How Weightless Scenes Can Be Created In Post Production

Many things involved in a TV or film production shot in a studio can be produced on the spot without anything extra. A mundane scene in an office or a living room, for example, may be a staple part of a film or TV set. But for unusual and extraordinary settings, you need to find alternatives.

Of course, with lots of props and background, you could create a landscape to resemble some distant exotic land, or even the strange landscape of another planet. But what if you wanted to create some truly exceptional special effects, such as weightlessness?

This is a particularly tricky one to pull off, because it cannot be replicated on Earth, yet equally, as there is abundant footage of real astronauts in this actual situation, viewers will know what this looks like and would not be fooled by an unconvincing attempt at representing it on screen.

Wires, Hoists And CGI

Consequently, there can be little doubt that this is something best achieved in post production using the latest CGI technology.

A good example of this was the film Gravity, which was produced in 2013. The technology involved had two distinctive elements.

On the one hand, there were still actors and actresses (in particular, Sandra Bullock), dressed up in spacesuits, with this costume part being the easy bit. Then, there were various hoists and wires to enable her and her co-stars to be floated and then pulled around the set. This was much more technical and required lots of equipment.

Nonetheless, nobody watching 21st-century cinema or TV wants to see people or things on wires. Instead, the acting and the various work with wires and hoists were done in front of a green screen, with CGI doing the rest.

The Cutting-Edge Tech Of Gravity

Producer David Heyman told Cinemablend: "It’s not a film that could have been made before now," with new, cutting edge technology being developed to make the effects possible.

He acknowledged: “All of the technology, you know, when we began the process, we had no idea what we were doing. It was a process of discovery." Yet, from this discovery came some compelling effects, which show that if the technology is good enough, creative people can find a way and produce something that has a stunning visual impact.

In effect, this was new tech being used for the first time, the latest instance of using CGI in its most developed form at the time. This, as any film-watcher knows, was well in advance of the sort of pioneering special effects that looked great in the 1990s but are very dated now.

With this taking place a dozen years ago, anyone looking to use CGI effects to create weightlessness now may find the technology is even better in 2025.

Gravity was one of a trio of space-themed films that came out in quick succession, all of which used special effects to create weightlessness. The others were Interstellar and The Martian.

Weightlessness And The Martian

The latter may have been particularly notable for the contrast between the spectacular use of special effects to create the weightless scenes on board the Hermes spacecraft, and the curious absence of any attempt to recreate the effects of an astronaut on Mars, who, on a real mission, would walk, jump and bounce around with great ease in half the Earth’s gravity.

Since the scenes on Mars were shot on location in a desert on Earth rather than in a studio, such an effect would be harder to create. Even so, there were elements of post-production work even for this, such as the reflections that could be seen on Astronaut Mark Watney’s visor and even some elements of the scenery.

The film version of The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott, was an adaptation of Andy Weir’s book of the same title. Weir’s second sci-fi novel to be turned into a film, Project Hail Mary, is due out next year.

Once again, the protagonist (played by Ryan Gosling) will feature in weightless situations, while the production will also include an alien spaceship, an alien and a planet called Adrian, but eagle-eyed viewers will be keen to see if the CGI special effects are even more compelling than those from a dozen years ago.