that lends itself perfectly to a cinematic, composed visual style.

Director of Photography Judd Overton says the visual ambition of the show was immediately apparent.

When Guy first showed me the brief, I was very excited. It's definitely not something we're seeing on Australian television, said Overton. There were many references to Wes Anderson, and those really composed frames, so we were after longer takes, not the usual scattergun approach.

To realize that vision, Overton chose two Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF, paired with Tokina full frame lenses and Blackmagic monitors on set. Footage was then handled by Spectrum Films, where the color grade was done in DaVinci Resolve.

One of Judd's key reasons for shooting with the URSA Cine 12K Cine LF was the large sensor look. Another practical advantage was the flexibility it gave when shooting with children, allowing the team to capture wider shots that could later be reframed into multiple angles in post rather than requiring repeated takes.

The directors were excited to have the ability to blow up frames and extract an image, Overton explained. When we're shooting a two shot in 8K for example we could keep a nice depth of field so if needed the editors could pull a single or two singles out of that one set up. This and Blackmagic RAW workflow were part of the pitch for choosing the camera on this show.

The show spans multiple time periods, each treated with a distinct visual language. The contemporary story is captured in a 2:1 aspect ratio with saturated, nostalgic color. Flashbacks to the 1990 heist are shot anamorphic, leaning into anamorphic streaks and bold camera moves for a Michael Bay inspired energy. Sequences set in the 1940s are rendered in black and white.

First assistant camera Juliette Young came to the Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF with experience on smaller Blackmagic cameras, but this was her first major production with the URSA Cine 12K LF as the primary camera.

I was really pleasantly surprised by how well it integrates as a full time production camera, said Young. The menu is quite different from the cameras we were used to, but once you get your head around it, it's quite intuitive. Being able to flip quickly between settings, between 8K and 4K and different aspect ratios, has been really useful. For a fast moving show like Caper Crew, the base plates and quick release system make it easy to move the cameras around quickly.

For Overton, the decision to use Blackmagic Design cameras reflects a long and evolving relationship with the brand, stretching back to the early Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5K cameras and the emergence of raw post production workflows.

The real change has come in the last few years, he said. The reliability and low light sensitivity have improved greatly with the new sensors. It's our main camera on this production.

As a Melbourne born company, Blackmagic Design carries a particular resonance on an Australian production. Overton reflected that while the brand is now known internationally, using it on a locally made show feels meaningful.

It does mean something to me to be using Australian technology to create these shows, he said. It's really nice to be able to bring that home and keep the crew working with that equipment.

Caper Crew is available to watch now on ABC Kids.

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