The seemingly impossible images of drones in Minneapolis bowling amaze top filmmakers

You don’t often see a promotional bowling video in general, much less one that catches the attention of millions of people. But that’s exactly what a video made for Bryant-Lake Bowl, a bowling alley in Minneapolis, did. Not only did the spot go viral on social media, but it also attracted the attention of top Hollywood directors, who praised the difficult direction and the work involved.

The nearly 90-second images begin with a drone camera hovering over the street outside the bowling alley before descending through the front doors and widening around the building. “Okay, that’s great,” starts, but by the middle of the process it’s clear that this isn’t your usual drone camera.

With impressive speed, we pass through small openings above the bowling alleys, behind pine cars, through narrow corridors that no one ever sees, under people’s feet, through people’s conversations, around the bar and the theater, and in the then, right, bump into the middle of some flying bowls. It’s impressive.

In fact, so impressive that it caught the attention of Lee Unkrich (director of the hit film Pixar Coco), who redistributed the video from James Gunn (director Guardians of the Galaxy), with both men sharing their gobsmacked reactions to it.

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The surprising cinematic success comes from Rally Studios, based in Minneapolis, and was created by Jay Christensen and directed by Anthony Jaska. According to the Star Tribune, Christensen and Jaska made the short film to draw attention to the struggling local businesses.

“If you think about all the small businesses and COVID, their business has obviously been affected,” Christensen said. “I would go in there and I noticed it was pretty empty.” The couple reached the owner of the runway with the idea of ​​showing the uniqueness of the place.

The quick tour in, out, up and around the different parts of the bowling alley is dizzyingly cool, but the fact that it was shot in one take is what gives it that “incredible” feeling.

“It’s a real one-take,” Jaska told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “There is no CGI. That was kind of interesting. But also its positive nature – people see the necessary ability and the unique ability to combine the ability of an amazing pilot, the technology of a drone and the story that can actually be told in one go. “

The perfect shot came after 10 or 12 attempts in a period of 2 hours. They filmed the film after hours (for safety COVID) on March 2 and added sound afterwards, as the sound of the drone’s humming interfered with the natural sounds of the bowling alley.

According to Tribune, Christensen had done a lot of things with FPV (first-person viewing) with the drone camera since last spring, but he never filmed images with drones inside, which makes the phase so much more incredible. But as remarkable as the rooms inside the bowling alley were, he said the most difficult blow was actually the very first one – going through the front door. It was a windy day, he had to make sure there were no pedestrians around and he had to maneuver around a parking meter that was right where he wanted the drone to be.

But hard work paid off. Todd Vaziri, a visual effects artist who has worked on successful film franchises such as Star Wars, Star Trek and Marvel, posted on Twitter: “This kind of wonderful photographic innovation adds to the language and vocabulary of cinema. Just beautiful.”

Director James Gunn not only praised the filming as “incredible” and “amazing”, but also said he wants the duo to join his London crew when they shoot Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Christensen and Jaska said they had several directors contact them, which came as a surprise. When Tribune asked about working with James Gunn, Jaska said, “It sounds crazy, but who knows?”

Talent is talent and is sometimes found in the strangest places. I look forward to seeing where these boys’ drones take them as they explore future projects with the best in business.