{"id":40486,"date":"2025-12-08T16:53:45","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/?p=40486"},"modified":"2025-12-08T17:03:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T01:03:56","slug":"claudio-fah-turbulence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/interviews\/interview-exclusives\/claudio-fah-turbulence\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside TURBULENCE: How CLAUDIO FAH Turned Technical Constraints Into Aerial Cinema – Exclusive Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An in-depth exclusive interview with director CLAUDIO FAH discussing the riveting, high flying thriller TURBULENCE.<\/p>\n

SYNOPSIS:\u00a0 Zach and Emmy\u2019s romantic retreat aboard a hot air balloon takes a terrifying turn when they are hijacked by a sinister third passenger with a link to Zach\u2019s past.\u00a0 As the mystery of their secret relationship is revealed, their spectacular ride becomes a brutal mental chess match and a lethal battle high in the sky. Kelsey Grammer leads a brilliant cast in this psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the very last moment.<\/em><\/p>\n

Directed by Claudio Fah with script by Andy Mayson, TURBULENCE stars Hera Hilmar, Jeremy Irvine, Kelsey Grammer, and Olga Kurylenko.<\/p>\n

An exciting and insightful exclusive interview with director Claudio Fah, we quickly learn that when he set out to make TURBULENCE, a high-altitude thriller set almost entirely inside a hot-air balloon, he was under no illusions: this was never going to be a film blessed with easy logistics. After all, hot-air balloons are delightful for sightseeing\u2014and absolutely terrible for controlled filmmaking. So Fah and his team leaned into a hybrid plan: build what they could, fake what they must, and make every technical choice feel as grounded as the story was sky-bound. \u201cWe knew a real balloon wasn\u2019t going to cut it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opening with an infectious and enthusiastic laugh, he recalls the earliest conversations about TURBULENCE. Hot-air balloons, he explains, are beautiful but utterly uncooperative film partners\u2014drifting wherever the wind decides. So the team built their own solution: a partial balloon rig suspended from a crane, giving the actors just enough real movement and texture to perform against.<\/p>\n

To capture the sweeping vistas needed for the balloon\u2019s journey, the crew skipped the balloon entirely and instead sent a helicopter rig into the Dolomites\u2014outfitted with a 360-degree high-resolution camera system. These plates, stitched and polished, would later stand in for the entire world around the characters. The footage provided the visual backbone of the film, replacing the blue screens that surrounded actors during studio shoots with natural landscapes that felt anything but artificial.\u00a0\u00a0This ingenuity came partly from necessity: using a fully functioning balloon for dramatic scenes would have been unsafe, unpredictable, and a logistical nightmare. Instead, the production relied on a special partial balloon rig originally built by Cameron Balloons. The team suspended only the lower portion of a balloon\u2014basket and skirt\u2014from a crane, allowing actors to perform with real physical contact and genuine sway while still keeping the environment controllable.<\/p>\n

Blue screen work has improved over the years, yet it still has a tell: a certain crispness that gives away its digital nature.\u00a0 Fah and cinematographer Jaime Reynoso were determined to avoid that sterile quality, so they opted for a deliberately organic approach.<\/p>\n

Their recipe:\u00a0 (1)\u00a0\u00a0Handheld shooting, to inject natural motion and mild imperfections; (2)\u00a0Anamorphic lenses, to add character, softness, and a touch of distortion; (3)\u00a0Cinematographer in the basket, not outside it.<\/p>\n

Reynoso spent much of production wedged inside the cramped basket\u2014sometimes nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with the actors\u2014so the camera could inhabit the space along with the characters. The result is a visual intimacy that counterbalances the artificial environment surrounding them on set.\u00a0 Filming inside a tiny balloon basket required unusual problem-solving.\u00a0 \u00a0As you’ll hear from Claudio, he and Reynoso developed a morning ritual: block the scene, determine the master shot, then hand the reins over to the actors and camera to find spontaneity.\u00a0\u00a0Reynoso was encouraged to pan, adjust, and improvise mid-take, capturing reactions and interactions that could never be storyboarded. This flexible visual grammar kept the confined setting from ever feeling visually repetitive, and\u2014perhaps more importantly\u2014mirrored the shifting emotional turbulence between the characters.<\/p>\n

Now what would a hot air balloon flight in the Dolomites be without vertigo inducing experiences, dramatic explosive gravitas among the balloon riders, and of course, the nail-biting excitement and tension of storms.\u00a0 The film\u2019s storm sequence became its own mini-production. Three days of relentless water, wind machines, and actors who were cold, drenched, and still expected to look convincingly terrified. Wind machines roared. Water cannons blasted the cast with icy sheets of rain.\u00a0 Lightning flashes strobed the set.\u00a0 Fah describes it as \u201ca very wet endurance test disguised as a shooting day.”<\/p>\n

To keep the cast from freezing, the team stationed mobile sauna seats just off-camera to prevent hypothermia. Actors would dash from battering wind to blissful steam, then back again for another take \u2014 an image as far from glamour as filmmaking gets, yet delightfully emblematic of TURBULENCE\u2019s practical-meets-digital ethos.\u00a0\u00a0CGI stepped in where nature simply couldn\u2019t behave on command: enhancing the balloon, extending the environment, and crafting the swirling menace that safely stayed off-set.<\/p>\n

According to Claudio, \u201cThe calm center of a very technical storm,\u201d was editor Tamsin Jeffrey who faced an unusual challenge: every scene essentially had to be cut twice.\u00a0 First came the edit built on performances\u2014the blue-screen version.\u00a0 Then, once visual effects blended in the aerial plates and environmental details, the scene often felt different and needed to be recut for rhythm, tension, and continuity.\u00a0 \u00a0The storm sequences amplified this complexity tenfold, requiring constant back-and-forth between editorial and VFX.\u00a0 \u00a0Fah credits Jeffrey for her unshakable patience and keen storytelling instincts, shaping the film\u2019s pacing while juggling an enormous amount of visual data.<\/p>\n

Speaking candidly about the financial constraints compared to larger aerial adventures like The Aeronauts<\/strong><\/a><\/em>\u00a0 (a film Claudio and the team looked at “repeatedly”), rather than lamenting limitations, the team turned them into creative accelerators\u2014using practical rigs, real environments, handheld intimacy, and a smart blend of digital and physical effects to craft a film that feels expansive without ever pretending to have a blockbuster budget.<\/p>\n

What makes TURBULENCE stand out isn\u2019t just its story\u2014it\u2019s the ingenuity behind capturing it. From helicopter-shot landscapes to crane-suspended balloon rigs, from handheld camerawork to sauna-assisted storm shoots, the film\u2019s technical backbone is full of clever solutions to aerial filmmaking\u2019s biggest headaches.<\/p>\n

And in the end, those limitations didn\u2019t tether the film\u2014they helped it soar.<\/p>\n

TAKE A LISTEN. . .<\/strong><\/h2>\n

by debbie elias, exclusive interview 12\/2\/2025<\/p>\n

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TURBULENCE is in theatres, On Demand, and On Digital on December 12, 2025.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n