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Tight (Very Tight) Shots: Cameras in the Cockpit for “7500”
The tense mid-air disaster movie “7500” was shot almost entirely in the cockpit of an Airbus A320 airliner. Cinematographer Sebastian Thaler explains how it was done.
“7500” stars Joseph Gorden-Levitt as Tobias, an American co-pilot on a routine flight from Berlin to Paris. Shortly after take-off, the plane is hijacked, leaving Tobias and his pilot Michael to fend them off while trying to make an emergency landing.
Apart from an introductory series of shots from the perspective of airport terminal surveillance cameras, the directorial feature debut of Patrick Vollrath, takes place entirely in the plane’s cockpit. This stylistic exercise recalls Alfred Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat” or even Joel Schumacher’s “Phone Booth” that used claustrophobic locations to squeeze maximum dramatic tension.
“For ‘7500,’ Patrick wanted to achieve a documentary-like approach. All the dialogue was improvised save for some of the technical air traffic commands and we keep the camera running for long uninterrupted takes.”
Similarly, Vollrath decides not to shoot any material from outside the cockpit looking in. “The camera was to always stays locked in with the actors,” Thaler says.
Thaler’s fly-on-the-wall camera work is unobtrusive and all the more remarkable since there were at least three actors, and at times more, with him in the confined space of the cockpit for takes up to 50 minutes in length.
“The most important thing for me, was to give the actors the confidence that they can move freely in the cockpit without being disturbed by the camera,” Thaler reports. “At the same time, I had to make myself as ‘invisible’ as possible despite the spatial confinement in order to allow the actors the space for emotional development.”
Read more:
https://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/news/tight-very-tight-shot-cinematography-in-a-cockpit-for-7500
Registration is now open for our free webcast June 25: Has Remote Production Changed Production… Forever?
Most production now has by necessity become remote production, but what does that look like? And even more importantly, what will it look like next?
Join a panel of industry experts for a conversation on how remote production has transformed the media and entertainment industries, broadcasting and newsgathering, streaming, education, enterprise, and events.
We’ll discuss technologies that make remote production possible, new advances that are enabling better connections and workflows and how media professionals are adapting.
https://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/news/register-now-for-our-webcast-june-25-has-remote-production-changed-production-forever
Making “The Vast of Night,” a Micro-Budget Sci-Fi Miracle
“The density of the story and the number of plot twists was very intentional,” says director Andrew Patterson. “The idea was to make you care more about something than you normally would have. Trying to build characters that invited involvement and desire for their goal to succeed.
“And when you do that, you don’t have to be real twisty. You don’t have to jerk the rug out from underneath the viewer to get them to feel something. I’m not a fan of just overstuffing the narrative sausage. I don’t like jamming too much into a story. The game plan was to make you care more about something very specific and two people at the center of it.”
https://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/news/making-the-vast-of-night-a-micro-budget-sci-fi-miracle
Watch: “From Screening to (Live) Streaming,” Davide Rapp’s (Very Entertaining) Video Essay
“Film entertainment is more and more streaming-oriented,” writes Davide Rapp. “The movie theatre’s widescreen, initially resized to a TV, is now further fragmented into ever smaller windows, from tablet to smartphone. Even its horizontal format is questioned, as we are getting used to the vertical format of our smartphones.
“In the era of social distancing, a direct consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, our daily life has also become similar to streaming content: our homes have turned into our sets from which we broadcast our daily routines live through video calls, distance learning and online conferences,” he continues. “[My] ’From streaming to (live) streaming’ series aims to tell this social phase with a cinephile’s approach, using a language halfway between video essay and provocation.
“The selected movies scenes acquire a new meaning once re-framed into the contemporary apps and devices:”
https://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/news/watch-from-screening-to-live-streaming-davide-rapps-very-entertaining-video-essay
A number of major video productions have managed to continue successfully despite having their workflows disrupted by COVID-19 and the restrictions lockdown measures enforce. One of the main reasons some producers endure is because their teams have been able to adapt to working in the “new normal” by utilizing a combination of emerging technologies and time-tested IP transport solutions.
Yet these are not simply band-aid solutions, but instead are examples of an acceleration in the evolution of production workflows taking place across the media and sports industries. This transition to IP infrastructure has exposed new capabilities not available through traditional satellite, and is proving to be a framework on which to build solutions that will overcome the challenges facing the media industry today and in the future.
Reliably transporting video over the internet using intelligent networks, harnessing cloud solutions to enrich video acquisition and working with machine learning applications to curate content are just some of the ways media companies have adapted their production workflows.
https://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/archive/the-genius-workarounds-productions-have-been-using-during-lockdown
