Page 6 - World Airshow News Autumn 2024

Jim Froneberger: Editor

To CGI or Not to CGI

f you want to start a spirited scene was flown with just one Super Hornet and CGI was used to
conversation, just ask a handful replicate that one plane and make it four. Similar technology was
I of aviation enthusiasts like me used in Devotion to multiply the five real F4U Corsairs used in
what they think about movies the production into many.
and television shows that use CGI That brings us to the 2024 AppleTV+ mini-series Masters
th
airplanes instead of real airplanes of the Air that tells the story of the U.S. Eighth Air Force’s 100
in their production. If you’re not Bomb Group during World War II. Virtually all of the flying
familiar with the term, CGI stands sequences in that series’ nine-episodes was created using CGI.
for “Computer-Generated Imagery” This fall, I had the opportunity to travel to the U.K. on an eight-
and is defined as the creation of still day tour centered around the U.S. Eighth Air Force in World War
or animated visual content using II and Masters of the Air specifically. (See “The Bomber Boys of
imaging software. As you might the Mighty Eighth” elsewhere in this issue.) Accompanying our
expect, most of us aviation enthusiast group on the tour was one of the Co-Producers of the TV mini-
types probably prefer airplane movies to have real airplanes series, Kirk Saduski of Tom Hanks’ Playtone Productions. While
rather than the computer-generated type. in the U.K., I had the opportunity to chat with Kirk about their
A few decades ago, almost all aviation movies featured decision to use CGI and build several non-flying replica B-17s.
real airplanes because there was really no other viable choice As a result of those conversations, I now have a much better
for most of the cinematography. If you wanted to make an understanding of why producers are gravitating more and more
airplane movie, you needed some kind of airplane to be a part to CGI.
of it. In the old days, producers and directors could do some I asked Kirk if any consideration was ever given to using real
things with model airplanes and model sets, but there were B-17s in Masters of the Air. He said that was never considered
obvious limitations to what could be done with a model. and was logistically impractical today. He noted that in 1990 for
For the 1970 movie Tora, Tora, Tora! about the Japanese Memphis Belle, the production team had no choice, but today
attack on Pearl Harbor, 20 Century Fox extensively modified the CGI is so good, why incur the risk and expense to use real
th
T-6/SNJ and BT-13 airframes to resemble Japanese Zero, Kate, airplanes? I’ll also acknowledge there is only one flyable B-17 in
and Val aircraft. The production would ultimately use over 60 all of Europe (where the series was filmed), so that was certainly
flying and static aircraft, including the flying replicas as well as a limiting factor as well.
P-40s, PBY Catalinas, B-17 Flying Fortresses, and more. Instead, Saduski’s production team built three incredibly
In 1986, the original Top Gun used real Navy Grumman detailed non-flying B-17 replicas, one of which had the ability to
F-14 Tomcats to film that movie’s exciting air-to-air and actually be propelled forward. The replicas were recreated down
aircraft carrier scenes. Similarly, the 1990 movie Memphis to the smallest detail on the flight deck, the fuselage, and in the
Belle used five real B-17s, two of which were flown to the bombardier/navigator compartment in the nose. For at least one
production location in England all the way from the United landing scene, one of the replicas was suspended from a crane
States. Sadly, one of the three European-based bombers was with cables to create the visuals of a B-17 landing. They also built
destroyed in a takeoff accident during the filming. By the time an exact replica B-17 cockpit on a moving platform (sort of like a
Lucasfilm produced the 2012 movie Red Tails about the famed full motion flight simulator) that was used to film the in-cockpit
Tuskegee Airmen, the use of CGI had advanced to the point flying scenes.
that virtually all of the combat and flying scenes were created Now that CGI can be made to be so realistic, I can easily see
with bits and bytes rather than by burning avgas. where it is the most attractive option for many flying scenes.
Some other recent aviation movies, namely 2022’s Top Producing those scenes with real airplanes can be logistically
Gun: Maverick and Devotion, opted to use a mix of real challenging and expensive, and for movies requiring warbirds,
airplanes and CGI to create their realistic flying scenes. In the number of available airframes is, frankly, becoming very
Top Gun: Maverick, virtually all of the flying sequences were limited. There’s also the issue of risk. No one wants an accident
real (including the in-cockpit shots), but CGI was used to like what happened during the filming of the Memphis Belle.
supplement real footage for scenes that would have been too So, while I still love real airplanes in airplane movies and
risky to use a real airplane. If you remember the scenes where television shows, the next time I watch an aviation movie that
four F/A-18 Super Hornets were popping vapor while flying uses a lot of CGI, I’ll promise not to complain.
a high-speed low-level bombing run up a river valley, that

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