Our objective in making this film was something of a psychology experiment: We sought to capture people facing a difficult situation, to make a portrait of humans in doubt. We’ve all seen actors playing doubt in fiction films, but we have few true images of the feeling in documentaries. To make them, we decided to put people in a situation powerful enough not to need any classic narrative framework. A high dive seemed like the perfect scenario.
Through an online advertisement, we found 67 people who had never been on a 10-meter (about 33 feet) diving tower before, and had never jumped from that high. We paid each of them the equivalent of about $30 to participate — which meant climbing up to the diving board and walking to its edge. We were as interested in the people who decided to climb back down as the ones jumping.
10 meters? That's it? Maybe those people can't swim and that's causing the fear. You make it 20 meters and I've got Shake Knees, but not 10.
Was it just me or was it noticeable these weren't Americans simply based on the avg weight of the participants? I bet the BMI of American participants would be a "tad" heavier.