IMAX returns to Nellis for final shoot

  • Published
  • By Mike Estrada
  • Air Warfare Center Public Affairs
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFPN) --  A production crew filming an IMAX movie on the Air Force returned here June 14 to 18 to continue work on the 43-minute action documentary about Red Flag exercises.

Filming for the production began here in June 2003, and this is scheduled to be the crew’s last visit. Besides their initial visit, filming took place here in August and January, and at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, in April.

The schedule calls for filming of command and control sequences in Montreal in July and postproduction thereafter.

Director Stephen Low said the film is a hybrid, mixing a documentary approach with elements of a feature film.

“It’s going to have a real emotional story line,” he said.

While here for their final shoot, the IMAX crew filmed a combat search and rescue sequence with HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters and crews from the Air Force Special Operations Command’s 66th Rescue Squadron here.

“We decided to add several more to the sequence, including one where the IMAX camera is on the ground with the helicopter hovering above and firing its Gatling gun,” Mr. Low said. “The rain of spent shell casings falling around the camera should produce a spectacular effect on the IMAX theater’s huge screen.”

Besides the HH-60G sequence, the crew, with the help of Airmen from the 57th Wing here, also filmed some air-to-air sequences.

They had a minor delay and switched from an F-16 Fighting Falcon to an F-15E Strike Eagle for the air-to-air shots because of safety concerns, said Maj. Sam Morgan, IMAX project officer.

“After we saw the IMAX camera in the cockpit, we determined there was not enough room in the F-16 for the back seat (passenger) to eject safely [if necessary],” said the major.

After the delay and some training, Capt. Randy Cason, an F-16 pilot with the 64th Aggressor Squadron here, flew in the back seat of an F-15E and operated the camera.

“I think we got some pretty decent stuff,” Captain Cason said after the flight. “The camera mount looked flimsy, but it turned out to be really stable. I filmed the other Strike Eagle, some aggressor F-16s and squeezed some low-level maneuvers into the first magazine.”

Unfortunately, Captain Cason was only able to shoot one three-minute magazine of film. His second magazine jammed shortly after he inserted it into the camera.

The debut of the film, originally scheduled for mid-September, has been pushed back to Dec. 2.

It will debut at the new IMAX theater at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Dulles International Airport, Va., and later at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, on Dec. 3, Mr. Low said. The film is also scheduled to open in Las Vegas and other IMAX venues nationwide shortly thereafter.