interview and copy written for Definition
His first aerial credit was for Bad Boys, the original 1995 hit. Nearly 30 years on, Dylan Goss is one of a handful of go-to aerial cinematographers in the business.
Name a blockbuster and you have probably seen his work. Among them are The Game, Titanic, Kundun, Pushing Tin, Up in the Air, Fast & Furious 6, Elysium, San Andreas, Independence Day: Resurgence, Skyscraper, American Made, Avengers: Infinity War, First Man, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Free Guy and, just this year, The Fall Guy and Civil War.
He has also shot aerials on shows you may not associate with sweeping vistas, like the Oscar-winning Crash and Funny Games, and considers himself equal parts technician and photographer.
“I grew up wanting to code computers and solder electronics. Back then, there weren’t YouTube videos telling you how to do it. I enjoyed figuring it out myself. So now, when we have to come up with solutions and custom integrations, I feel pretty comfortable doing that.”
On a new untitled Paul Thomas Anderson feature, Goss had to adapt a gimbal to fit large 35mm VistaVision cameras which were never designed for aerial work.
“Even though they are supposed to be mimicking digital news footage coming from a helicopter, so they could easily have shot digital, they were adamant about using VistaVision. We built this crazy rig to put an awkward camera inside that gimbal.”
On another recent project, he helped design a 360 rig fit with six RED V-RAPTORs to capture shots to be used on a volume built by Lux Machina.
“We took the existing gimbal design, worked out the geometry of the lenses and how they would work in sideways or portrait mode, and helped them understand the challenges of putting this on a helicopter.
“You just learn how things work in an aircraft. Although there are remote-control options, everything needs to be wired and needs to be redundant. You are in a real flight environment, and when you start working with a product that was not made for that scenario, you have to make some adjustments.”
Equipment used to be so specialised that Goss was once flown out to Australia for just one day to shoot a commercial, purely because there was no such kit or crew in the country.
Kit now is more solid-state electronics, with fewer moving parts, and designed to be bulletproof. “In the old days, you had to keep returning to the factory and to take the gimbal apart. It was like watch mechanics inside and my job was to keep it all ticking.”
While the gear has evolved from Spacecam to WESCAM, from Eclipse to Shotover – and propagated worldwide – Goss is still in high demand even if the gear, pilots, helicopters or special Phenom jets command a premium.
“Generally, I’m given a brief and they trust me to deliver. The production has to have confidence that we’re going to execute the brief because shooting from a heli still has a high-dollar value.
“Some jobs don’t have the money, so they adjust their creative and shoot drones. There’s always a way to re-engineer something. You could use a stepladder or a crane, but the projects I’m hired for are the big movies that want the big shots done their way.”
For bigger-scope shots, “it makes sense to fly an aircraft over big spaces with arcs and large movements for the momentum you can’t get with a drone.”
Top Gun: Maverick raised the bar – but few films have the access or budget to be made with the assistance of the US Navy. Even forthcoming Apple TV+ feature Mayday, in which Ryan Reynolds plays a jet pilot, was largely shot from helicopters aerially directed by Goss.
Increasingly, he will work with the VFX supervisor to capture aerial plates. This will involve arrays of cameras configured to capture vast panoramas at high resolution for stitching in post. He finds previs shots a little exhausting because all the shots have been figured out, broken down and budgeted for.
“There’s not a lot of room to expand. If I’m sent out to do three shots, I can’t come back and be like, ‘Guess what? I shot an extra 20 hours of helicopter time – and here’s the bill!’” he says.
“You have to stick to the brief. But we do find moments where you shoot extra material and you’re wondering if that’s going to get recognised by a director or editor. I can sometimes come back with hours of footage that will never see the light of day.”
He enjoys working with directors such as Denis Villeneuve, Alex Garland and Doug Liman, VFX supervisor Paul Lambert and DOPs like Roger Deakins, who desire to do as much in camera as possible.
In Sicario, he was tracking a convoy of FBI jeeps where the heli work had to look like it was shot from a Reaper drone. For the aerial shots of a border crossing, Villeneuve flew with Goss in a heli at dawn down to El Paso.
“When we got to the border, it was a beautiful, magical sunrise, one where you couldn’t help but start pointing the camera around. Denis and I are in the back seat of the heli, I look over and he gives me a thumbs up to start rolling.
“I shot a lot of footage for that movie; it was amazing to see it in the final film.”
Working with Villeneuve again on Dune, Goss found even more of his work in the final cut.
“We’re sitting on top of a cliff looking over the Wadi Rum with a camera and tripod just surveying the immense scale of the landscape. They used it because it served the story.
“I have lots of obvious aerial action shots from a heli I could quote, but I am awed by being given the opportunity to create with filmmakers of his and Roger Deakins’ calibre.”
The ornithopter sequences in Dune and Dune: Part 2 included shots filmed by Goss from a helicopter in Jordan’s Wadi Rum of a different helicopter that suited the scale of the fictional vehicle.
“It’s a stand-in for the ornithopter. So while I’m filming an empty frame for a big superhero movie [he has shot sequences for Spider-Man: Homecoming, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 as well as Avengers: Endgame] into which they will insert VFX, for Denis I’m shooting more practical FX.
“The tracking of my frame is real, the light on the object is authentic. If it lands or takes off from the desert floor then all these interactions with sand and light add to the plausibility of the final picture.”
On the set of forthcoming feature The Instigators, Liman told Goss about his long-gestating project to film Tom Cruise aboard the International Space Station.
“Doug [Liman] is a problem-solver and explained that they needed to redesign the camera by removing components which weren’t designed for zero gravity. They were taking an existing camera and space-proofing it. Sign me up!
“My understanding is that, if they go at all, it will be Doug and Tom plus a camera since the cost for seats is astronomical.
“If you are on the ISS, audiences can really feel that you’re there. The way the light comes through a window, or the way your arms float would be tricky to simulate even on the most cutting-edge sound stage.”
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