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The Force India crew were filmed in Shepperton Studios, where the majority of the James Bond franchise films have been shot, using cutting-edge Time Slice cameras to show the most detailed and dramatic coverage of pit stops ever seen.
Time slicing, which is also known as ‘bullet time’, is a sophisticated, relatively new optical filming technique created by combining shots from multiple synchronized stills cameras with rolling footage from action ‘movie’ cameras. A single shot from each stills camera is then used per single frame of the moving image to create the illusion of an object frozen in time while the viewer seemingly moves round the object. This technique was first popularised on screen in the Matrix films and more recently martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
This technology is of course ideal for the high-speed pit stops, where wheel changes can be made in less than 3.5 seconds. Fifty six stills cameras were set on a five-metre arc with a movie camera at the far ellipses. Each stills camera was carefully linked so at the given time they were triggered in a linear sequence. Each tiny movement was beautifully captured and then arranged and displayed consecutively to give the impression of the viewer orbiting around the frozen in time action.
As viewers will see on Sunday, each component of the stop, from the car coming in to the stop, the lollipop going down and the gun men changing the wheels, has been captured and recreated to show the synchronisation of a stop as never seen before. Overlaid graphics and audio feed will also give a detailed insight into the unique choreography of a pit stop so viewers will see the refuellers from a viewpoint you’d never imagine, see the nose being changed and hear what key members of the crew think when the car is approaching.
Over 60 cameras, five cameraman, a team of graphic designers and over 200 man hours combined to make the feature. As such, it counts as one of the biggest projects undertaken by both the BBC Sports and Force India so far this season and took a huge logistical effort from both. Impressively, however, the project came together in just over three weeks. Equipment was rushed back from the Turkish Grand Prix to be on set on Friday 12 June, the crew briefed and transported and one race car prepared – meaning the car build schedule was rejigged to take one whole day out of crucial British GP preparations.
With Istanbul over 3,000km from the team’s Silverstone base, the cars and freight would normally take a full five days to return by road, however with this feature in mind, the pit stop equipment, from the overhead gantries, air lines and wheel guns, jacks, tyres, to the earthing strips laid on the floor and fuel hoses and radios were expressly driven back to Silverstone and arrived just hours before the shoot started.
The necessary equipment was then loaded onto a 40ft articulated truck in the early hours of Friday morning and driven to Shepperton to arrive on set at 8am. The VJM02 seen in the shoot (Adrian Sutil’s race car for the British Grand Prix) did not travel to Turkey, but was largely prepared in the factory by HQ-based mechanics. Parts used in the Turkish Grand Prix were however needed to finish the build so a small team arrived at work to meet the returning trucks – an early wake up call of 4:30am!
The 24 crew, including two from McLaren, then arrived at the studios just after the truck to help with equipment set-up and preparation. Eight hours later, with time slice, slow motion and real time camera work completed, enough footage was gathered to edit this remarkable feature.
Click here to watch behind the pit stop scene with Force India F1.
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