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Skydivers share their view from above the clouds in stunning Sony ad

Skydivers share their view from above the clouds in stunning Sony ad

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sony skydiving ad
sony skydiving ad

Too many special effects are made with computer imagery these days, so it's easy to assume that much of Sony's new ad for its Alpha 7 and Alpha 7R cameras is little more than a gorgeous cutscene. But the truth is far more impressive: to make the spot, Sony sent a team of highly skilled skydivers about 15,000 feet in the air and filmed them in slow-motion as they plummeted toward the ground. The choreography was all carefully rehearsed beforehand, allowing the filmmakers to shoot the entirety of the minute-long spot in just nine takes.

"This is not your average TV commercial shoot," Jeff Gaunt, the commercial's director, says in a behind-the-scenes video. Though the shoot was clearly a bit more involved than the average ad, the goal was to emphasize the lightness of Sony's new cameras. "What we're trying to achieve here is a feeling that the actors are weightless," Gaunt says. Even if viewers don't put the two together, it's still a stunning look at mid-air acrobatics and the curvature of the Earth.