The 48th Annual Indian National Finals Rodeo Shot with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton June 27, 2025
0 Comments
Filmmaker Cameron Mackey relied on Blackmagic RAW and full frame sensor to capture high action.
Filmmaker Cameron Mackey recently shot his short film The Indian National Finals Rodeo We're Still Here with the Blackmagic PYXIS 6K digital film camera, and color graded using DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, color grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software.
Sanctioning nearly 700 rodeos nationwide and offering annual prize money exceeding over million dollars the Indian National Finals Rodeo is, by far, the largest and the oldest Indian Rodeo Organization in the world. Contestants compete for over $1,000,000 in prize money and awards throughout the year, which culminates with the Indian National Finals Rodeo, where more than 350 qualified contestants compete in the 8 major events. Mackey, known for telling unique stories with stunning visuals and a strong sense of action, documented the action at this year's INFR event in Las Vegas, Nevada. He discussed his latest project, and why the PYXIS 6K was critical to his work.
Tell us how the project came about, and what your goals were in shooting the event. Mackey: When it comes to shooting and directing mini docs on the indigenous community, the biggest battle is just getting the ball rolling, so a lot of the times I try to take advantage of last minute projects and events, not to mention how dense my schedule can be sometimes. The Indian National Finals Rodeo is one of the biggest events of the year for the equestrian side of the community. I went in with one goal in mind: highlighting why rodeo is so important to our community. I simply wanted to give a peak into a world that most people aren't aware of, while documenting the heroes who have dedicated themselves to the lifestyle.
Why did you choose the PYXIS 6K for this project? Mackey: There were two reasons I wanted to use the PYXIS 6K. The first major one was the internal Blackmagic RAW recording. When it comes to unplanned run and gun shoots like this, internal RAW takes away a lot of stress. From being able to perfect your white balance in post all the way to being able to underexpose my shots in camera with my custom internal preview LUT, knowing I'm going to have so much information to play with in post to finalize my image is critical. Blackmagic RAW really gives me everything I need.
The second reason I chose the PYXIS 6K was really the layout and balance of the camera. It really helps with creating that dense, grounded handheld feel without being overbearing.
What was the cinematic goal for the piece? Did you have a style you were hoping to achieve? Mackey: One word: anamorphic. I feel a big part of the passion I have for anamorphic filmmaking is the painterly, gritty image I can create while documenting a way of life that has always brought me so much gratitude and peace. I want it to feel like a different world, because that's what a lot of our people in the indigenous community experience. It can be a tough life but one filled with grace, poetry, and traditions. To me, anamorphic represents that true grit. I don't want people to just watch a true to life representation of our community, I want them to be in awe, the same way I am with my culture.
How did you rig the PYXIS 6K? Mackey: I try to keep my rigs really condensed and concise. I don't like a bunch of addon parts and cables everywhere because when it comes to shooting western work, there's a lot of physical movement you have to do. Between trying to not get trampled by bucking horses and bulls, to jumping over gates every five minutes, I have to be mobile.
I chose the Blazar Cato 2X anamorphics for my lens package because they are incredible on the PYXIS 6K. I pretty much strictly use them in the 6:5 sensor mode on the PYXIS 6K because it just makes monitoring on location easier, and it gives me my final traditional 2.35:1 crop. The wide focal lengths on the Catos have some heavy distortion on the far edges so the 6:5 mode once again helps crop some of that out, while still retaining the full vertical height of the sensor.
I've mainly used the PYXIS 6K as a handheld camera, but it's always entertaining seeing people give me crazy looks when they see me burying the camera in sand, dirt, mud, or sometimes even cow patties. On these western shoots you learn to treat your camera as a tool and not just a pretty piece of technology. The PYXIS 6K is a workhorse and as long as I take care of it, it just seems to take it. My secret to getting immersive feeling western footage is getting as close as possible to the action. Obviously, I do not want to break the camera and ruin the shoot, but I'm willing to get it a little dirty to get the shot.
Did you find the PYXIS 6K easy to rig? Mackey: The PYXIS 6K is incredibly easy to rig, but I was happy to find that the camera didn't need a cage or need to be really built out to use. I was easily able to create a simple rig with old rigging parts laying around my workstation. I threw a nato rail on the top of the camera that had a rosette mount on the side. From there I was able to attach another nato rail so I could rig the follow focus to the other side. Then I just slapped on a top handle and rigged up my monitor. I bought a couple of the native BP-U batteries for the camera, and the two of them lasted for the whole day of shooting.
Can you talk about the color grade in DaVinci Resolve Studio using the Blackmagic RAW files? Mackey: The PYXIS 6K footage was incredibly easy to grade. There was a lot of intense mixed lighting, but I had zero issues with correcting the Blackmagic RAW footage in post. There were even some shots that were mostly pitch black, with just a spot lit area, but I was
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
The 48th Annual Indian National Finals Rodeo Shot with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K 
