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Gathering of Corsairs

September 4th

Travel Day. Everything seems to be in place. This is one of my most involved shoots yet, just in terms of logistics. My traveling crew will total 4 (me, Kevin, Heather, & Hallie) along with all of our gear. I've rented a U-Haul trailer for all of the overflow. On our way to Indianapolis, we're going to stop at the Dayton Air Force Museum and grab those shots I put off from July.

The Museum. I get there and my first problem is color balance. It's really warm (color-wise) in the museum and I didn't bring any gel for the lights. After a quick call, Mark Lyons from my alma-mater Wright State is brining some. Problem two: I forgot the special wrench to put a critical attachment onto the camera. I rented a steadicam for some production value. I need the video tap hooked up to the camera, otherwise I can't see the shot. After some finger-cramping gymnastics with a paperclip, I get the attachment on. The rest of the Dayton shoot is no problem. Two hours later, we're back on the road to Indy.

September 5th

We arrive at the airport in Mount Comfort. I hit the ground with a lot of enthusiasm. We've been told some great things about this show. First, it was the Gathering of Corsairs. Word was there would be about 15 or so there. Second, most of the week would involve lots of flying, including many formation flights. Third, and best of all, we were getting some great access. We were also in line to shoot from an aircraft while the Corsairs do their formation flights. This will be great.

We find the organizers of the event. They are a little scatter-brained right now, which we find fairly understandable. This event is attracting most flyable Corsairs, many original pilots of Corsairs, as well as the actors who were in Black Sheep Squadron. The organizers say hello, but can't promise us any rides that day. Fine. We march out and film from where the rest of the media has camped out. Since it's just the fly-in day, and not open to the public, the fly-by passes can be a little more...how should I say...daring.

The above image isn't really cropped in. That's Gerry Beck flying over us at grass-cutting altitude. Lots of great footage. We spent most of the day doing shots like this and meeting folks. A good day of low flying. We didn't get to go up in anything. yet. Perhaps tomorrow.

September 6th

So, it's looking like we're not going up in anything today. The B-25 that has been designated for the photo tours and flights is owned by a warbird magazine. The photographer on it doesn't want competing still images, which I can understand. We're trying to push the "we're motion pictures, not stills" angle. Maybe it will work, who knows. Heather is doing her best to surf the crowd of pilots, meeting people and telling them about us. Hallie, Kevin and I have another sweltering day of shooting planes from the ground. As the day draws to a close, it's becoming clear we're not going to get up in any aircraft. The organizer keeps shrugging his shoulders at me saying' "We'll see". We're all getting pretty pissed off. I send back the Image Stabilization Lens that I'm renting for $500 a day.

The air show isn't technically open yet that day. The gates are open for "Corsair Enthusiasts" with special tickets or something. Anyway, I think more folks showed up than they planned. Hardly any food was ready by the vendors, who were just moving in. We did scramble up something called "Walking Tacos". Basically, you slice open a bag of corn chips and dump in some taco meat, tomatoes, sour cream and cheese. The give you a spork and send you on your way. Hallie dropped hers.

My cell phone then rings. On the line is David Fields. I met him briefly earlier in the day. Heather had met him and gotten a ride in his Grumman Tiger low-wing. A nice guy who was very excited about the project. He asks, "How's it going?" I tell him exactly how it's going. He suggests that he could help by taking me up and I could shoot from his plane. But shoot what? He then says Gerry Beck just walked by him. The two of them converse for a second while I'm on the other end of the phone listening to my film being planned out. David comes back on to say that we could do air-to-air filming tomorrow morning with Gerry Beck's Corsair. Just us, no other media. I thank him and agree, unable at first to comprehend how much this saves my trip. From disastrous waste of time to a by-the-skin-of-our-teeth success in 5 minutes. I need a drink.

That night a got a drink...or five. We bought tickets to the Corsair Legends dinner. The panel that night; Corsair fliers from both Korea and WWII. Also, the actors from Black Sheep Squadron were in attendance, sitting at our table. Not bad. David Fields and I hammer out a couple of things for tomorrow. Mostly, it was a nice evening where me and the crew could dress like humans for a change and not work. Tomorrow was an early day.

September 7th

After waiting a half hour to get in the dumb show, I leave the crew and our vehicle to find someone responsible. I was spitting nails. It wasn't just us, all media and vendor vehicles were being blocked at the VIP gate because they didn't have our credentials there. As far as well run events, this was pretty far down the totem pole. I finally got us in after running about 2 miles and proceeded to the FBO (fixed base of operations). There, Me David and Gerry hash out what we're going to do. As we're doing this, the event Organizer sniffs that something's up and comes over. He asks what we're doing. We tell him. "Oh," he says. "Then you're all taken care of then..." He then walks away. I turn to Heather, "There went any chance of a B-25 flight for us."

We rush down to where David has his plane parked and gear up for the shoot. I bring two 400' mags with me, just in case. We plan on flying with the canopy back, so I won't have to shoot through glass. With the image stabilization lens already sent back, the wind will really knock me around. I decide to shoot everything in slow motion. This should smooth out a lot of the shake in my shots, since I'll have to be shooting hand-held.

Once we're up, we fly around until Gerry finds us. David has a great time, flying formation with a WWII fighter aircraft. I shoot barely half a mag, but get great stuff.

Once on the ground, I do an interview with Gerry and shoot a good amount of B-roll around his plane. Hallie again fails to bring any shorts. She starts to suffer from heat stroke. I put her in my truck with the air conditioning. Towards the end of the day, the corsairs finally do formation flights over the airfield. I have enough for a story.

Much of filmmaking is problem solving. I only get really frustrated when the problems are created by people's actions. In spite of this, kind souls saved our bacon and I walked away with a good story. Time to go home, rest for three days, then head to Reno.