The 2.5D parallax animation style used to bring the old photos to life in Highline is not commonly used. The process can take from 3-8 hours to create a single 10 second animation. Highline contains close to 200 of these animations.
The production team had to follow the characters for 10 days through the mountains while carrying 2 cameras, 75 batteries, 11 camera lenses, a gimbal, and audio gear.
Due to the complexity of the storyline, piles of footage, and the lack of an assistant editor, the film took 15 months to edit.
It's forbidden to use drones in the wilderness, and Director/DP Chris Smead doesn't like breaking rules. So to get aerial shots, he mounted a camera and gimbal stabilizer to the end of a trekking pole and held it above his head.
Joe Valesko invented much of the backpacking gear used by the hikers and film crew during the filming of Highline. The tents, backpacks, sleeping bags, trekking poles, and rain jackets were all Joe's creations.