NEER artist Tyler Weinberger shoots “Loss Prevention” featuring Samantha Win (Wonder Woman Stunt Woman)
Action film “Loss Prevention” was featured in the 2022 LA Shorts Festival.
NEER Artist Tyler Weinberger:
Loss Prevention is a pure action film that takes place in the future. Two agents are hunting down a drone that’s carrying a package, and they’ll do anything to get the package.
Literally, anything.
It all started in early 2021. Aether Films was coming off the action thriller Ambulance (Dir. Michael Bay, starring Jake Gylenhaal, Yahya Abdul Mateen). At the heart of Aether Films is a variety of drone services - Lightcraft Production Services. At the time, they were looking to produce a short action film of their own.
When my friend and director Houston Yang saw the company’s drone work, he was floored. He wanted to collaborate. So he pitched an incredible idea for the film that they couldn’t turn down… and then the team came together.
Davis Dilillo (who ran the entire drone department) and the Aether team were critical to the success of the film. Davis was showing us what technology was available. And on top of that, designing drone equipment that technically worked. He was also production designed for the film.
We wanted the action to be fast and visceral - as action should be. To maximize coverage and make the film feel more real and raw, we rigged 3 cameras down to the car in various positions. Pursuit Systems' amazing crew and equipment took the entire film to another level. We also had an incredible cast. Samantha Win, who was the stunt woman in Super Woman and Army of the dead. And martial artist Daniel Bernhardt who we’ve seen in The Matrix Resurrections.
I’ll let Houston take it from here!
We wanted the action to be fast and visceral - as action should be. To maximize coverage and make the film feel more real and raw, we rigged 3 cameras down to the car in various positions.
Director Houston Yang:
I love bringing new perspectives to action. We were up and filming in 4 months. It wouldn’t have been possible without the Aether team and their passion for it. When you have a team that's coming up with new ways of depicting action - that's the lifeblood of action. It’s been a blast.
Tyler was incredible in choreographing the entire camera work. It's really hard to choreograph all the moving parts, especially when you’ve never done it before. There are so many things to figure out. We went out and spent two full days trying to figure out how to talk to each other on radios. How to get the drone into place? The camera drone. The prop drone. The car racing. All working in tandem. Orchestrating that was Tyler’s great achievement/accomplishment.
Aether Films:
Loss Prevention was a dream project for Aether Films. We felt very lucky to have the opportunity of working with Director Houston Yang and our incredible crew. Houston handed us the keys (literally) and allowed our creativity to run wild.
Loss Prevention was the perfect platform to debut bleeding edge drone technology developed in-house, both in front and behind the lens. As the scale of this project continued to grow, the more excited our team became.
We at Aether Films take pride in delivering unique experiences to the viewer - and Loss Prevention proved to be one unforgettable ride.
