Challenge

Flight Risk is the latest from actor-director Mel Gibson, a contained action thriller with a chilling setting: the cabin of a single-engine Cessna plane flying high above the Alaskan wilderness.

Cinematographer Johnny Derango was tapped to lens the feature and brought his love of grounded, believable filmmaking to the task. But with a physically tiny location and a script dense with both story and physical twists and turns, Flight Risk looked like a project that would put an extreme strain on its modest $26M budget.

Shooting physically in the air for the duration would be impossible and even dangerous, while CG would tax the budget and eat away at the believability of the film. Modern technology like LED volumes could help, but wouldn’t have the output to match the setting’s crisp arctic sunlight.

Solution

The filmmakers’ approach to tackling these challenges centered on ultramodern LED lighting and display technology and deep collaboration between departments.

On-set VFX supervisor Michael Ralla used a helicopter-mounted Red Raptor platform to capture enormous 24k flight plates to display on the soundstage’s LED volume, run by Lux Machina. This real footage would play around the plane as it moved on a gimbal that could both mimic natural flight motion and tilt wildly for action scenes.

The plane interior was so cramped that there would only be room for cast, camera, and very limited crew. So, Derango and team mounted a series of Aputure Nova P600c arrays inside huge softboxes above the plane. Lightboard operator Elton James would dynamically match output from the Novas to the volume imagery.

To create intense sunlight, Derango relied on several techniques, including lamps mounted to movers above the plane, a Light Storm 1200d aimed at the camera through plane windows for sunset flares, and crossfading across Light Storm 600c Pros with Fresnels for moments when the plane banks crazily.

Results

Flight Risk debuted at the top of the box office on the weekend of January 24, 2025, with reviews praising the film’s high-altitude action.

The cast greatly appreciated the lighting team’s work staying out of their way. Mark Wahlberg even thanked gaffer Andy Lohrenz personally for keeping lights out of the airplane itself.

Derango is proud not only of the vivid, natural look of the film but for how the immersive environment brought authenticity to the performances. “It feels so visceral. For the actors it’s crazy,” he says. “They get to react to [real imagery]. You see it going by, and you feel it.”

The Illusion of Flight

Teamwork on the Volume

Sunset Flares