Hey folks, Harry here with this report about the shooting of PEARL HARBOR that's happening in Hawaii at the moment. Seems like there's some exciting fun stuff going on. I know here in Austin, some of the old plane flyers... can be seen up above flying P-40s and Jap Zeroes... Heck... I've even caught sight of a flying fortress once.... Seeing these babies fly... just give you the goosebumps. They're so much cooler looking than modern planes... to me anyways. Here's the report from a flyer... enjoy...
Hey Harry,
You know, we've seen guys dress up in space suits and walk on the moon, we've seen people ride horses while shooting reloaders, we've seen people jump off buildings (with strings of course), we've seen people do daring car chases, we've seen people do motocycle stunts, we've seen the boat stunts, man, we've seen alot of daring stunts this decade at our local cineplex. But, there is something else that we have yet to see the last five years--tail to tail formation flying in vintage World War II aluminum cans that still sport technology that was invented almost 65 years ago. What do you do when the air is rough, a steady 35-45knots with gusts up to 65mph that seem to suck your tin plane into aerial "potholes" while at the same time, you dodge the sterns and tops of battleships and cruisers---all for Michael Bay? During the filming of TORA TORA TORA, 25 military extras were burned and a movie pilot never pulled up from a dive.
They did not say this would be easy.
The following is a journalistic account of the current Pearl Harbor film production and is written by an aerial pilot who is flying one of the Japanese planes in the film:
DUD BOMB: April 3 2000
"I don’t have much time over here. We are leaving the hotel for the airport @ 07:30 and getting back about 20:30, and then, go get something to eat. Get to bed about 23:00.
We cleared today and we started filming. Spent most of the day waiting though. Ended up flying about 10 miles offshore, into the setting sun (simulating sunrise), behind the B-25 camera ship. We had the Kates and Vals in the formation. The wind is still blowing about 25 knots (thankfully down the runway) and it is rougher than Hell with all the mountains around here. It did get smoother offshore, though.
We all went down to the beach this afternoon to watch the first test drop of the torpedo. Well, it didn’t go too well. They (Kate and B-25) had problems getting lined up on the target and made about 4 passes. It takes a long time to get around for another try. Anyway, when the Kate did finally let it go, he was too high (about 150 ft) and the torpedo began to turn sideways just before impact with the water. It just disintegrated in a spray of pieces. Supposed to try again tomorrow.
Shooting schedule calls for us to make very low (50 ft) strafing passes over the bow of the Missouri tomorrow. Over the two front turrets, really. Simulating 1941 battleships.
I didn’t get many pictures today. And then, I had a problem with one of the floppies. Nothing recorded. I have 3 attached. The dummies are in the rear of the Kates and Vals. Rear gunners."
POTHOLE: April 4, 2000
"We were scheduled to do some low passes over the bow (forward turrets) of the battleship Missouri this morning (she is on display alongside the Arizona Memorial). I guess the schedule was changed ‘cause that didn’t happen. About 10:00, the 3 Zero’s took off and did some filming over on the Northeast corner of Ford Island. Something about a woman hanging clothes on her clothes line. We didn’t go over to watch, but could see most of the action from a distance. Then, after about 8 passes over the clothes line, the Zeros changed their target and "blew something up" behind some buildings. All I could really see was their approach (directly over my head) and then the smoke.
We (Kates and Vals) were called to brief about noon. The shot was to be our formation flying over a kid’s baseball diamond and one of the Jap rear gunners waving at the kids. This is in full costume (actually they wanted us at the brief in costume) and the flight was 3 Vals and 3 Kates. A stunt man was anchored into the rear of Storrie’s Kate (no seat back there, he was standing). We took off, formed up and started filming. Our downwind to the approach brought us directly over the Missouri, the Arizona and the Nevada. On the downwind, I could relax a bit and do some "sightseeing" (I was #2 Val). You can really see the underwater outline of the Arizona and she is really still leaking oil. Fairly large slick. The boat taking visitors out to the Memorial was going back and forth and every time I looked, most of the visitors were spellbound, looking at us. Must have been a shock to most of them.
Anyway, the air was VERY rough. Wind was blowing a steady 35 to 45 knots and gusts up to 60. The mountains churn the air and it was pretty bad (as rough as I have ever had in formation). Actually saw something I had never seen. We were on a "crosswind" turn and Val Lead flew into "hole" in the air at about 600 feet. I was "relaxed", on his right wing, back about 30 feet and we were at about 100 knots. Gene was #3 and back about 100 feet, in trail with Lead. I saw Lead’s ailerons flap and, he just fell out of the sky. Just dropped. Not diving, just falling. WOW; never saw that before. He lost about 400 feet. I then thought about Gene and glanced back to see him diving, trying to stay in formation. I thought, "Not a good idea, Gene", but he didn ’t know what was going on. Well, Lead bottomed out at about 200 feet and I pulled power to stay in position while he climbed back up. He keyed the mike and said, "Damn!"
The shot was a difficult (dodging the trees and a hangar)one and, coupled with some other problems with Kate Lead (like turning on the low pass, into the formation, and pushing me over the kids heads at about 20 feet; the director and safety folks got a little upset about that), we ended up making many, many passes. We ended up flying about 1 ½ hours. Lot of work. The film crew hadn’t had eaten and, about 2pm, they broke for lunch and we landed. Debrief wasn’t pretty.
Well, that was it for us today. The P40s and Zeros did some passes with lots of smoke and machine guns (ground and air) after the film crew returned from lunch, and filming was finished.
We stopped for dinner on the way back to the Hilton and actually got home early (about 6PM). I don’t know what is on the schedule for tomorrow but brief is at 9.
More later....."
I've included some exclusive images in case you decide to use this for the site. Thanks!
To check out more of these stories as well as info on the film, visit The Pearl Harbor Movie Site
