I recently had the pleasure of talking to Larry Ernewein about how he came to be involved in the making of the newly released movie “Amelia”. (http://www.foxsearchlight.com/amelia/) - Larry claims he was simply the default choice, but read on for the real story.
The governments of Canada, and other countries, offer all kinds of incentives to movie companies for film production outside of the U.S. and that is what took the company to Ontario, Nova Scotia, and South Africa.
A friend of Larry’s who is in the movie business was looking for suitable aircraft for the movie Amelia Earhart to learn to fly in. He needed a 1930s era aerobatic aircraft and an owner/pilot qualified to fly it in the way the producers wanted. Larry and his Jungmann were the perfect choice. As you will tell when you see the movie, the equivalent of a ground level waiver was required.
The ever-inventive Karl Pfister and his son Mark designed a camera mount for the front cockpit that attached to the seat cross-tube and to the two mounting tabs for the rear instrument panel housing. This allowed the camera to be aimed in any direction required, and provided complete stability.
Karl Pfister's Red Cam mount.
The original film camera was very large and for a while the project was in some doubt, but a smaller, lighter camera was eventually found and this proved to be the key. The camera used was a “Red Cam” digital camera with a recording capacity of only 5 minutes. It took a lot of flights to get the 30 minutes of in cockpit footage! http://www.red.com/cameras/
The filming took place at several sites in May of 2008. The Jungmann shown early in the trailer, rolling towards the crowd at the air rally was filmed at Dunnville where the Jungmann was based for about a week.
The "Air Rally". (The aircraft between the Jungmann and the Staggerwing is a Thruxton Jackeroo. A four seat cabin DH82 Tiger Moth conversion.)
Before that, the crew were at Larry’s farm where a helicopter, equipped with a WesCam gyroscopically stabilized camera, filmed air to air shots. (Larry said the camera was a technical marvel. Among other things, it has a system of moving weights that compensate for the weight of the film as it transfers from the feed reel to the take up reel.)
The filming was directed by Mark Wolff, who has directed sequences in a huge number of films: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0938103/
One scene that was planned for the movie involved Amelia “accidentally” spinning from low altitude, recovering just in time and then slow-rolling as she passed barely clear of the trees. The producers were looking for a dramatic, hammer-head entry to the spin requiring Larry to briefly climb vertically in close proximity to the helicopter, then pivot into the spin. This took a lot of trial and error. The maneuver was repeated more than 50 times before it was deemed satisfactory.
For much of the flight work, Larry had to impersonate Hillary Swank (Amelia). He wore a custom leather flight helmet, which was carefully tailored by a specialty milliner, and a jacket cleverly designed to conceal the parachute and yet allow it to be deployed if needed.
Larry Ernewein, aka Hillary Swank, aka Amelia Earheart
After Dunville, filming moved to St Catherines where the “green screen” work was done. Hillary spent about 3 hours in the cockpit of the Jungmann while Larry and son Andy prompted her in the ways of open cockpit aviation.
Finally there was a wait of 18 months or so before Larry found out just how much of his work would be seen in the final film.
The many hours of engineering, flying, filming, prompting and consulting resulted in about one minute of finished movie time! No doubt the time they spent creating that minute will be remembered by Larry, Andy, Karl and Mark for a very long time to come.
Thanks again to Larry Ernewein for taking the time to relate the story.
More pictures can be found in the Amelia album in the Gallery section.