NetJets: Above & Beyond

A NetJets jet taking off into a pink and teal dusk sky
Client
NetJetsPrivate aviation
Made with
WSJ Custom ContentRIOT x WSJ
Film
Above & BeyondOne minute, one journey
Shoot
Three daysWestchester, New York, Columbus
Delivered
:60 hero and :15 cutdownsWith and without voiceover, plus a display cut
When
Autumn 2019Three shoots, September to November
An executive shakes hands planeside beside a NetJets jet, holding a leather bag

Stepping onto a private jet should be effortless. Above & Beyond shows everything it takes to make it that way.

WSJ Custom Content brought RIOT in to tell the NetJets story on film. Not a parade of aircraft, but the feeling of flying with them, and the operation that makes that feeling possible.

So we built it as one continuous journey. An executive leaves a Manhattan office, works from the back of the car, pulls up planeside, steps aboard and is airborne by dusk. Cut into that journey is the part passengers rarely see: the flight deck, the operations floor at NetJets headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, the hangars where the fleet is kept in perfect order, and Patrick Gallagher, NetJets’ President of Sales and Marketing, speaking for the company.

A NetJets jet and black SUV planeside outside the NetJets hangar at Westchester County Airport
Planeside at Hangar 6, Westchester County Airport.

The shoot

Three days, three places

  1. The NetJets sign on the hangar at Westchester County Airport against a blue sky30 Sep 2019Hangar 6Westchester County Airport, from a 6am call. The arrival, the handshake, the step aboard, the cabin and the flight deck.
  2. An executive in a suit stepping into an office elevator in Manhattan7 Oct 2019The office853 Broadway, New York. The executive's morning, moving through the building on Steadicam.
  3. The NetJets sign on the glass facade of NetJets headquarters in Columbus, Ohio7 Nov 2019ColumbusNetJets headquarters in Ohio. The operations floor, the hangars and the interview with Patrick Gallagher.

The journey

The film moves at the speed of the person in it: never rushed, never waiting. Every cut hands off to the next stage of the trip, from office window to car, car to tarmac, tarmac to cabin.

An executive looking out of an office window in New York
An executive in a suit stepping into an office elevator in Manhattan
An executive working on a laptop in the back of a car
An executive looks out of the car window at a NetJets jet on arrival
An executive walks past a NetJets jet engine inside the hangar
An executive shakes hands planeside beside a NetJets jet, holding a leather bag
A polished shoe on the step of a NetJets jet
An executive settling into a leather seat in a NetJets cabin
An executive gazing out of a NetJets cabin window
An executive smiling on a phone call in a NetJets cabin
Desk to departure. Scroll sideways.

Behind the curtain

The other half of the film is the half most owners never see. We took the camera into the flight deck, onto the operations floor in Columbus where the fleet is run, and into hangars so clean the jets reflect in the floor. The point was simple: the calm in the cabin is engineered somewhere else.

A moving map display on the flight deck of a NetJets jet near Westchester
A NetJets pilot using the flight deck touch screens
A NetJets pilot's hand on the controls in the cockpit
The NetJets sign on the glass facade of NetJets headquarters in Columbus, Ohio
The atrium staircase inside NetJets headquarters in Columbus
A woman walking down a bright glass corridor at NetJets headquarters
The NetJets operations floor seen through etched glass
A NetJets operations team member at a bank of screens
A NetJets jet in the maintenance hangar
The flight deck, headquarters and the operations floor. Scroll sideways.
A wide view of the gleaming NetJets hangar in Columbus with jets and an American flag
The NetJets hangar in Columbus.

Into the dusk

It ends where it should: wheels up into a pink and teal sky, the jet getting smaller over the trees, and a single line. Only NetJets.

A NetJets jet lifting off the runway into a pink and teal dusk
Wheels up.

The colour of the trip

We graded the film like the trip feels. Cool harbour blues and NetJets teal for the city and the hangar, the warm leather of the cabin, and a dusk that turns the whole sky blush and teal at the end. Every swatch below was sampled from the film.

Harbour#5F7D88
NetJets teal#547F84
Hangar sky#6394A0
Ops glass#AEDBE0
Fuselage#BDC4C8
Steel#525C5E
Livery red#4C1A1D
Cabin leather#785E51
Dusk blush#C0A69D
Dusk teal#408076
Treeline#1E221B
Night#0B1418
Above & Beyond, sampled from the film
“Effortless is the hardest thing to film.”
RIOT on NetJets

Credits

Client
NetJets
Made with
WSJ Custom Content
For WSJ
Will Misselbrook, William Savona
Directed and produced by
Chris Maguire, Nastassja Simone
Director of photography
Brandon Ripley
1st AC
Mike Ciecierski, Jeremy Musher, Tim Shumaker
Steadicam
Kyle Derry
Gaffer
Jared Frost
Key grip
Travis Tomlinson
Swing
Charlie Hohenshilt, Jon Coy
Sound
Eric Vucelich
Wardrobe stylist
Lassalle
Wardrobe assistant
Star Rollins-Campbell
Hair and make-up
Katie Wedlund
Production assistants
Rose Hidalgo, Diana Cardona
Featuring
Gamzat Lu, Epiphany Lee, Patrick Gallagher
Edit and colour
RIOT

ServicesBranded ContentCommercialsFilm ProductionCreative DirectionEditingColor Grading