The most intriguing stories are often those that push the boundaries of human experience, and expose raw emotions as hey test characters in extreme conditions. The new action film, ‘Turbulence,’ is precisely such a tale; it’s a visceral, high-stakes thriller that masterfully combines intense personal drama with the formidable forces of nature.

Claudio Fäh directed the movie. The helmer reunited with writer Andy Mayson on the project, after they previously worked on another action thriller last year, ‘No Way Up.’ Their latest collaboration stars Hera Hilmar, Jeremy Irvine, Kelsey Grammer and Olga Kurylenko.

In ‘Turbulence,’ Zach (Irvine) and Emmy’s (Hilmar) romantic retreat aboard a hot air balloon takes a terrifying turn when they are hijacked by a sinister third passenger with a link to Zach’s past. As the mystery of their secret relationship is revealed, their spectacular ride becomes a brutal mental chess match and a lethal battle high in the sky.

‘Turbulence’ is now available On Demand and On Digital, courtesy of Lionsgate. In honor of the drama’s home release, Fäh generously took the time recently to talk about directing ‘Turbulence’ during an exclusive interview over Zoom.

Among other things, the filmmaker discussed that he was inspired to direct the feature because he wanted to reunite with Mayson after they had a positive experience working on ‘No Way Up’ together. The filmmaker also shared what his experience was like collaborating with the actors through the production on ‘Turbulence,’ which is set primarily on the hot air balloon.

Film Factual (FF): You directed the new action thriller, ‘Turbulence,’ which was written by Andy Mayson. How did you become involved in helming the movie? What was your approach to directing the drama?

Claudio Fäh (CF): This is all credited to Andy Mason, the writer-producer of ‘Turbulence.’ We made another movie together, ‘No Way Up,’ a couple years ago, and it was a great experience. So the idea of working with him again, as well as with Altitude Films, in London, was intriguing.

After the happy experiences we had on ‘No Way Up,’ he called me up. He said, “Rather than go to the bottom of the ocean again, let’s go up in the air in a hot air balloon.” I said, “Andy, that sounds crazy, I’m in!”

FF: Speaking about setting the story in the hot air balloon, how did that decision influence the way you told the story?

CF: Well, that element was part of the greatest appeal of it all, but it was also the biggest challenge of it all. Naturally, you can’t shoot 70 minutes’ worth of a movie with four characters in a hot air balloon. These hot air balloons actually go wherever they want to go, so you can’t really have a whole crew fly alongside them, at least not on our footprint.

So, figuring that out was really tricky. In a sense, we had to shoot two movies – the movie that’s the journey and everything that they’re flying through. We did that by flying in a helicopter through the Dolomites (mountain range), which was absolutely jaw-dropping. It was just a stunning experience.

So we acquired all these 360-degree high-resolution plates that we stitched together. We used those plates to chart the entire path of the journey of the balloon in the Dolomites. We then took that to a soundstage in London and (the suburb of) Twickenham, and shot all of the actors against the blue screen.

Well, not all of it, actually; we do have the takeoff and some in-between shots that we kind of did for real.

We used a half a balloon that we hung off a huge crane and suspended in the air. We then flew drones around it and got some close-ups. So it was a big mix, but figuring all that out was part of the appeal for this movie.

FF: Speaking of the actors, ‘Turbulence’ stars Hera Hilmar, Jeremy Irvine, Kelsey Grammer and Olga Kurylenko. What was the casting practice like for the four main characters?

CF: Well, that’s the whole thing, right? You can talk about the technicalities of the movie all day long. But really, what is actually interesting about this is to think of a way

to have a story unfold between these four characters that is limited by scope; I mean, they’re really inside a 10×10 box for 70 minutes.

So how do you keep it interesting? (Fäh laughs.) So I needed really great actress, and I think I got awesome actors. Those four guys were more than I could have imagined. They breathe so much life into their characters, and made them three-dimensional.

So I felt it was really interesting to see what’s going on between the four of them, including all the mysteries and the secrets that have to be revealed throughout the story. I think that sort of sustains the movie.

FF: Like you mentioned, the film’s story takes place in the hot air balloon. Once you began shooting the thriller, how did you work with the Director of Photography, Jaime Reynoso, to determine how you would shoot the scenes?

CF: Well, Jaime Reynoso is a great friend of mine. He actually shot my very first movie way back when. He then went on to have a great career of his own. He shot stuff like ‘Bloodline’ for Netflix, which I absolutely loved.

When I was able to call him, I was lucky enough that he was available to shoot this movie. He was also interested in working on it.

With all the artificiality that comes with shooting the majority of the movie against blue screen, we said, “Let’s try to counterbalance that by going in handheld. Let’s also not have these design shots, or shoot with anamorphic lenses that in some ways, destroy the crispness of the picture.”

So we had the liberty to really focus on the characters. Shooting from the handheld, we were able to quickly zero in on characters’ faces, and do so very closely so. We were able to keep everything very fluid and organic as much as possible as we tell this story of these characters, and show who they are to each other. We tried not be too distracted with the technicality or the artificiality of it all.

FF: Tamsin Jeffrey served as the editor on ‘Turbulence.’ How did you work together to create the final version of the movie together during post production?

CF: There were certainly a bunch of challenges during the edit, and that was maybe the highest mountain to climb. Once the characters are airborne, you’re looking at back-to-back visual effects shots that had to be manipulated in one way or another. The workload on a budget of an independent movie was just immense, so it had to be distributed over several visual effects companies.

The other thing that we noticed with the editor, Tamsin Jeffrey, was that she was the calm inside the storm. She held it all together throughout. (Fäh laughed.)

But we discovered that when would cut a scene with just the blue screens there, based on the actors’ performances. Once the blue screens got replaced, even in temp versions, the movie really changed.

So we realized there was actually two movies that we had to handle. There’s the one that’s shot on the soundstage. Then the one in the background had to complement what’s going on in the foreground. But it also had an influence on the foreground.

So suddenly we felt that certain scenes were going too fast once we had all the mountains in the background. We wanted to see them a little longer.

So finding the pacing of it all was a lengthy process. But it was also an eye-opening and very interesting experience.

Q: ‘Turbulence’ is now available On Demand and on digital, after Lionsgate released the feature in theaters earlier this month. What does it mean to you that you worked with the studio to distribute the film?

CF: It was a badge of honor. I’m incredibly proud that this movie, which was done kind of off the radar, then found its home at Lionsgate, which is a major U.S. distributor. I have to give credit to everybody’s incredibly hard work. They deserve attention for trying to do something that the time felt completely impossible to pull off. The fact that Lionsgate has taken this on makes me very proud.