Behind Scenes with Top Gun Maverick Aerial Cinematographers

Top Gun Maverick Aerial Cinematography Team shares technical details and exciting anecdotes of how their jaw dropping breakthrough images were achieved. Academy Award winning Director of Photography Claudio Miranda, ASC, Aerial Coordinator/Lead Camera Pilot Kevin LaRosa II, Aerial DP’s Michael Fitzmaurice and legendary David B. Nowell, ASC along with their AC’s and technicians have captured what is widely acclaimed to be the best achievement in feature film Aerial Cinematography to date. Fujinon zoom lenses (20-120mm, 85-300, 25-300mm) were used exclusively in the Shotover F1 “Rush“ gimbals to capture the air to air cinematography. Fujinon zooms (18-85, 25-300, 75-400) were also used to for the majority of daytime exteriors, the ground to air and other long lens shots. According to DP Miranda, “we had everything“ in terms of lenses used on TGM including various types of primes and the very first Fujinon Premista 28-100 Fullframe cine zoom. What’s striking and somewhat surprising about Top Gun Maverick is how incredibly well all of the various footage captured on the Sony Venice1 Cameras at different resolutions integrates together when viewed on IMAX screens. Director Joe Kosinski and DP Claudio Miranda’s goal was to capture as much as possible in Full Frame 6K on the Venice but their need for long lens imagery and compact zooms in the high speed jet gimbals required the filmmakers to rely on Super35 4K resolution as well. Remarkably, the various FulFrame prime lenses and the S-35 Fujinon zooms intercut seamlessly throughout TGM. Claudio worked with acclaimed colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld to apply an advanced film grain emulation to the grading of the Sony Venice1’s 6K and 4K X-OCN codec images. This subtle final touch is both an homage to the 1986 Top Gun film as well as their own achievement in furthering digital cinema’s ability to captivate audiences the way the feel of analog film emulsions had for decades. Please SUBSCRIBE to this channel if you enjoy the video!