Recently I was lucky enough to witness the Gravity Industries jet suits in person, on a shoot featuring Colin Furze and three DeLoreans at an airfield in Somerset.
There were three main purposes to this shoot:
- Colin Furze’s first untethered flight
- AX Studios Back to the Future shoot
- Gravity race testing
I was there primarily to shoot behind the scenes footage and production stills.
Colin Furze
It was great to meet Colin and watch him learn to fly the jet suit untethered. Colin posted a few of my photos and you can watch his video below, which you can see me briefly in the background (my fifteen minutes of internet fame) and it includes one of my photos.
AX Back to the Future Hoverboard Shoot
The aim of AX Studios is to produce cinematic, high-quality videos – for this shoot there was the specific shot in mind (above).
This main shot was achieved by DVA Films, shooting with a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera with a 50mm and an anamorphic lens, plus extra filters to get the flares, stabilised on a Movi.
Sam Rogers explains how we got the shot and in that behind the scenes video I shot some of the clips.
Gravity Race Testing
Watching the maneuvers the pilots were able to perform felt unreal. Nothing prepares you for the intense noise of the five jet engines, all kicking out thick hot air, as well as throwing up any loose debris on the runway, plus the smell of the uncombusted fuel, which slightly catches in your throat.
The video Gravity put out uses a few of clips from my Mavic and a couple I took with my D750.
Of course during the whole shoot social distancing was observed.
Production Stills
I shot a load of stills on the day, which you can see a few of on my Instagram, and I enjoyed editing them:
