March 2025

Flight Risk: Up in the Virtual Air

This article was originally published in the March 2025 issue of AC. The thriller Flight Risk unfolds almost entirely within a nine-seat Cessna 208 as it flies 14,000' above snowy Alaska. Cinematographer Johnny Derango shot the film for director Mel Gibson, working closely with on-set visual-effects supervisor Michael Ralla. “Mel sent me a different script during the pandemic with a big nighttime car chase through the desert,” Derango recalls, “so I began researching virtual production, and in doing so, we visited several different facilities to learn more about the process. Then Flight Risk came about, and we both immediately realized virtual production would be a perfect fit.” Except for a handful of scenes set on the ground, the...more