Joseph Kosinski’s 2022 action film Top Gun: Maverick brought back the action star Tom Cruise as Captain Pete Mitchell. The sequel to the 1986 film Top Gun features an ensemble cast, including Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Glen Powell, and many more. Soon after its release, it was a hit at the box office and among critics, with many deeming it better than the original movie. It went on to be the highest-grossing film of Cruise’s career and received six Oscar nominations at the 2023 Academy Awards.
It won the Academy Award for Best Sound. And the whole cast and crew of the film worked very hard to make it a success. The cast of the film went through months of training, including an intense flight program. Along with the cast, the crew also had to take several measures before they started filming, including keeping an eye on weather patterns.
Claudio Miranda’s Struggle While Filming the Tom Cruise Movie
Filming the Tom Cruise starrer Top Gun 2 came as a challenge to its cast and crew. And the cinematographer Claudio Miranda was “proud” of the work he and everyone involved in the production made possible. Followed by their extensive flight training, the cast joined professional pilots on a 90-minute flight.
While the actors checked their makeup and lighting and turned on their cameras, Miranda had to rely on the sun as his primary light source. He shared that he prepared everything by studying the flight paths and weather patterns in order to set the camera.
“It got really nerve-racking because it’s really hard to predict. I had to set one exposure basically, because we’re not auto-exposing the cameras and they’re really specific.”
Miranda shared that he had to “look 50 miles [ahead]” to know how deep they were going, to know the terrain, and set the camera exposure accordingly, all while hoping that the weather doesn’t change during the shot.
Claudio Miranda Got His Pilot License For Top Gun 2
Claudio Miranda has shared that nothing about working on the record-breaking sequel of the 1986 film was easy. He revealed that he wanted to bring something new and unique to honor the Top Gun theme, and to make sure that every shot was perfect, he got his pilot license.
During an interview, Miranda shared that he did multiple experiments and got his pilot license “to try and figure out” which were the perfect places to put a camera in the cockpit. He later shared that apart from other things, he also made sure that the cameras used for filming were good-quality cameras, and he is “pretty proud” of everyone’s work on Top Gun: Maverick.
Top Gun: Maverick is available on Paramount+.
Source: IMDb