750 drones over Berlin’s Olympiastadion
For the international film campaign around Project Hail Mary, SMIA lifted 750 drones over the Berlin Olympiastadion. Design, permits, logistics and flight planning came together in just 14 days, because the campaign date was fixed before the first drone took off.
Details
750 drones over Berlin’s Olympiastadion
For the international film campaign around the cinema release of Project Hail Mary, SMIA lifted 750 drones over the Berlin Olympiastadion. Fourteen days lay between the commission and the show. In that time came the design, permits, safety concept, logistics and flight planning.
Two weeks to launch
Fourteen days is little for a show of this size. The permit alone usually takes longer, and it depends on documents that first have to exist: flight plan, safety concept, proof of the restricted areas. Everything ran in parallel rather than one after another.
The creative concept was developed by the US agency AdHoc. Central motifs from the film appeared in the sky: Rocky, the extraterrestrial main character, the messages “Hello Earth” and “Hello Berlin”, the two spacecraft and the astronaut’s helmet.
Why the Olympiastadion
A formation 300 metres wide needs space, and it needs that space cleared. The Olympiastadion offered both. Because the grounds were completely free, the motifs could grow beyond the stadium’s boundaries instead of getting lost in the safety margins.
With drone shows, the location decides the maximum motif size. Launch in a densely built-up area and you fly smaller.
Behind the scenes: 800 batteries, ten people
The day before the show, the team charged, checked and sorted 800 batteries. In parallel, 750 drones went through preparation and configuration.
Ten specialists handled the operation. Every battery and every drone went through the same checks as on larger productions. Team size changes nothing about the scope of the checks, only how tightly the work is scheduled.
The show evening
Setup began in the early morning hours. It was not a public event, yet word had got around that something would happen over the stadium.
The weather cooperated: no rain, barely any wind, clear visibility. Shortly after nightfall, the 750 drones rose. Rocky appeared over Berlin, then the messages, then the spacecraft crossed the night sky. To close, the astronaut’s helmet took shape in a formation that stayed visible far beyond the stadium. The show ran for over ten minutes.
