Suggestions for a low budget film.

I think if they went into the background of some of the pilots, their reasons for joining the regiment and some of their tales from EFTS, GTS and HGCU it would add a lot of insight to the kind of men they were, their motivation for volunteering plus some of the harrowing and humorous aspects of their journey to D-Day.

[HTML]It’s about time we had something about the Glider Pilot Regiment. [/HTML]

Agreed the GPR are overdue for a leading role.

How about ‘Operation Deadstick’ and all the training leading up to it, after all the actual landing and capture of the two bridges would just about fill a half hour commercial TV slot and still leave time for the adverts.
Lots of time to get to know the the main players with the training sorties on to Holmes Clump LZ and Howard’s battle training and route marches. also a good excuse to show the whole of the original training film made of the glider approaches using the briefing models.
Careful use of Elvington’s Halifax and Shawburys Horsa (might even spur them on to finish it) would take care of the close ups and CGI would work for the rest.

I guess I’ll just have to live to see the final result, then…..:)

I have rather boosted Key’s ego – for the sake of accuracy it is just over 22,000.

Sorry, Sky High.

If I told you I’d have to kill you! 😮

Oh….and 30,000 others!!!

I happen to know that something of the genre of “First Light” is on the drawing board and under active consideration right now…but not Battle of Britain.

As to escape and evasion….there is something that has just entered production.

I’m involved with both to a greater or lesser extent, but afraid that I cannot say more at this stage. I hope it whets appetites and curiosity!

It whets it to such an extent to tempt us to say – c’mon Andy, spill the beans. We promise it won’t go any further than this forum of…errr…30,000 members…:D

It’s about time we had something about the Glider Pilot Regiment.

Umm.. “The Freddie Laker Story”.. heavy on the early years, lighter on the later ones ??

I happen to know that something of the genre of “First Light” is on the drawing board and under active consideration right now…but not Battle of Britain.

As to escape and evasion….there is something that has just entered production.

I’m involved with both to a greater or lesser extent, but afraid that I cannot say more at this stage. I hope it whets appetites and curiosity!

Dark Blue World is a great example as to how it could be done well. It’s not flawless, granted, but it did the whole war movie love triangle story a lot better than its Hollywood equivalent – Pearl Harbor.

I did think that using a few Spitfire Mk26s and a couple of Bf108s might give you a decent low budget “warbird” cast…

To keep the budget down you can use scaled replica aircraft.

You give no quarter do you!:)

To keep the budget down you can use scaled replica aircraft.

“The Last Enemy” has been discussed before on this forum. The problem is that the estate of Richard Hillary has vetoed previous attempts to make it because of concerns about the production. Around about 1990 there were press reports that both the BBC and ITV were to make rival versions of “The Last Enemy” and a cinema version was also planned.

In the event none of these three productions ever happened. Instead we got “Perfect Hero” (ITV) which was based on a novel which was clearly inspired by the true story of Richard Hillary.

Interestingly the BBC did make a version of “The Last Enemy” in the 1950s starring Pete Murray (later a DJ). See imdb for more details.

Colin

Flight of the Mew Gull

I like your thinking…. 😉

It’s high time for a new First World War film, done with replicas (and there are PLENTY of those about!). Not to mention a pretty nicely preserved period aerodrome right here in the UK, so no fannying around with set-building etc.

Sagittarius Rising ??:) BE2 anyone:D

It’s high time for a new First World War film, done with replicas (and there are PLENTY of those about!). Not to mention a pretty nicely preserved period aerodrome right here in the UK, so no fannying around with set-building etc.

Probably what we need first are some directors who can get the best out of filming aeroplanes and actually recreating the emotions of flight from various perspectives. CGI in recent years seems to have been a retrograde step – not in technology terms – but in its artistic usage. I think of the Howard Hughes film with CGI which, was possibly not as good from an aviation perspective as his film of many years previous, Hells Angels.

So more importantly, who do people suggestion for upcoming flying film directors?

I’ve often thought something about escape and/or evasion would be well worthwhile, there are numerous surviving recollections of those who’ve been involved to work with.

For example, there was Bertram ‘Jimmy’ James who was shot down in 1940 and ended up in various prison camp escape attempts. He was involved in the Great Escape, was held in Sachsenhausen concentration camp (he escaped from there too only to be re-captured) before finally being marched into the Austrian alps alongside the ‘Prominente’ from Colditz and threatened with execution. He passed away recently, but his book ‘Moonless Night’ gives a good account of his life as a PoW.

On the evasion side of things, you couldn’t get much luckier than Bob Barclay who was shot down in a 3 Sqn Hawker Typhoon near Dunkirk. Climbing toward cloud after attacking a train, the control column was severed by flak and the last thing Barclay remembered was diving vertically toward the ground from only about 300ft. He woke up in the wreckage, and in his dazed state proceeded to have a pistol shoot-out with a Wermacht officer who’d come to capture him. Barcaly escaped into woods after they both ran out of ammo. He was then helped by the Resistance and finally escaped via Spain after several months on the run. Barclay gives a good account in ‘Forgotten Voices of the RAF’, compiled by Max Arthur.

Sorry for rambling on a bit, but these are just a couple of stories that stand out for me…

Edited to add, and don’t know why I didn’t mention sooner: Part of the reason I feel so strongly about escape and evasion stories is that few, if any, successful escapes were made without the assistance of some very ordinary but very brave people in the occupied countries. For example, Barclay wouldn’t have made it to Spain without the priest’s housekeeper who hid him until she could make contact with the resistance, and ofcourse the resistance people themselves deserve recognition.

Exactly and the expectations as are far lower – no vast CGI budgets and the chance of skillfully interweaving real aircraft into technically accurate and appealing human stories. First Light set the bar, as far as I am concerned and the BBC should be emulating that programme.