Red Bull

Kriss Kyle: Don’t Look Down

Campaign, Ride film & Documentary, Photography

Role: Producer

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50M+ Views

BMX athlete Kriss Kyle rides 2000ft in the air on a carbon fibre skatepark suspended below a hot air balloon.

I produced a hero stunt film for YouTube & 40 minute documentary for RBTV

TRAILER

Kriss Kyle rides a BMX park in the sky.

Over 1 million views on YouTube

+ millions more on social.

The Crew

2 x Helicopters

GB Helicopters
FPV Drone

Andrew Lawrence
2 x Alexa Mini ground teams

Jack Bailey & Tiago Kingwell
3 x RED Rigged Cameras

Extreme Facilities

2 years in the making

A concept born in lockdown - whilst isolated, Kriss found himself riding in his native Scottish highlands, looking up at the sky and dreaming of possibilities. The concept was quick to flesh out, but the execution took somewhat longer.

We captured the progress of the project - or sometime lack of it - over the course of 2 years. From the initial wooden test bowl - lifted using a crane, through to the final successful flights after months of waiting for the right weather conditions.

We captured the unique, world-first collaboration between Kriss, Monolith ramp builders and Red Bull Advanced Technologies (the external engineering department from the F1 Red Bull Oracle racing team) to design the carbon fibre bowl and it’s support structures needed to secure it to a hot air balloon.

My Role & challenges

I led the production of the ‘Don’t Look Down’ films for 2 years, from early proof of concept tests to the final flights in December ‘22 and January ‘23. I collaborated with Director Matty Lambert on a hero ‘Ride Film’ and worked with Director Tigao Kingwell to create a long form behind-the-scenes documentary for Red Bull TV, highlighting the project’s numerous technical and creative challenges.

At times the task seemed impossible, requiring engineering innovation, perfect weather conditions and insane bravery from Kriss to work out how to ride a bowl swinging in the air like a ship in stormy waters. This required patience, clear and consistent communication and flexibility to coordinate the key crew needed for shoots. Balancing the budget with growing shoot requirements With clear communication and stakeholder management we were able to engage the wider Red Bull organisation to stick with the ambitious project despite it’s over-running timeline.

The project achieved an insane world first with a custom built carbon fibre bowl designed by Red Bull Advanced Technologies - using the same materials, build and test techniques as their F1 Oracle Red Bull Racing cars. As well as a custom balloon from Cameron Balloons in Bristol - made with specific specifications of lightweight material to the largest possible commercial size in in the world.

Dir - Tiago Kingwell

Ride Film Dir - Matty Lambert

Red Bull Producer - Jim Holmes

Assistant Producer - Dana Leonard, 

Assistant Producers - Ana Tapia, Kristina Toffi

Camera Assistant & 8mm - Marko Steinberg

Behind the scenes Documentary on RBTV

Premiered at Red Bull Racing HQ in Milton Keynes, the audience nestled in between the F1 cars from the last 10 years, the 40minute documentary covers the 3 year journey, taking the concept from it’s early stage tests with a crane & wooden bowl through to the final flights on a cold morning in January. Available exclusively on the Red Bull TV Channel.

Press.

Local news and national radio jumped on the story as the general public first spotted the balloon in the sky on the shoot days. The internet rumours were rife until our launch day a few weeks later.

Once live, the project was picked up by national newspapers and television including The Sun & ITV News. Reports and features were even spotted further afield on international news programs.

To round off the project there was a full centre page spread & feature article in Red Bull’s Red Bulletin.

In the edit.

The documentary edit was managed incrementally throughout the years, creating scenes to showcase the progress to the Red Bull Media House Production team, to continue extended support from senior management for the project and to highlight any missing footage we needed.

Editor:  Ross Casswell

Editor Ride Film: Matty Lambert

Post support & social edits: Sophie Pham.

Colour by Vlad Barin @ CHEAT

Sound design & mix by Sound Disposition

With original composition by Louis Souyave

With additional sound design by Keith White

“Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it's a hot air balloon with a suspended skatepark of course”!

- Chris Evans – Radio DJ