- Hey! Check out my new ride.
We just finished filming our Top Gun episode.
It was great!
We had an incredible cast featuring Atomicmari,
Michael Stevens, Idubbbz and then, we had the incredible opportunity
to partner with Paramount and get people to Jay Ellis.
- You're everyone's problem.
You're dangerous!
who's actually in Top Gun: Maverick.
But the cherry on top was sitting down with the director Joe Kosinski
and just talking about film making and how he creates.
It was a real treat and it made me feel like,
"Oh, we're actually a part of this Top Gun universe.
Joe.
- Yes. - Hi.
- Hi. How are you?
- I'm doing very well, Joe.
So, in Top Gun: Maverick, there is technology
that is crucial to telling that story.
- Right. - Is that something that is important to you?
Being able to use and take advantage of technology?
- I went to school for engineering.
I thought I was going to be an aerospace engineer.
Technology was something I always had a handle on,
but for me, it starts with the story
and then, it's about figuring out what tools
are out there or what tools do we have to invent
to tell this story the right way.
On Top Gun: Maverick, it was all about:
"How do we get movie cameras inside an AFT Super Hornet with Tom Cruise?"
- Was there something that you had to adapt or create
to be able to capture that in Top Gun: Maverick?
- Yes. My cinematographer, that I work with a lot, Claudio Miranda and I,
had been working with Sony.
We tested and worked with him to develop the Rialto it's called,
which is a very small version of the Venise.
It was of a size that then, we could start to fit in fighter jets.
For Top Gun, we managed to fit six of those in the cockpit
four facing towards the actor
and two facing forward.
- When the Top Gun: Maverick trailer came out,
those shots from inside the plane,
pointed this way, the pilot's here...
Blew my mind. I remember going frame by frame,
"How did they do that? Is that a green screen? How did they make that happen?"
- You can't fake that. That's... why we shot it for real.
- Authenticity and the way people that are operating the planes move, feel and act
is probably crucial to the story that you're telling. - Yeah.
- Did your directing style change from when you were on the ground
to when your talent was in the air?
- Absolutely. I mean, when the talent's in the air,
they're on their own.
So what we do is we built a replica of the cockpit on the ground
and we would go through all the scenes we were gonna shoot that day,
including their eye line, making sure they check their visors, check their mask,
tap their helmet to sync with sound and run the camera.
- So you basically did a dress rehearsal set.
- Exactly. - On the ground.
And you did it enough times where it became intuitive to them.
- Yeah, so when they go up there
and they're going 600 miles an hour, and they're upside pulling 4 G,
they're able to do the scene.
Some days, we'd work a 16-hour day and get...
40 seconds of footage.
25 cameras running simultaneous.
- That's wild. - Yeah.
- Quick question for you.
Top Gun, the first movie, is Top Gun!
Everybody knows Top Gun. - Yeah!
- What is it like having to go back in these existing properties
and create something new
that has to be built on, I imagine,
what has already been there, what fans expect,
but also put your own touch on that?
How do you do that
and is it something that is a challenge or is it scary?
- It's fun, because what I found it's better to look at a much bigger picture,
like thematically, what do you want to do?
Tonally, what are you trying to capture?
Make something that is personal, make something that you love
and make it your own taste, put your own stamp on it and it will get noticed.
- I love that.
Joe, thank you so much for your time.
This has been incredibly inspiring and illuminating, so I very much appreciate it.
- Thanks, Jake. It's been great to be here and can't wait to see it when it's on YouTube.
- And I can't wait to see Top Gun: Maverick, in theatres...
- In 2021. - In 2021!
- As soon as possible.
- Yes, as soon as possible.
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