In the making of The Old Guard, Gina Prince-Bythewood found herself venturing into new territory as a filmmaker, having never before helmed an action movie. The majority of her career has been spent writing and directing character-based dramas like Love & Basketball, The Secret Life Of Bees and Beyond The Lights, so she didn’t have much experience with fight choreography going into the project. When filming began, however, a kind of “baptism by fire” schedule was put in place, giving Prince-Bythewood the opportunity to dive head-first into the most complex material – and that meant doing the plane fight on day one.