Extreme athleticism meets engineering excellence

interview and words for RED Digital Cinema

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Earlier this year, Red Bull athlete Sean MacCormac became the first person to surf the cables of San Francisco’s world-famous Bay Bridge—having skydived onto them from 5,000 feet. For this unprecedented “skysurfing” feat, MacCormac trained intensively, spent months planning, and oversaw the creation of a custom-designed, high-tech skyboard developed in collaboration with Prada’s technical sportswear collection Linea Rossa and the Luna Rossa team.

A fictional “behind-the-scenes” video captures part of this meticulous preparation - a stunning skydive over the Italian island of Sardinia.

Directed by Lorenzo Canci and filmed by local cinematographer Pietro Medda, the three-minute promo was remarkably shot in just two days using three RED KOMODOs.

“KOMODO is like shooting with the simplicity of an iPhone but the quality of a professional cine camera,” Medda says. “I tried to capture this like an observer who follows the process as close as possible without interfering with the action.”

The film blends fashion with sports and tells a story of MacCormac’s test jump from take-off to landing using the new carbon fiber board.

The first day of shooting was the skydive for which Medda flew in a couple of flights to capture B-Roll and then operated A-cam from the ground during the stunt itself.

“For the B-roll on flights we did before the stunt I needed a heavy handheld rig to give me a good heavy feel, without micro-shaking while the plane was vibrating a lot. I then used this rig as A-camera from the ground using a long lens.”

Tracking MacCormac’s freefall was skydive filming specialist Craig O'Brien who had a KOMODO attached to his helmet. A third KOMODO was operated on a tripod from the ground to capture the parachute landing by an AC.

The second day was in more controlled conditions on the ground and featured technician Mauro Zamichele crafting the special board. “We were a really small crew, and we had limited time to capture everything that Lorenzo wanted in order to tell the story,” Medda explains. “At the same time I wanted to give him all the freedom of a larger shoot and of course to keep all of the quality. For these reasons KOMODO was the perfect choice. With a bigger system it would never be possible for us to do something like this.”

The nearest main camera kit hire companies are in Milan and Rome, however, Medda is one of the few people (let alone cinematographers) on the island to own a KOMODO.

“I had fallen in love with previous generations of RED,” Medda says. “I knew we wanted something small and easy to handle, but with a lot of options. Only when I decided to shoot with KOMODO did we discover that Craig also owns one. That just sealed the deal.”

Zooms were the logical choice for the docu-style shoot with Medda selecting Angenieux EZ-2 15-40 and EZ-1 30-90 PL Mount with built in NDs. O’Brien’s helmet-mounted KOMODO carried a Canon RF zoom.

Versions from the same primary footage needed to be published in 16x9 for YouTube and also 9x16 for social media.

“Lorenzo and I also aesthetically like a shot that is less symmetrical, a little unbalanced, where maybe there is more air around the subject than usual. Adopting a more open and free approach to framing allowed us not only to be creative without being forced into standard composition but also to play with our needs (vertical and horizontal delivery). Blending both necessity and desire worked well for us.”

Since Medda shot open gate RAW the 6K recording allowed as much information as possible for cropping a vertical version, although delivery was only required at 1080p.

“The RED LQ compression was a smart choice for this. I also wanted to shoot LQ because we were doing post-production remotely, sharing sets of three camera files online. It worked out extremely well.”

He monitored rec.709 with high contrast through a RED look LUT with false colors “because I wanted to see less than the camera was seeing. I find it easier while shooting with natural light at a faster pace. For example, when we were shooting in the airplane we had a limited amount of fuel and time. It was a real run and gun shoot and having a heavier LUT allowed myself and Lorenzo to see very easily where and when our light quality and position was working, even with bright sun flashing on our monitors. That’s because we were turning a lot while in flight, so the sunlight was constantly changing from our perspective. Giving the pilot fast directions was crucial.”

He mostly lit the interiors on the ground with practical lights to keep the scene moody and contrast ratios dramatic. “I took care not to clip useful information especially in the shadows so we could eventually push them up and down in post if needed,” he says.

“To give as much time as I could to the acting and to the overall production, I imagined some windows and cuttings that I then drew onto our color preview. Our colorist Leonardo Masoero (a freelance artist who is part of the Not Bad Collective) could follow them as a reference for our final grade.”

Medda says he found KOMODO’s integrated exposure comp and color tools are “a safe zone” to solve small problems like ND shifts or to play around with the look without having to prepare dozens of LUTs beforehand.

“One of the crucial features for me in this shoot, besides design, color science and reliability, was the global shutter. That allowed us to follow the whole stunt from the ground without wobbling and so giving some more headroom to stabilize.

“I know my KOMODO really well. It’s become second nature to me, and I never feel limited by form factor. To give my director some more freedom with a small crew I need an easy and versatile modular camera system. Using a bigger camera system for this job would have required more budget, a bigger camera crew and/or more technical time.

Thank you to Pietro Medda for sharing behind the scenes.