"I'm not a person that seeks adventure just for myself. I seek perfection, I seek the fine line between imagery, storytelling and the craziest adventures. And I saw the possibility of putting all these elements together when we created the balloon crossing."
Fresh from breaking the world record for the highest tightrope walk, performed at an unbelievable 6,131ft, Rafael Bridi decided to bring this incredible project back to his home city of Florianópolis, Brazil.
The goal: to walk across a slackline between two hot air balloons in mid-flight (and live to tell the tale)! Here's how it went down, including exclusive behind-the-scenes footage:
Home advantage
For Bridi, choosing his hometown for the flight was not just a sentimental decision.
"The location we chose provides very good conditions for flying balloons. And we have all these pilots here doing unique flights, going over canyons above the clouds. Together with my production crew, I think we created a dream team."
Understandably, working with an experienced team was of upmost importance for Bridi, who would ultimately be putting his life in their hands. And together, they were able to pull off both a spectacular physical feat, and a breathtaking visual production.
This included an extremely rare balloon flight over the ocean, which Bridi noted: "is something that if you ask any balloon pilot, it's almost impossible and would be very risky."
Capturing an immersive experience
A key question for the team was how best to capture the whole experience.
"I wanted to bring the best perspective for people and action cams are made for that; to bring different perspectives in very different scenarios. When you combine that with 360 capture where you can record everything that surrounds you, it's just mind blowing. You can create the image that you had in your mind when you were designing the project."
And for Bridi, there was only one camera for the job: Insta360 X3.
"It surprised me a lot. I've been using action cams since the beginning of my slacklining career and X3 packs in so much, it brings so much creativity. I love the new, bigger screen. You can touch, you can see the image and see if you got what you wanted. For me, it's fundamental to have this camera."
Why?
One question people often ask about a project like this is... why? What's the point?
From Bridi's perspective, slacklining literally provides the balance he desires in life; from meeting new people and seeing new places, to pushing himself to pursue new challenges.
"I’m a person that inside of myself I'm very competitive and I try to bring that to my ideas to create things that no one else can. That’s how I live my life: I dream, I plan, and I act."
Another key motivation for Bridi to produce works like "Walking the Line" is to inspire people with this philosophy, no matter whether they view themselves as "creative" or "thrill-seeking".
"Thinking bold is a way of finding balance in life, right? We have very common lives in big cities and we need to think bold to see beauty, where most people do not see beauty. We need to think bold to see adventure, where most people just pass by and do not see anything different. That's why "Think Bold" is a way of life for me."
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