Fursan Cup ‘24, AlUla

Working on the Fursan Cup horse race as shooting producer for the non live elements of Aurora Media Worldwide’s coverage. In one of the most uniquely beautiful destinations I’ve been on set we chose to film in locations that best reflected the local culture we were in and the dramatic nature of the sport. As a camera operator it is a joy to hit record is such a place with the early morning light bursting in over the towering columns of rock.

With the sunlight being so strong we decided to back light them with the sun and with a reflector bounce the light back for the key light. The reflector was on a 40 degree angle so to maintain a pleasing contrast across the contributors face. My reflector is a Calumet one and it’s half gold half silver for a better skin tone colour. The cameras are the Sony FX9 and the Sony A7sIII both set to Cinetone. We needed a REC709 colour profile as we had such a mountain of content to shot and edit across the week. The lenses are the Sigma 35mm prime and the Sony 70-200mm MKII on the interview above and I used the Sigma 50mm prime on the interview below.

Filming with our commentator Harry Ingram we shot a course guide of the 6 loops involved in a race that was nearly nine hours long. As camera operator I chose to film this on my Sony A7sIII onboard a DJI Ronin RS3 Pro gimbal so we could walk and sweep around showing off more of the stunning backdrops as seen above. This example on top of the rock took some careful footwork on loose ground. It’s always a really enjoyable experience working with new people and experts in disciplines that are new to me. Listening to technical details of what they want to portray and figuring out how to do this in a visual way. Sigma 35mm.

This bit was fun. Chasing the race in a 4x4 through the wadis and the sand. Shooting HiMo on the Sony FX9 and the Sony 200 - 600mm lens. Up at 4am before sunrise, out in the Al Ula desert finding shots and trying not to get stuck in sand.