From Élysée to Vision Pro: Behind the URSA Cine Immersive Bastille Day Film

Immersive Filmmaking

by Nino LeitnerOctober 14^th, 2025

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A groundbreaking Apple Immersive Video project puts viewers at the heart of France’s national celebration, filmed with Blackmagic’s URSA Cine Immersive and finished in DaVinci Resolve Studio for Apple Vision Pro. Let’s take a close look at the URSA Cine Immersive Bastille Day film.

For the first time, France’s Bastille Day ceremonies have been transformed into a fully immersive experience. Produced by Paris-based studio Immersive Flashback, the Bastille Day film allows Apple Vision Pro users to accompany President Emmanuel Macron from the Élysée Palace through the military parade on the Champs-Élysées, guided by Macron’s own narration. Captured entirely with the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive, the project demonstrates how Apple’s spatial format can now handle complex real-world productions at a cinematic standard.

Capturing a presidential perspective

Director Frank-David Cohen’s goal was to “let the French experience Bastille Day as never before, right alongside the President.” That translated into intimate, presence-driven visuals: the film opens in the President’s office as the viewer waits in silence. A clock chimes, the door opens, and Macron enters the frame to address the viewer directly. The result feels natural and immediate — more like memory than broadcast.

Achieving that realism required technical precision and logistical control. Cameras had to remain stable on the moving presidential command car, so the crew conducted pre-shoot stabilization tests at a military base to prevent motion discomfort inside the headset. Coordination with France Télévisions ensured that none of the immersive rigs were visible in the live broadcast watched by millions.

With the schedule dictated by the President’s movements, there was no time for relighting or retakes. “At the Élysée, we had to move straight from office interiors into daylight with no time to adjust,” said Cohen. “With Blackmagic RAW we could keep rolling, knowing those transitions could be managed in post without breaking the workflow.”

Native immersive capture without stitching

Unlike earlier immersive productions – such as Bono: Stories of Surrender (check our video interview with director Elad Offer in case you missed it), which relied on multiple cameras and AI-assisted stitching to reach Vision Pro’s demanding resolution – the URSA Cine Immersive Bastille Day film was captured natively on a single, purpose-built camera system.

As we reported from NAB 2025, the URSA Cine Immersive records dual 8K fisheye images to cover a 180-degree field per eye. This design eliminates stitching errors and parallax mismatches while retaining color accuracy and lens calibration data through the entire pipeline. Combined with DaVinci Resolve’s immersive post tools, introduced earlier this year, the workflow feels surprisingly familiar to traditional 2D production – just with vastly higher data rates.

In our coverage of the URSA Cine Immersive’s debut, Blackmagic emphasized that the goal was to make Apple Immersive Video practical for professional crews. Immersive Flashback’s Bastille Day film now proves that promise in action.

Spatial audio and a unified post workflow

Each URSA Cine Immersive rig carried ambisonic microphones to record spatial audio aligned with the viewer’s perspective, complemented by directional microphones for dialogue and environmental cues. Post-production took place entirely in DaVinci Resolve Studio, combining edit, color, and spatial audio within one timeline. Paris-based Studio 31dB handled the final sound mix, noting that Resolve’s Fairlight tools now rival dedicated spatial mixers in precision and monitoring control.  

The film’s seamless post pipeline echoes Apple’s recent Immersive Video workshops, where the company trains filmmakers to handle spatial storytelling within familiar NLEs. It’s another indicator that immersive filmmaking is transitioning from experimental to mainstream — with tools that don’t require VR-specific software or proprietary rigs.

A new chapter in Apple Vision Pro filmmaking — and a glimpse of what’s next

Since the first Vision Pro units shipped in early 2024, CineD has covered (here, or here) how filmmakers are adapting traditional production workflows to Apple’s new spatial format. Blackmagic’s URSA Cine Immersive was the first professional camera designed explicitly for Apple Immersive Video, unifying acquisition and post-production into one ecosystem. Now, as this Bastille Day film premieres, Apple seems to be preparing its next step.

According to multiple reports, Apple might already unveil Vision Pro 2 in October 2025 — possibly within the next days. The headset is rumored to feature a lighter design, improved battery efficiency, enhanced eye and hand tracking, and Apple’s next-generation M5 chip, offering faster real-time rendering for immersive content. A more affordable price might it more appealing for a larger crowd.

These refinements could make Apple’s headset more comfortable for extended viewing and, crucially, for professionals who need to preview immersive footage inside the device. Combined with a stronger Neural Engine for AI-driven image processing, Vision Pro 2 may also reduce latency and improve playback smoothness for large-format immersive projects like this one.

If these updates hold true, the timing couldn’t be better. The URSA Cine Immersive Bastille Day film proves that complex event-based storytelling can now thrive within this format. A lighter, more affordable headset could finally help Apple’s immersive platform gain the broader adoption it needs to move beyond a technological showcase into a viable creative medium.

Where to experience the URSA Cine Immersive Bastille Day film

The Bastille Day immersive film premiered during the European Heritage Days and is now available for public viewing on Apple Vision Pro at Maison Élysée in Paris. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be available for “private viewing” at home from the Vision App Store.

Immersive video – a niche to get into as a filmmaker?

For filmmakers exploring Apple Immersive Video, this project is a practical case study: single-camera stereo capture, metadata-rich RAW recording, ambisonic audio, and a unified post workflow. It demonstrates that high-end immersive production no longer requires boutique setups or custom code, but can instead flow through familiar professional tools – from Blackmagic camera to Resolve to Vision Pro.

As immersive filmmaking matures and Apple refines its hardware, we may be witnessing the moment it transitions from novelty to narrative instrument. The question now is: how will filmmakers use this format to tell stories only possible in three dimensions of presence?