In an age where computer-generated special effects reign supreme in cinema, Top Gun Maverick is a Mach 10 breath of fresh air. The lengths Tom Cruise and co have gone to in order to deliver as realistic aerial sequences as possible are unprecedented, and borderline unimaginable to execute practically through a camera lens. For director Joe Kosinski, though, there was never really another option.
“I think when you see the film, you really feel what it's like to be a Top Gun pilot, and you can't fake that,” states Kosinski. “You can't fake the g-forces. You can't fake the vibration. You can't fake what it looks like to be in one of these fighter jets. So we wanted to capture every bit of that and shooting it for real allowed us to do that.”
Capturing these scenes was never going to be a walk in the park though. And before any of the actors could even step inside the planes they’d call their sets for the foreseeable future, a rigorous Navy-approved boot camp lay ahead.
“It was a lot”, says star Miles Teller. “What Tom does for fun, I think is other people's hell. It really was. It really was quite tough, but the only way this film happens is if you have somebody like Tom dedicating as much time and effort to us.”
“Tom designed a three-month training course for them to go through because he had shot the first Top Gun”, explains Kosinski. “He's a pilot, he flies aerobatics. He's done aerial sequences in movies for years. So he designed a program that would get them as ready as they could be to be in a Super Hornet. It took three months for them to go through it, and that doesn't mean it was easy for them to be in the F/A-18. It's still tremendously difficult and taxing, but at least they were able to get through it and do what they needed to do and capture these scenes.”
What Tom does for fun, I think is other people's hell.
Once training was complete, it was time to get into the air. Steady steps needed to be taken, but for Miles Teller it was a challenge he welcomed.
"It started out as excitement because we were flying in a Cessna”, he explains. “So it's just like, "Hey, we're going and if you want to get your pilot's license, this is step number one, boys." Then the next time we went up in the Cessna they're like, "All right, now we're going to do a controlled stall," and he turns off the engine. So now you're just free falling in a plane. So it got pretty real, pretty quick to be honest with you and then that excitement turned into a lot of adrenaline and I think a healthy amount of nerves.”
Working out training for the actors and getting them flight-ready was one thing. Working out how these highly ambitious aerial sequences would actually be shot was another thing entirely. Fortunately, Kosinski and the crew had decades of action-movie experience on their side.
“Tom's been making movies for 40 years and done big aerial sequences, so he knew how difficult it was going to be to capture all of this. So we definitely benefited from his experience. He did an aerial sequence in American Made, he did a helicopter sequence in Fallout. But yeah, this was taking it to a whole new level in terms of speed and complexity in terms of these machines. Working with the Navy, it was 15 months to figure out how to get the cameras in these things.”
“We had air-to-air, we had cameras on the outside of the jet. The naval aviators, we had to talk to them about movie making, light, altitude, speed, angles that we wanted to get. So yeah, they were serving as cameramen and women on this film as well. It was a huge team of people to pull this off. We were working with Top Gun, the real Top Gun, and so we knew we were working with the best of the best. And every day, they showed us why they are who they are. I mean, what they were doing for us in this film, obviously safety was the most important thing, but the professionalism and the skill they exhibited in the aircraft was pretty mind-blowing.”
Preparation was key for Kosinski, who had to meticulously plan every single motion the planes would make while up in the sky. Because once the planes took off, the entire scene was purely in the hands of the actors and their pilots.
“I would be there on the flight line, setting up the cameras all the way until the canopy closed”, says Kosinski. “But once they pulled away, I didn't see them until they came back an hour later. The biggest challenge is not being there to give feedback, obviously. So you're putting a lot of responsibility and trust in our cast, but they're incredible people.”
“So the only person you could talk to was the pilot and you wouldn't even know how good the footage was until you got back”, Teller explains. “Once we got back to base, then we would play the footage and then we would see, "Oh, the lighting was off. I could have done more there. My eye line isn't going to match what that guy just did." So to be able to film this, it was a highly technical undertaking and you had to do a lot of different things when you're up in the jet.”
There was also something you could do accidentally where you would erase all the footage that you had just done, which I did one time.
“You're starting the camera. You're stopping the camera. There was also something you could do accidentally where you would erase all the footage that you had just done, which I did one time. So I was the Guinea pig for that, then people learned like, "Okay, if you start it, you really need to wait five seconds, have the red light, come on, then you're good."
“Every detail was worked out ahead of time, but ultimately when they're up there, it's up to them to turn the camera on and play the scene”, continues Kosinski. “So that was a unique way of directing the film for those particular scenes. But it's the only way to capture what we were able to get.”
And what was captured translates incredibly onto the screen. This is no more obvious than in the film’s exhilarating third act, which provides some of the most memorable action movie moments in recent memory.
“For me, the third act was an opportunity to take the Top Gun aesthetic and flip it on its head”, states Kosinski. “We're used to this certain palette and look for these Top Gun sequences, but to put it in that environment with four jets doing a low-level on a real Navy low-level course, which was shot in the Cascade mountains of Washington that week was some of, I think, the most spectacular footage and some of the most intense flying we did on the film.”
Teller recalls, “We're flying around those mountains and sometimes the mountains are less than a hundred feet off each wingtip and you are moving so fast and there's some cloud cover sometimes and you're in the back seat, so you can't necessarily see what's going on.”
There are times when the action feels so real in the cockpit that it appears as if the cast are genuinely reacting to the scenario they find themselves in as much as they are acting. This is highlighted in one of the film’s most challenging aerial maneuvers.
“For these pilots, when they go over a mountain peak, they get to the top, they go inverted and then go down and flip back over, and there's one or two times where I came out of my seat, it's in the movie actually”, says Teller. “I hit my head on the canopy and I thought it was an unusable take, but those are often the ones you end up using.”
“His straps should have been tighter, but it looks so great to see him drop out of his straps that we left that in the film”, Kosinski notes. “Even the scene where Darkstar flies over Ed Harris, it destroyed the set. You watch it rip the roof off the guard shack. That was not planned. That was a one-take thing where we destroyed the set and that's the only shot we got and that's in the movie.”
It’s this level of realism that the filmmakers could only have dreamt of when originally planning how these practical shots would come together. The amount of training and preparation pays off on the big screen though, something that became quickly obvious early on during the shoot, as Teller reveals.
“I mean, honestly when we would get back and watch the footage, especially Tom, because Maverick is doing some runs that are just more intense. So whenever we would watch footage of anybody who grabbed a really great run, I think we were starting to get a sense of what the big experience was going to be like.”
I was sitting with the camera and the jet came like 15 feet over my head and did a pull-up, and as it did, it did a double spiral of dust.
“There's one moment”, recalls Kosinski. “We were shooting out in the salt flats on one of the military ranges doing the low-level flyovers and I was sitting with the camera and the jet came like 15 feet over my head and did a pull-up, and as it did, it did a double spiral of dust. I just remember knowing in that moment that that shot was going to end up in the film.”
There’s no doubt that the unprecedented extent that Kosinski and the team have gone to film Maverick in the most realistic way possible results in a spectacle to behold. For a director whose career started in the world of CGI with the iconic Gears of War “Mad World” advertisement of 2006, and then moved into feature films with Tron Legacy and Oblivion, it was certainly a new experience. But not one that means he’s ready to leave the world of CG behind just yet.
“It's a tool in the toolbox”, explains Kosinski. “There's certain things that you just need it for and there are certain worlds and certain stories that require it. But for me, capturing things in camera or mostly in camera, it's the most fun. And having fun making films is why I do it.”
Fun is exactly what Top Gun Maverick is. A summer blockbuster that hits all of the notes you’d want, but is taken to the next level thanks to action that feels so real it threatens to burst out of the screen. The mission may well have been a long, daunting and difficult one, but has been executed with all the precision you’d expect from Top Gun’s finest.
Simon Cardy thinks playing volleyball on the beach looks a much more relaxing time. Follow him on Twitter at @CardySimon.
Continue reading...
“I think when you see the film, you really feel what it's like to be a Top Gun pilot, and you can't fake that,” states Kosinski. “You can't fake the g-forces. You can't fake the vibration. You can't fake what it looks like to be in one of these fighter jets. So we wanted to capture every bit of that and shooting it for real allowed us to do that.”
Capturing these scenes was never going to be a walk in the park though. And before any of the actors could even step inside the planes they’d call their sets for the foreseeable future, a rigorous Navy-approved boot camp lay ahead.
“It was a lot”, says star Miles Teller. “What Tom does for fun, I think is other people's hell. It really was. It really was quite tough, but the only way this film happens is if you have somebody like Tom dedicating as much time and effort to us.”
“Tom designed a three-month training course for them to go through because he had shot the first Top Gun”, explains Kosinski. “He's a pilot, he flies aerobatics. He's done aerial sequences in movies for years. So he designed a program that would get them as ready as they could be to be in a Super Hornet. It took three months for them to go through it, and that doesn't mean it was easy for them to be in the F/A-18. It's still tremendously difficult and taxing, but at least they were able to get through it and do what they needed to do and capture these scenes.”
What Tom does for fun, I think is other people's hell.
Once training was complete, it was time to get into the air. Steady steps needed to be taken, but for Miles Teller it was a challenge he welcomed.
"It started out as excitement because we were flying in a Cessna”, he explains. “So it's just like, "Hey, we're going and if you want to get your pilot's license, this is step number one, boys." Then the next time we went up in the Cessna they're like, "All right, now we're going to do a controlled stall," and he turns off the engine. So now you're just free falling in a plane. So it got pretty real, pretty quick to be honest with you and then that excitement turned into a lot of adrenaline and I think a healthy amount of nerves.”
Working out training for the actors and getting them flight-ready was one thing. Working out how these highly ambitious aerial sequences would actually be shot was another thing entirely. Fortunately, Kosinski and the crew had decades of action-movie experience on their side.
“Tom's been making movies for 40 years and done big aerial sequences, so he knew how difficult it was going to be to capture all of this. So we definitely benefited from his experience. He did an aerial sequence in American Made, he did a helicopter sequence in Fallout. But yeah, this was taking it to a whole new level in terms of speed and complexity in terms of these machines. Working with the Navy, it was 15 months to figure out how to get the cameras in these things.”
“We had air-to-air, we had cameras on the outside of the jet. The naval aviators, we had to talk to them about movie making, light, altitude, speed, angles that we wanted to get. So yeah, they were serving as cameramen and women on this film as well. It was a huge team of people to pull this off. We were working with Top Gun, the real Top Gun, and so we knew we were working with the best of the best. And every day, they showed us why they are who they are. I mean, what they were doing for us in this film, obviously safety was the most important thing, but the professionalism and the skill they exhibited in the aircraft was pretty mind-blowing.”
Preparation was key for Kosinski, who had to meticulously plan every single motion the planes would make while up in the sky. Because once the planes took off, the entire scene was purely in the hands of the actors and their pilots.
“I would be there on the flight line, setting up the cameras all the way until the canopy closed”, says Kosinski. “But once they pulled away, I didn't see them until they came back an hour later. The biggest challenge is not being there to give feedback, obviously. So you're putting a lot of responsibility and trust in our cast, but they're incredible people.”
“So the only person you could talk to was the pilot and you wouldn't even know how good the footage was until you got back”, Teller explains. “Once we got back to base, then we would play the footage and then we would see, "Oh, the lighting was off. I could have done more there. My eye line isn't going to match what that guy just did." So to be able to film this, it was a highly technical undertaking and you had to do a lot of different things when you're up in the jet.”
There was also something you could do accidentally where you would erase all the footage that you had just done, which I did one time.
“You're starting the camera. You're stopping the camera. There was also something you could do accidentally where you would erase all the footage that you had just done, which I did one time. So I was the Guinea pig for that, then people learned like, "Okay, if you start it, you really need to wait five seconds, have the red light, come on, then you're good."
“Every detail was worked out ahead of time, but ultimately when they're up there, it's up to them to turn the camera on and play the scene”, continues Kosinski. “So that was a unique way of directing the film for those particular scenes. But it's the only way to capture what we were able to get.”
And what was captured translates incredibly onto the screen. This is no more obvious than in the film’s exhilarating third act, which provides some of the most memorable action movie moments in recent memory.
“For me, the third act was an opportunity to take the Top Gun aesthetic and flip it on its head”, states Kosinski. “We're used to this certain palette and look for these Top Gun sequences, but to put it in that environment with four jets doing a low-level on a real Navy low-level course, which was shot in the Cascade mountains of Washington that week was some of, I think, the most spectacular footage and some of the most intense flying we did on the film.”
Teller recalls, “We're flying around those mountains and sometimes the mountains are less than a hundred feet off each wingtip and you are moving so fast and there's some cloud cover sometimes and you're in the back seat, so you can't necessarily see what's going on.”
There are times when the action feels so real in the cockpit that it appears as if the cast are genuinely reacting to the scenario they find themselves in as much as they are acting. This is highlighted in one of the film’s most challenging aerial maneuvers.
“For these pilots, when they go over a mountain peak, they get to the top, they go inverted and then go down and flip back over, and there's one or two times where I came out of my seat, it's in the movie actually”, says Teller. “I hit my head on the canopy and I thought it was an unusable take, but those are often the ones you end up using.”
“His straps should have been tighter, but it looks so great to see him drop out of his straps that we left that in the film”, Kosinski notes. “Even the scene where Darkstar flies over Ed Harris, it destroyed the set. You watch it rip the roof off the guard shack. That was not planned. That was a one-take thing where we destroyed the set and that's the only shot we got and that's in the movie.”
It’s this level of realism that the filmmakers could only have dreamt of when originally planning how these practical shots would come together. The amount of training and preparation pays off on the big screen though, something that became quickly obvious early on during the shoot, as Teller reveals.
“I mean, honestly when we would get back and watch the footage, especially Tom, because Maverick is doing some runs that are just more intense. So whenever we would watch footage of anybody who grabbed a really great run, I think we were starting to get a sense of what the big experience was going to be like.”
I was sitting with the camera and the jet came like 15 feet over my head and did a pull-up, and as it did, it did a double spiral of dust.
“There's one moment”, recalls Kosinski. “We were shooting out in the salt flats on one of the military ranges doing the low-level flyovers and I was sitting with the camera and the jet came like 15 feet over my head and did a pull-up, and as it did, it did a double spiral of dust. I just remember knowing in that moment that that shot was going to end up in the film.”
There’s no doubt that the unprecedented extent that Kosinski and the team have gone to film Maverick in the most realistic way possible results in a spectacle to behold. For a director whose career started in the world of CGI with the iconic Gears of War “Mad World” advertisement of 2006, and then moved into feature films with Tron Legacy and Oblivion, it was certainly a new experience. But not one that means he’s ready to leave the world of CG behind just yet.
“It's a tool in the toolbox”, explains Kosinski. “There's certain things that you just need it for and there are certain worlds and certain stories that require it. But for me, capturing things in camera or mostly in camera, it's the most fun. And having fun making films is why I do it.”
Fun is exactly what Top Gun Maverick is. A summer blockbuster that hits all of the notes you’d want, but is taken to the next level thanks to action that feels so real it threatens to burst out of the screen. The mission may well have been a long, daunting and difficult one, but has been executed with all the precision you’d expect from Top Gun’s finest.
Simon Cardy thinks playing volleyball on the beach looks a much more relaxing time. Follow him on Twitter at @CardySimon.
Continue reading...