Producing a World of Wonder

Air Canada announced an exclusive, multi-year partnership with Cirque du Soleil, making it the official airline for Big Top and Arena Shows. The video advertisement features a young passenger whose imagination carries her beyond the 787-9 Dreamliner into a plane hangar where Cirque du Soleil performers surround her — from the cyr wheel acrobat to the back-bending contortionist.

When Joe McLaren, a producer from Toronto working with Wasserman, called us seeking production support for the visual collateral needed for the big announcement, we packed our notebooks and headed to Air Canada's hangar at Trudeau International Airport. With director Ian Angus and cinematographer Ian Macmillan, we joined executive producer Jacob MacDonald, Air Canada's marketing department, and Cirque du Soleil's creative team to begin planning.

At the time, all we knew was that a commercial airplane and Cirque performers were going to be involved — and we had only 7 days to develop and plan the visual content. With crew to hire, equipment to reserve, and a narrative to mold, an intense week formed for Josh Usheroff, co-founder and producer at Black Box Productions: "It was a demanding week, but we managed to pull together the entire team and equipment in time for the production. On the day of the shoot, we met Cirque du Soleil talent and it was incredible to watch them perform for the camera." In all, there were 75 crew members, performers, and creatives working together to create this short and magical video.

Lighting a 787 Dreamliner

Lighting was a massive challenge for the production. We needed to illuminate an enormous airplane hangar — and the plane itself — and we had to set up quickly, with only a limited window at the location. We rented three 8k HMI helium balloons to light the set, floating them above the airplane to cover a large area with minimal gripping and stands. Additional lighting provided definition to the performers and key features of the aircraft. In all, we had three 20-foot cube trucks filled with lighting equipment, stands, and props.

We shot using an Arri Alexa Mini with Cooke S4 prime lenses, and captured the circus acts using a Ronin 2 Gimbal camera stabilizer for fluid movement and maximum flexibility on set.

Filming inside a fully functional hangar meant another plane could arrive for service at any time. We had a 7-hour window, so we prioritized the shots with the aircraft first — filming each sequence based on camera direction, starting with the wide shots in case the plane needed to move. Luckily, we captured everything in time.

When asked about the location, Josh joked: "Having a 200 million dollar prop in the background of your shot certainly makes your heart beat a little faster — especially when your name is on the insurance."

We have the ultimate respect for the Cirque du Soleil performers. The Russian bar act, where an acrobat combined somersaults and trampoline elements while jumping 30 feet in the air on a narrow plank of flexible wood, impressed us all. Line producing the Air Canada and Cirque du Soleil partnership announcement was a true pleasure — and one of the largest productions in Black Box's history.