How Pink Floyd Faked Flying in the 'Learning to Fly' and 'One Slip' Videos

The answer is a giant, gimbal-mounted rotating set. Director Storm Thorgerson and his team built a full-scale soundstage room that could pivot on a motorized axis. The camera stayed fixed while the entire set tilted and spun, making David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and the rest of the band appear to be floating or flying without any blue screen or wire work.

For “Learning to Fly,” the rotating room let the performers walk on walls and ceilings as the set rolled 360 degrees. “One Slip” used the same technique but added a subtle forced-perspective backdrop to enhance the feeling of drifting through clouds. The result was a practical, pre-digital illusion