Behind the Zero-G pit stop with director Andreas Bruns
The mastermind behind Zero-G is director Andreas Bruns, but the filmmaker had no more experience of weightlessness than anyone else on the team. He tells us more about the project.
Written by Phil Barker
2 min readPublished on
Shoehorning an F1 car, pit crew, film and flight teams into the Ilyushin cosmonaut training plane was a challenge like no other for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, but one that was necessary in order to make a jaw-dropping pit stop in zero gravity. Film-maker Andreas Bruns was the brains behind the concept, but what was required for Bruns and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing to actually bring those (almost) crazy ideas to life?
Andreas, tell us about the Zero-G set. How did you build it?
We spent about six weeks planning the job. For me, as a director, the first task was to get familiar with our new playground and understand the task we wanted to achieve up there. Doing a pit stop in zero-g was one thing – a very big thing – but transforming it into a very visual piece, despite all of the limitations, was my hardest task.
The biggest restriction was the size of the plane – I nicknamed it the Sardine Can. We had to work up a storyline that would overcome those size limitations. I also wanted to build-up a dramaturgical arc for our general stunt, playing tricks on our viewers, not revealing everything right away to make them wonder what the hell is going on – until the packshot reveals the full potential of what it means to be in zero-g.
Tell us about the equipment load-out…
We used one, sometimes two, Arri Alexa Mini cameras with anamorphic lenses to shoot cinemascope – but also to have that characteristic bouquet only anamorphic lenses can provide. For a few rigged shots we needed to use DSLRs and action cams to achieve certain angles and movements. How much kit did we have onboard in total? I don’t know. A lot!
It’s your first time in zero-g. How did you prepare for working in such an unusual environment?
After receiving the inquiry, I went with my brother-in-law and my nephews to a theme park to see how g-forces work on my body. Frankly speaking, we all turned green after a while and it took me a day to recover. After that, I’ve read more about zero-g flights and I wasn't sure if I could physically manage it. After the job had been confirmed I did whatever it needed. I just kept myself pretty busy on this whole journey and let it go and I guess that did the magic trick.
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