“The Piccards” is based on the true story of father-son explorers Auguste and Jacques Piccard. In surreal fashion, the film reimagines the individual achievements of both men as one continuous upward journey—an odyssey across time and space—to the stratosphere and the deepest point of the ocean.

Today, the story of the Piccards goes largely untold in the United States. But their cultural impact is undeniable. As the first man to reach the stratosphere, Auguste Piccard paved the way for all subsequent commercial air travel. Additionally, he and his son Jacques have inspired well-known cultural characters like Tintin’s Professor Calculus and Star Trek’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

Cinematography played a huge role in communicating the upward trajectory of our journey and making it feel visceral. We used the camera to subtly convey things like the feeling of claustrophobia, the scale and solitude of the stratosphere and the danger of the ocean deep. It was also crucial in unifying the two journeys through similar shot compositions and by highlighting the circular similarities of the two vessels throughout.

From a technical standpoint, the film was captured in 35mm, 4K HD and 8K RED. Our goal was to meld live action and CGI to create a heightened reality, capturing as many in-camera effects as possible, including clouds, underwater elements and textures and a 5,548-gallon water tank. Shot compositions were inspired by an array of art, literature and scientific reference sources, among them John Martin, Jules Verne and NASA.