WASHINGTON, D.C.—Disney+ has announced that subscribers to the streaming service can now experience a new immersive environment from National Geographic with the Disney+ app on Apple Vision Pro. The experience transports users to the breathtaking natural beauty of Iceland’s Thingvellir National Park and is National Geographic’s first-ever immersive project for Apple Vision Pro.

Disney+ is also making four additional 3D films from Marvel Studios available to subscribers today: “Avengers,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Ant-Man”* and “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”

National Geographic worked with Disney Studio Technology to lead the creative development and production of the immersive environment from high-resolution 3D models captured on-site using photogrammetry and gigapixel panoramas. The teams worked in collaboration with Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology to bring this new experience to Disney+.

The streaming service reported that the new National Geographic environment will take Disney+ subscribers on Apple Vision Pro to the unique rocky terrain of Thingvellir National Park on a snowy winter day, allowing them to explore their surroundings via interactive elements and sounds that make the space come to life. This UNESCO world heritage site, captured by a team of National Geographic photographers, serves as the backdrop for viewers watching Disney+ content beneath a spectacular nighttime aurora.

“Since its inception, National Geographic has been at the forefront of photography and has led the way in using groundbreaking technology to tell stories that inspire a deeper connection to the natural world,” said David Miller, executive vice president National Geographic. “Creating this immersive environment was a natural next step for us to take to build on that legacy and to continue enabling audiences to experience the beauty of our natural world and see places they may never go to otherwise.”

For more information on Disney+ on Apple Vision Pro, visit disneyplus.com/applevisionpro. 

Fremont, CA - May 30, 2019 - Blackmagic Design has today announced that its Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera was used in the filming of key action sequences on Marvel Studios’ “Captain Marvel.” The twenty first installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was lensed by cinematographer Ben Davis, BSC (“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Doctor Strange” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”).

Opting for a large format digital camera paired with a mix of Spherical and vintage Panavision glass, as the principal package, Davis required a smaller, more versatile camera to provide him with alternative options during filming. “We tested various options searching for that magic combination of size and quality, and the Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera was the clear winner," he begins.

According to Davis the Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera setups were kept as small as possible, breaking out the wireless transmitter into a backpack worn by a camera operator. “The camera’s expansion port gave us lots of options for creating rigs for remote operation and monitoring. Coupled with the fact you can record RAW onboard using SD cards also helped to keep everything small and compact.”

“In the past I’ve made the mistake of rigging small action cameras with big lenses, not to mention a protective cage, a motor to drive focus, a monitor to frame and then a transmitter to transfer the information,” continues Davis. “But then you’ve defeated the very reason you’re using it in the first place.”

He adds: “For ‘Captain Marvel’, we also built cages for the cameras but in the end made little use of them. The structure of the body is so solid you don’t need to cage it in my opinion.”

Davis would used clamps or arms to mount he cameras onboard vehicles for example, and fixed focus. He’d then check footage after the sequence had run, make any adjustments, and reset ready for another take.

“That’s where this camera comes into its own. They’re very quick to rig. We’d often run two or three at the same time on sequences like the go kart track. We’d just line everything up, power them up and hit record. There was a lot of vibration and heavy hits on those karts but there was no corruption of files at all.”

The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera was used throughout the principal photography, which largely took place on location in Los Angeles and Louisiana, by Davis and the film’s second unit.

“The bar for action sequences has been raised so high that for these to work you have to be very creative with the cameras you use,” concluded Davis. “I want to put the audience in amongst the action so having a small camera you can rig very quickly is great for that. That’s what I like about action cams like those from Blackmagic Design. They can get you into places you can’t always go with ordinary cameras.”

Press Photography

Product photos of Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Captain Marvel

Set in the mid-1990s, Captain Marvel follows Carol Danvers (played by Brie Larson), a former US Air Force fighter pilot, as she turns into one of the galaxy’s mightiest heroes. She joins elite military team Starforce, before returning home with new questions about her past and identity when the Earth is caught in the centre of an intergalactic conflict between two alien worlds.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s 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 Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s 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.

HOLLYWOOD--The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced that Victoria Alonso, producer and Executive Vice President, Production for Marvel Studios, will receive the organization’s 2018 Charles S. Swartz Award at the HPA Awards on Nov. 15.

The HPA Awards recognize creative artistry, innovation and engineering excellence in the professional media content industry and the Charles S. Swartz Award honors the recipient’s significant impact across diverse aspects of the industry.

[Read: HPA Announces 2018 Engineering Excellence Award Winners]

HPA says Alonso has become an important voice in Hollywood as a producer, as a Latina and as a female senior executive. She was listed as one of Hollywood Reporter’s 2017 Women in Entertainment Power 100 and was the 2015 honoree for the Muse Award for Outstanding Vision and Achievement from the New York Women in Film & Television. 

She was also the first woman to be presented with the Harold Lloyd Award from the Advanced Imaging Society, which is given to a filmmaker who has created a body of work, and specific achievements in 3-D, that advanced the motion picture art form. 

In 2017, she was the first woman to be honored with the Visionary Award at the 15 Annual VES Awards for her advancement of unforgettable storytelling through visual effects. She is currently at work on the untitled fourth installment of “Avengers” and “Captain Marvel.” Read her complete bio here.

The Charles S. Swartz Award is a prized honor with special meaning for the HPA, named in honor of an innovative, inspiring and compassionate executive. Charles Swartz had a far ranging creative and technical career, eventually leading the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California (ETC@USC), a leading industry think tank and research center. The Charles S. Swartz Award is bestowed at the discretion of the HPA Awards Committee and the HPA Board of Directors, and is not given annually.

Click here to purchase tickets for the event.