One Giant Leap Takes Its Next Step…
In February 2021, Bryce Dallas Howard aired her first SuperBowl commercial, a spot for Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to orbit. To celebrate this milestone in human spaceflight, Bryce answers questions about directing the commercial and making this fantasy become a visual reality.
1. What references did you use as inspiration for the commercial?
We first thought about what the audience would want to experience when watching this commercial: feelings of possibility, wonder, and awe. This commercial was all about capturing those sensations of what it is to look at the world from up above. All the astronauts talk about this idea of cosmic perspective and how once you cross that thin, blue line, your perspective of what it is to be alive changes forever. In short, “wonder and awe” became our motto.
The team started to think about moments in our collective cinematic or visual history that conveyed those magic feelings: the iconic moment of Charlie finding the Golden Ticket in Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1951); Anya Major hurling a hammer at Big Brother in Apple’s epic 1984 Macintosh Commercial; and the breathtaking visuals of the movie Gravity (2013).
2. What was filming like for the commercial?
We shot the commercial in January of this year and COVID safety protocols aside, shooting this was like one big reunion. John Schwartzman was our DP — I had just finished working with him on Jurassic World: Dominion — and he was an absolutely glorious collaborator for this project; not only does he have an in-depth knowledge of filming scenes in space from Armageddon, but his vast knowledge of cinema history, enthusiasm, and talent is bar none.
Our goal was to come up with the most compelling shots of the suit, so the technical setup was pretty simple: our “actor” was a doll in a spacesuit on a turntable (the doll even had its own SpaceX bodyguards!). To get that epic, sweeping feeling of floating in space, we used a snorkel lens over the suit, and for the tighter shots with fine details of the suit and the Inspiration4 mission patch, we used a periscope lens which allowed us to move in and around the doll. Though we came in with a shotlist of angles we wanted to get, the majority of our day was just playing around — finding the sweet spot and catching all the happy accidents.
3. How did you land on Celeste’s “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” as the soundtrack for the commercial?
The music was make or break for us — the worst-case scenario being stunning visuals set against a song that makes the audience feel like they're going to be lost, trapped, or doomed in space (yikes). To counterbalance the serious nature of the suit, we knew we needed to tap into the childlike brain of our viewers; the part of ourselves where hope and possibility live. The beauty of Celeste’s rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” was that it took a familiar lullaby and added a bit of personality to it. I think a lot of people would have expected a score with a lot of gravity and drama, so it was fun to subvert that and find a song and a captivating singer to make it fun!
4. Octavia Spencer’s voice was perfect for this commercial — what was it like working with her again?
For all of us working on the project, Octavia Spencer was an undeniable choice to share this opportunity with viewers — I mean, let’s be honest, every time Octavia talks, I am most certainly listening because she has a voice (and she is a person) that I 100% trust. If a viewer had any doubts that this mission was actually happening — and that they could actually be a part of it — we knew Octavia could express a sense of possibility while also feeling totally relatable and grounded. It’s exactly how she is as a person: warm, inviting, and powerful. I love that she was so game to contribute to the story of this mission. Octavia, if you’re reading this, thank you so so much for saying yes!
Inspiration4 takes off next Wednesday, September 15 (Time TBA). You can learn more about the mission and watch the launch as part of the Netflix documentary, “Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space.”
