Filming "Band of Brothers"
The "Band of Brothers," story follows the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Parachuting behind enemy lines, getting spread over the region northwest of Carentan. The new ten part film from Spielberg's DreamWorks, re-creates some of the most critical moments of WWII and offers insights into the commanders and regular soldiers--the heroes who manned the battlefields.
One scene in episode 6 of this production, required some sequences of 2 P-47 thunderbolts flying in formation. The film company contacted the Large Model Association who put them in contact with me, knowing that my model team specialised in US Army Air Force aircraft. The filming was to take place at North Weald airfield, so I contacted two of the team members, Phil, Pete and John, who lived in Cambridge, Essex and Aylesham, as they were the nearest to the location.
Peter, flying "Ugly Duckling" and Phil flying "Rat a Dat" were to be the main pilots, with John Deacon as a reserve with his new but untested P-47 "Arizona Pete". We were a little surprised to be asked, because of the quality of modern computer graphics. However, we were told that Spielberg prefers real footage, even if it is of 1/6 scale models!
The filming took place on at one end of the airfield, near to the "Aces High" hangars. The film company had hired out a section of the main runway for one day. Although there was still fullsize air traffic from time to time, we were not really hindered, and our ground crew kept a careful watch for any real aircraft getting too close.
Before the flying took place, the camera operators took all round pictures of the models for additional information to help the computer animators when they "Enhanced" the aircraft for on screen. For example, the different aircraft group markings were dulled down and four blade propellers added.
The flying involved circuits in close formation, making diving passes at the camera men on each pass. Having a 20 pound aircraft flying straight at you at 70 mph was a little worrying, but the director told us not to worry - they had plenty of insurance!!!
After arriving at the airfield at 08:00hrs, we worked up until early afternoon, and I am told that we only shot 12 minutes of film! when edited the scene lasted only a few seconds, but looked highly realistic. It was well worth the effort, though I think they added a RR Merlin sound track instead of a Pratt & Whitney R-2800!!!
Filming "Glenn Millers Last Flight"
Being one of the first three aircraft that started the USAAF team, and a transport aircraft, rather than a fighter or bomber, the UC-64 Norseman has long since been subject to ridicule, as being the team hack. "Anyone breaking his own plane had to fly the Norseman as punishment!". The model was never intended to be true scale, but mearly a look-a-like, built as a trainer for my dad, but that wouldn't look out of place with the other team aircraft.
The Norseman was built to represent the aircraft which Glenn Miller disappeared in during the second world war. Originally built back in 1993, in Olive Drab green, a couple of years later it was refurbished to a silver scheme. The Norseman flew for many more years until the middle of 2001 when Stone City Films approached the team to use the aircraft in the filming of a documentary about the life of Glen Miller.
The aircraft built by myself, was borrowed by Pete. He made certain other slight modifications to make her more true to scale, and returned the model to the original Green colour scheme to match a fullsize Brussard aircraft they were using for door way shots of the cast entering the plane.
Various shots were required, which included air to air shots and ground to air shots. Headcorn airfield was used for the filming, many thanks must go to the local model flying club for their co-operation. Ground to air filming was done with the model actually flying, while the air to air shots were courtesy of clever camera work as depicted in the photographs.
Above you can see the aircraft hanging on the rig for the blue screen air to air shots. (engine running!)
The Documentary 'Glenn Miller' was shown on Channel 4, New Years eve, December the 31st 2001.
US Army Air Force Model Display Team
Steve
