Blackmagic Design has announced that the third season of the Italian police documentary series “Nella Mente di Narciso” was shot using Blackmagic PYXIS 6K digital film cameras. The preliminary edit, color grading (digital intermediate), and final post-production were also carried out in DaVinci Resolve Studio, as the company has claimed in a statement.

Airing once again on RaiPlay and Rai 2, the 20-episode series is presented by criminologist and psychologist Roberta Bruzzone and explores some of Italy’s most notable criminal cases through forensic analysis and dramatic visual reconstructions. Produced by La Casa Rossa Srl and directed by Serena Pasquali Lasagni, the new season was conceived with a more stylized visual language aimed at conveying the psychological tension of each story without explicitly recreating violent events.

Set in the basement of a former factory converted into a multipurpose space, the series uses a carefully designed environment featuring vintage televisions, worn wooden tables, exposed beams, and aged walls to create an atmosphere suspended between reality and memory. One of the defining visual elements of the season is the use of dark silhouettes against strong backlighting, a motif that runs throughout the series.

“This was a visual decision that allowed us to present the victims and perpetrators of each case without showing them explicitly,” said Lasagni. “We also assigned each case its own identifying color, building the narrative, set design, and performances around that choice to create a symbolic and immersive visual language.”

Director of photography Gianluca Braccieri used three PYXIS 6K cameras paired with Irix Cine and DZOFilm Vespid Prime lenses. “After establishing a strong visual tone in previous seasons, we wanted to push ourselves further,” he said. “The full-frame sensor delivered a smooth, detailed image with a more cinematic and delicate look.”

Braccieri worked with wide apertures, often shooting at T1.5, to achieve selective focus and isolate key details within the frame. A custom lighting setup based on high-output LEDs, soft panels, and tube lights helped create a tense, atmospheric aesthetic, while Tiffen Black Pro-Mist FX filters were used to soften highlights and enhance the visual mood. Shooting at the camera’s secondary native ISO value (3200) also helped preserve detail in dark and high-contrast scenes.

The production combined long takes, low-angle compositions, and overhead camera movements to further immerse the audience in the psychology of each case. For more complex movements, the camera was mounted on a slider and crane system with a DJI Ronin 2 head, allowing the crew to maintain a compact and flexible setup on set.

Captured in Blackmagic RAW at a constant 5:1 compression ratio, the series was edited, graded, and finished in DaVinci Resolve Studio. “Working in a single end-to-end tool allowed us to eliminate the traditional conform stage, typical of multi-application workflows, resulting in a huge time saving,” said colorist Lorenzo Gabriele.

“During the grade, my goal was to bring consistency to the footage while preserving its character and reinforcing the show’s crime drama atmosphere. I paid particular attention to skin tones throughout the process and used Resolve’s qualifier tool to isolate faces through pixel sampling, maintaining natural skin tones and avoiding a digital look, even under artificial lighting,” Gabriele explained.

The third season of “Nella Mente di Narciso” is now available on RaiPlay and Rai 2.