By Jake Bourke

Flyover is an immersive, multi-sensory flying theater experience that uses suspended, motion-based seating in front of massive spherical dome screens, strapping audiences in for a simulated hang-gliding tour over scenic destinations around the globe. The attraction makes heavy use of sensory 4D effects such as wind, mist, and deployed scents, creating a dazzling, ultra-immersive journey that elevates the traditional movie theater experience. Each venue features an a roster of experiences, some exclusive to respective locations. For example, Awaken Canada – a coast-to-coast, province-to-province adventure spanning the entire country – can only be viewed at Flyover’s Vancouver location. Wonders of the American West, which lets audiences explore iconic American locales such as the Grand Canyon, Lake Tahoe, and the Golden Gate Bridge, is exclusive to Flyover’s Las Vegas location.

The comparison most audiences are familiar with is Walt Disney’s Soarin’, an attraction at both Disneyland and Disney World that simulates the feel of flying. However, Flyover offers a longer, more in-depth experience compared to Soarin’. Flyover’s workflow and technology allows the ride vehicle to suddenly dip, weave and bank. Flyover takes full advantage of modern filmmaking innovations to put audiences high above the clouds. Flyover also prides itself as an educational experience, featuring elaborate and humorous pre-shows that lean into the culture of the destination audiences are about to tour.

Dave Mossop is a documentary filmmaker and director, often taking to the skies via helicopter to capture these incredible views. postPerspective had the honor of discussing what goes into these unique pieces of experiential filmmaking with Mossop, breaking down his process and workflow, and highlighting the specialized equipment that helped successfully pull off such an intensive production.

How do you find the “story” for your Flyover films? What does preproduction look like?
Flyover is a visual medium based on location: capturing the beauty of a place. We have to be great listeners, showing up and opening our ears, as well as our hearts, to find the authentic story within the country, the geography or the culture. We start with this long period of just meeting people. We explore and search and learn, all to find that “spark:” the magic behind any given place. We then act as messengers to convert that into a visual storytelling metaphor.

What’s a technological aspect of these Flyover films audiences would never notice?
Flyover’s unique theaters are arguably a new genesis of human experience. It’s this incredible, multi-sensory environment, and as we go to film, we have to keep that “sensory” aspect in mind. We’re not just making a film. We have three-dimensional sound, scent, mist and wind effects. Not to mention, there is the physical swaying movement of the ride vehicle. The challenge, however, is combing all these senses in a way that isn’t jarring, keeping it all one immersive and cohesive experience.

It’s a fascinating challenge to craft something where the audience is truly absorbed into the story and isn’t distracted by these sensory additions. It’s a balancing act in every sense of the term, and that’s what makes crafting these experiences an incredible creative journey. You’re banking left, carving up, coming up, soaring like a bird in the open sky, and then you approach a waterfall, and as you get close, you’re hit with mist. And it all links through each transition, so you don’t feel a jarring moment or distracting cut.

When framing the shot, do you have to account where the audience may be positioned? Or are the ride vehicles “choreographed” to your footage, ensuring everyone has a clear view?
You do have to account for it, and it’s a very subtle art. Flyover screens aren’t 360, and our chairs can’t move at will. They’re limited in their range of motion. That said, our ride vehicles are really capable, but we only have a certain amount of roll, tilt, raw and heave. What we do while shooting is utilize a guide that frames the footage within the “central sweet spot” of the screen. The rest of the screen is then considered as this peripheral vision bonus area. If the subject moves too far in any given direction, you’re going to see the edge of the screen, and we don’t want that. It’s just a really interesting illusion that we’re building, incorporating gravity as part of the story.

As you move through these environments, you want the gaze to be aimed toward the center of the screen and the periphery to be filled with image, but simultaneously, y the chair movement and the aerial movement has to link together. We have to make sure you’re feeling like you’re getting that g-force corner, where you feel like you’re physically soaring over a ride. Again, it’s a really subtle art to try and master.

It’s a huge iterative process where you can’t see your footage right away. You’re in the field, and the footage is this distortedness of a fisheye. It’ll take you two weeks to get back to that giant theater where you can actually see it for the first time. It’s almost like shooting on film back in the day. You’re shooting blind to a degree, and when you finally get to see the footage, it’s how it’s going to appear in theaters, and sometimes you’re going to say, “Oh, we should have shot that differently.”

Is there a degree of spontaneity while shooting these films? How often does Mother Nature become the director?
Any documentary “suffers” from that same problem, but it’s not really a problem. It’s a beautiful thing once you learn how to harness it. With our medium, we have to be both well-planned and precise in our approach so that all the footage links up as this fluid roller coaster line. But like I said, with any documentary, you’re going to show up to a location and something amazing is going to be handed to you by nature. You have to be able to listen and absorb the world around you, let nature’s hand guide yours. When nature gives us something miraculous, we’ll change the film entirely to integrate it.

The most ridiculously beautiful place we’ve shot is probably Iceland. You would just fly around in the helicopter and see unbelievably beautiful things left, right, and center. It was almost impossible to choose what would end up in the final film, so we just shoot.

Our language is the beauty of nature, and in my opinion, that beauty especially comes through in the form of light. Light brings out the magic within these majestic landscapes. We would often aim for golden hour and work within these amazing lighting periods, but still, you never know what’s going to happen. You have to be willing and able to just turn 90 degrees and see where that new direction takes you.

Describe the post process. How does all that aerial footage come together to create a rich and seamless theatrical experience?
Our post workflow is unique and hidden from view. Because of the fisheye format and the enormous, curved dome screen we project the film onto, the post workflow is naturally very complex. We have a multi-stage sequence of editing, polishing, stabilizing, translating, upscaling, and this incredibly intricate color grading. I feel it’s more involved than any film format because of this giant curved screen, and it’s all hidden from the audience. The goal is to ensure they never feel the editing, that their experience of soaring through the sky is easy, smooth, flowing, and perfect. But behind the scenes, there is an extremely complex and challenging process of bringing the raw aerial footage to its final state.

What’s in your toolkit? What kind of gear, software and workflows go into capturing footage while thousands of feet in the air?
We use a ton of custom stuff. We work with Shotover Systems, which is a leading gimbal company working in helicopter stabilization, but even with their military-grade gimbal system, we needed to modify it so that our fisheye lens is proud of the unit, remains stable, remains in focus, and is clear from micro shaking, which can ruin every frame.

We also used custom drones built from scratch, from the ground up, that could dive down skyscrapers and surf through the city of Chicago for a really ambitious — too ambitious — idea of mine.

Our process involves a lot of adaptations of the Mōvi or other lightweight gimbal tools to make sure we get rock solid camera movement of our heavy lift 8K high-resolution cameras. We use custom-made lenses to shoot as sharp as humanly possible, allowing us to get these fisheye shots with minimum flares. You don’t want flaring, so we use custom lens coatings and similar stuff like that. It’s just an endless litany of “not-really-off-the-shelf” gear for production.

The same also goes for post. There’s a ton of Foundry Nuke workflow specially tailored for this format, but Terry Cousineau, our editor, would know a lot more about this stuff. Terry is an incredible genius in terms of post. But, yes, all the way through editing, animation and any CG additions or transitions we need to do, most of what we do is all custom made. We just did a film where we added a fake arctic research station with drones and stuff. The location doesn’t exist. It only serves the story we’re trying to tell. Of course, any additions to the footage are tricky to track because of the fisheye, but that’s the nature of this medium.

How has your prior work informed your approach to Flyover filmmaking?
My roots come from action sports. I grew up in love with skiing, climbing, and traveling around the world. It all informs my filmmaking tin the Flyover genre. Skiing down a mountain, making curves through powder feels a lot like soaring through the sky, and that art of the turn and that flowing sensation is what we’re trying to give people during the main show.

It combines my upbringing and my infatuation with world travel. I have an anthropology degree in addition to my film degree, and I just feel so privileged to be able to bring together all these aspects of my upbringing into my work. It really is everything I grew up learning about — from skiing to music to the geology of the planet, and this fascination with human culture. I get to work with these brilliant artists from all over the world to bring together a vision within this new format of storytelling. It’s incredible that millions of people get to go and experience something innovative and unique that our group has put together.

What else is in store for the Flyover format? How do you foresee the evolution of this filmmaking medium?
I believe the possibilities are endless. Anything you can experience in the world, or anything you can fantasized, can now be created in an immersive environment that feels lifelike and “sharp,” as well as convincing with all your senses being stimulated: visual, auditory, olfactory, everything in between. It pulls you into the story unlike anything else.

I believe in a future for artists possessing the imagination capable of diving into this realm, and I do think more people will get into it overtime, leading to huge advances in both popularity and technological innovation. I’m just very excited to see where it all goes.

Jake Bourke is a screenwriter based in Boston. His focus is on short-form episodic television and original pilots. He also writes about post and production. Check out his site here.