Life was shot entirely at Shepperton Studios, with Daniel Espinosa directing and a great cast including Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds.

Although the entire story takes place aboard the International Space Station, this was actually a very physical production. Huge sections of the ISS were constructed full-size across the stages at Shepperton, with an extraordinary amount of detail built into them. Rather than asking the actors to perform everything against green screen, they were surrounded by a real environment, which I have always believed makes an enormous difference.

One of the biggest challenges was creating the illusion of zero gravity. Alongside conventional wire work, we made extensive use of a Special Effects pole-arm system, which allowed us to support and manoeuvre the actors through the sets while keeping their movement controlled and repeatable. The arm could carry the performer into positions that would have been extremely difficult to achieve with wires alone, particularly within the confined interiors of the station.

A great deal of work went into making those movements feel effortless on camera. The actors might appear simply to float from one part of the ISS to another, but behind the scenes there was a considerable amount of engineering, rigging and coordination between Special Effects, Stunts and Camera to make those shots work.

It was also a good example of practical and visual effects working together rather than competing with each other. We provided the physical sets, rigs and movement for the actors to perform against, while VFX removed the supporting equipment and extended the environment beyond what could physically be built.

The finished film has a wonderfully claustrophobic feel, and standing inside those sets you could understand why. They genuinely felt like working sections of a space station rather than conventional film sets.

A very different Special Effects job from some of the huge action pictures I had been doing, but technically challenging in its own way — and another production where having something real in front of the camera made a considerable difference.