SUPERVISING ART DIRECTOR: My responsibility on this film was to oversee NYC and LA photography. Our prep schedule had two art departments working simultaneously. One in Atlanta. One in LA / NYC. Because of the tight schedule my responsibilities became more involved. I appreciated the support Jim Murakami had in allowing me to be the go-to person for those locations. I had experience with technical photography which included both air and sea photography. I felt very comfortable with gimbal work as well as VFX supported photography. Thus my responsibilities focused on this.
We had the airbus A 320 mounted to a motion base. Movements were limited to slow moving action such as sinking and tilting. Much of the more dynamic motion was achieved via camera shake and lighting actuation.
We went to Holloman airbase in Alamogordo, New Mexico to film the F4 sequences. They have several F4 trainers. We had to add the proper paint scheme and markings.
Filming in NYC on the Hudson river covered the rescue from the perspective of the aircraft looking out. We couldn’t add the aircraft to the river for obvious reasons so we anchored a shooting spud barge. This would be our pseudo aircraft. We added appendages like emergency inflatable slides we could shoot. We also built faux protrusions like a portion of the wing un-finished. The actors could go on the winglets and be in the proper position, but you’d have to shoot above the platform. Most of the photography of all the incoming Waterways ferries was shot here. Also the arrival of the ferries at the docks were dealt with in NYC.
The other portion of the rescue photography would happen at Falls Lake in Universal Studios. Since we covered the shooting away from the aircraft in NYC. Here we would cover the shooting of the rescue facing the plane. Also this was a fully outfitted aircraft. So all the interior shots even the boarding of the aircraft was done here. We also built partial ferries. Their purpose was for closeup photography of the ships in and around the plane.
We built two different Waterways ferries. The pilothouse was fully outfitted. The passenger deck as well. We built the front section of the ship. Financial and logistical reasons accounted for this decision. VFX would extend where needed. However, we did camera angle studies in the computer and set the cutline where we could cover the most shots. Our SPX sup JD Swalm created these amazing carriages. Greg Callas our construction coordinator built the ship scenery. Greg is known for building the ships on Pirates of the Caribbean. We were in great hands. The ship bases were trolleys on wheels. Falls Lake is rather shallow. The ships drove rather then sailed. They did have a secondary gimballing motion to replicate a swaying floating motion.