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The Inspiration for “The Flyboys”
By Rocco DeVilliers, director/co-writer
(from the 2008 Newport Beach Film Festival)
I drew inspiration for the feature film The Flyboys from my grandfather, Don Novas. A crop duster from Blackfoot, Idaho, he owned many airplanes, including a P-51 Mustang, a T-33 and, of course, a Twin Beechcraft 18, which plays a central role in the film. I remember as a kid climbing into my grandpa's Twin Beech and playing in there with my cousins. We would make up all kinds of stories, and the Beech was our set. Having an airport full of my grandfather's planes as a playground was pure magic. My grandfather passed away in 1997, and most of his aircraft were sold off.
Originally, I wanted to use my grandpa's Twin Beech in the film. However, the new owner didn't like the thought of another pilot flying the plane. Based on the demands of the script and the technical nature of the stunts, Dan Urness, co-producer and stunt coordinator for The Flyboys, enlisted the services of Skip Evans and his Twin Beech 18. One of the scenes Evans was handpicked to perform depicts two twelve-year-old boys alone in the cockpit of a Twin Beech trying to land the airplane on a busy rural highway.
(Another credo that my brother and I used in writing the screenplay was to make the kind of film we would have wanted to see as twelve-year-olds.) Ongoing Collaborations for the Creative Team
I'm a true believer in the importance of collaborating with other creative talents. The story for the film was developed with director-writer Gregory C. Haynes, who starred in my previous film, Pure Race, and for whom I edited the romantic comedy Cowboys and Angels. The screenplay was co-written with my brother, Jason, and another director-writer, Richard Dutcher. The synergy of these collaborators elevated the plot and dialogue of the screenplay. |
The Casting
As the completed screenplay for The Flyboys made the rounds of Hollywood agents, casting directors and executives, it became apparent that it offered two great leading roles for boys in their early teens. It seems rare that one finds strongly developed characters and starring roles for this age group in features, and it felt like every young talent in town was eager to be considered. When Jesse James and Reiley McClendon, both of whom had been working since the age of eight, were paired together, I knew these were the Flyboys. The size of their roles, the intense physicality of the stunts and the fast pace of the production schedule would be a challenge for an actor of any age. Both James and McClendon continually showed their talent and professionalism as actors with their energy, endurance and grasp of their characters' personalities.
Just as important to the film was the casting of the mobster Esposito brothers. I scored a grand slam when I was able to cast Tom Sizemore as Angelo, the elder brother and kingpin, and Stephen Baldwin as Silvio, the younger, underachieving brother. Sizemore, known for his tough-guy roles, convincingly created a no-nonsense, business-minded character with a paternal and nurturing side when it came to dealing with his brother and the young boys. Sizemore was an enthusiastic participant in the physical scenes, whether rough-housing with the boys or darting in and out of a helicopter.
Stephen Baldwin brought his nearly two decades of film experience and his ability to blend both comedy and drama in a single performance to the forefront with his portrayal of Silvio. Baldwin was a lot fun and a full force of nature that lit up the set anytime he was on it. As a true testament to the positive and creative vibe on set, both Sizemore and Baldwin spent most of their time on set, even when they had already completed filming their scenes. They were eager to share their experiences and perspectives with their young co-stars, and were equally impressed by the young actors' level of commitment and professionalism.
Wearing Multiple Hats
By day, I was on set overseeing the film crew, actors, stunt people and extras as the scenes were filmed. On top of that, I was keeping an eye on the screenplay as co-writer and on the overall responsibilities of the film as producer. By night, there was the additional hat as the film's editor. While the hours made for long workdays, the editor part of my brain could inform the director part which scenes required additional coverage and which ones did not. With the fast pace and cost considerations of a low-budget independent film, this communication shortcut, coupled with the ability of the second unit production team, proved beneficial to all. Shooting On Location in Utah and Nevada
The Flyboys production was shot completely on location in Utah and Nevada. The quaint desert locale of St. George, Utah, starred in the town scenes. These involved school, motel, diner and home sequences, as well as an intense chase scene featuring a vintage '69 Chevy Chevelle muscle car barreling down the streets in an attempt to run down the two young stars as they fled on their bicycles. There were also scenes where the boys were pursued by Lenny wielding a gun. Some of these foot chase scenes were shot guerilla style - knocking on doors of residences and asking the occupants if the production could film the chase through their yard or even running through their house. At one point in the chase scene, actor J. Todd Adams (Lenny) found himself being forced to drop his "gun" and spread eagle by the town's real law enforcement team. He complied, and it was only when the production team came running to him from a hidden vantage down the street and explained he was only acting in a scene that he was able to get up.
The air sequences, including the highway landing, were shot near Mesquite, Nevada, while most of the airfield and hangar sequences were filmed at the Mesquite airport. Most of the interior shots onboard the Twin Beech were shot in a St. George warehouse that was converted into a sound stage.
While a team of professional stunt flyers and performers were brought in from various areas for the film, the stuntmen who performed for the two boys had a local connection. Wanting teenagers rather than grown men to perform the dangerous and demanding bicycle stunts, the producers found two young men at a skate park - Adam Hawley (stunt double for Reiley McClendon) and Jason Cisneros (stunt double for Jesse James). Dubbed the "Stunt Punks" by the crew, the two handled jumps, the speeding escape from the menacing Chevy, and any complex shots involving the boys on their bikes, including a 30-foot jump across a canal.
All in all, the local communities were extremely cooperative and welcoming to the film production.
The Road to Financing the Feature, and a Film Score, Too
A fateful cross-country driving trip and a speeding ticket are directly connected to the financing for The Flyboys. Dating back to a time after I'd completed principal photography on my student feature, Pure Race, I was pulled over for speeding in Missouri. On top of the moving violation, a computer error indicated that I had a suspended license, which led to my arrest and being taken to the local jail. With no ATMs in the small town, I called a local bail bondsman. While it was not normal procedure for the bondsman to take any out-of-staters because of the flight risk, I was able to secure bail by offering one of my film editing machines as collateral.
The meeting must have piqued the interest of the bondsman, as his own son was a musician with dreams of scoring a film. The son, Lisle Moore, ended up scoring Pure Race and later accompanied the Pure Race production team to Cannes, where he arranged for them to stay with his French relatives during the screening of the film for the European film market. Moore is also the composer for the score of The Flyboys. We became a family of sorts, and the elder Moore was the force behind arranging the financing for The Flyboys. It is interesting to note that the day the main group of investors chose to visit the production was the day of filming the Twin Beech emergency highway landing in the desert. The investors were drafted into the cast as passengers in some of the vehicles narrowly missing the landing plane. The Twin Beech and Pilot Skip Evans
The Twin Beech 18 can be considered one of the film's central characters in itself. The SAG pilot and owner of the plane, Skip Evans, purchased this remarkable aircraft in 1983. Originally manufactured as a 3NM model in December 1952 for the Royal Canadian Air Force, the plane was eventually scrapped after many years of service. In 1980, Evans saw the plane sitting in a field, gutted and rusting. He struck a deal with the owner, Dale Rodendy: If Evans could get the plane flying, Rodendy would let him use the plane.
Once it was running again, Evans flew the plane to attend the Reno Air Races. A year later, after extensive work to restore it, Evans finally owned the classic Beech 18. He named it Papa Alpha after its tail number, N476PA. Once it was in Evans's possession, the plane and pilot became inseparable. Papa Alpha became an executive commuter plane and went on to star in many feature films. This film resume has made Papa Alpha one of the most widely recognized Beech 18s in the aviation community.
Inspired as a boy by a friend with a pilot's license, Evans became licensed early in his life. He began flying crop dusters, which formed the basis of his training as a Hollywood stunt pilot. As a crop duster, he became accustomed to routinely flying fast and low, swooping under power lines and brushing treetops - handy skills to have when flying for Hollywood. Evans was even hired to crash-land another Twin Beech during the filming of Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight. That production hoped to purchase Papa Alpha to film the crash sequence, but the plane was too close to Evans's heart and he turned down the offer. The production team of The Flyboys knew Evans and Papa Alpha were the right pair to work on the film. |
Shooting the Highway Landing
The intense highway-landing sequence involving the Twin Beech 18 took place on a four-mile-long, twenty-four-foot-wide stretch of old U.S. Highway 91 between Mesquite, Nevada, and St. George, Utah. As the highway runs through Utah, Arizona and Nevada, The Flyboys production team had to coordinate and gain approvals from various government and law-enforcement agencies in all three states. In the film, the young characters, Jason and Kyle, find themselves the only ones onboard the plane flying over the Utah desert. To add to their plight, the plane's fuel gauge is indicating "empty." The boys know their only chance to avoid a crash is to attempt a landing on a rural but busy highway. Jason has had some unofficial lessons from time spent flying with his pilot uncle, but he is far from experienced in flying unsupervised, let alone landing a plane.
When it came time for Evans to fly the plane for the filmed landing sequence, there was little room for error. The Twin Beech landing gear wheels were 13 feet apart, leaving only 3 feet of clearance on either side. Unfortunately, the entire four miles of the cordoned-off stretch of highway had a gradual down slope from south to north, and there were telephone lines on either end of the stretch. Also, the fact that the road ran longitudinally increased the chance of crosswinds. Several reflectors and milepost markers were removed from the roadside to provide a clear path for the wings, and the highway was combed to remove any debris that could cause damage to the airplane.
At the Mesquite, Nevada, aerial film set for The Flyboys and the first day of shooting the plane, Evans met with the production team to review all aspects of the sequence. I used toy cars and airplanes to map out how I wanted the scene to play. Evans next landed the plane on the highway and we did a walk-through down the highway with stunt coordinator Dan Urness and the 18 stunt drivers who would be inside the vehicles on the road, including one semi-truck, that the plane would dramatically attempt to avoid hitting as it landed for the scene. Evans then did additional "flybys" to get a feel for the landscape, the wind conditions and the heat rising from the desert floor.
When it came time to film the landing, Evans was joined in the air by a camera plane - a Beech A-36, piloted by Neil Looy. There were also three cameras set up on the ground: one in the desert for a side view of the action, one at the end of the road looking straight down the barrel, and one in the back of a stunt vehicle to capture the action close up.
Looy and two cameramen flew parallel to Evans to capture the detailed maneuvers of the Twin Beech 18. Inside one of the stunt vehicles, stunt coordinator Urness communicated with Evans via radio and maintained walkie-talkie contact with all the other stunt drivers. The drivers drove at twenty-five miles per hour in carefully pre-planned positions and distances from one another. Evans flew the Beech with the rear door off, gear down and flaps fully extended, maintaining a speed of approximately 70 knots. While doing the stunts, Evans battled a 15-mile-per-hour crosswind with gusts to 20 miles per hour.
On each run, Skip skimmed low over each vehicle and often touched down and bounced around between them to simulate the boys trying to land the plane. In one shot, he went head-to-head with the oncoming semi-truck, pulling up at the last second. During the filming of the first run, the Beech 18 kissed the roof of a black Honda Civic owned and driven by The Flyboys co-writer and associate producer, my brother, Jason DeVilliers. The landing gear drove a trench down the roof of the car without injuring Jason or the camera mounted inside it. The unscripted moment, fully captured by the cameras, remains in the final version of the film. After safely performing a day of extremely dangerous stunts with the Twin Beech 18, Evans summed up the experience by saying, "Flying is hours and hours of boredom interrupted by a few seconds of pure terror." Filming Skydiving Sequences
While the highway landing was certainly the Twin Beech's most dramatic moment on the screen, Evans and Papa Alpha were also involved in shooting a number of skydiving sequences. More than once in the script, characters make dramatic dives from the Twin Beech. In one scene, it was necessary to have a shot of three stunt skydivers falling away from the plane with the Twin Beech remaining in their background for several seconds. This involved the expertise and services of Tom Sanders and the Aerial Focus Company. Tom and his team made several highly technical concealed parachute jumps from Papa Alpha, all captured on his 35mm film helmetcam. Filming a Near Collision with a Mountainside
At another point in the film, the Twin Beech narrowly misses a mid-air collision with a mountainside. This required filming Evans flying directly at an enormous mountain ridge and pulling up at the last possible second. The sequence resulted in many attempts and three different camera aircraft over several weeks to successfully capture the danger and intensity of the moment. A key factor in determining the direction of flight and position of the picture plane shooting the Twin Beech was the position of the sun. At the same time, Evans had to fly Papa Alpha angled downward toward the mountain, then pull up into a steep climb at the last possible moment and maintain that climb long enough to keep airspeed and clear the mountain.
A first attempt to shoot the sequence found that the camera plane was too far away and the drama of the stunt was completely missed. Weeks later, a second camera pilot wasn't able to properly capture the sequence, either. Many more weeks later, another attempt was made, this time with the camera inside a helicopter. The final shots used in the film from the third and successful attempt were amazing.
Some who have seen the film assert that the sequence was only possible through computer-generated effects and not by an actual pilot and plane. However, the film captures exactly what Evans and Papa Alpha were able to pull off. The Flyboys is not an effects film. Everything was done the old-fashioned way - in-camera, with a very talented stunt team.
Photos courtesy of the filmmaker.
Flyboys screens at the 2008 Newport Beach Film Festival (click for times and ticket information). Festival runs April 24-May 1.
Also screened at the 2008 Sedona Film Festival, where it won the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature. |
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