Famous for its aerial photography and the use many actual biplanes from the WW1 period, this film, in addition, has some incredibly well staged and shot miniature scenes.
A 60 foot (18.2m) zeppelin miniature was constructed and filmed in a 240 foot long aircraft hangar. It travelled on a trolley that ran on a cable stretched the length of the hangar. An electric winch system allowed for up and down movement. Chemical clouds were generated from skywriting equipment. On the floor was a miniature version of London.
There are a number of miniature SE5a aircraft miniatures hung on wires as well as the zeppelin bomb spotting gondola.
This whole sequence is tinted blue.
This sequence is very well lit and photographed. The smoke clouds hang realistically and the destruction of the dirigible has a very compelling realism with the truss construction all visible in the conflagration.
An old issue of Modern Mechanics has a story on the making of this sequence.
The second sequence is of a bombing of a German depot using a captured German Gotha bomber. The pyrotechnics are spectacularly forceful and the miniature buildings break up extremely realistically. There is a terrific shot of a miniature truck being blown into the air.
In the final dogfight all the aircraft action is for real except for a mid air collision shot which is a miniature.
Thanks for sharing that article, that's a great find! Hell's Angels is a technical masterpiece. The finale's dogfight between the two squadrons is unbelievable, but like you said, the miniatures are incredible as well. The zeppelin sequence is jaw dropping stuff. Plenty of FX artists in the studio era would create clouds with smoke (Douglas Woolsey did this a lot), but these look much more convincing than average due to the way the formations retain their shape. I suppose the fact that they're massive helps a lot too.
ReplyDeleteEvery shot of the zeppelin gliding through the clouds is so eerie, and the wirework is immaculate, which is particularly amazing when there's multiple SE5s swooping around it. For me though the best shot is the airship falling toward the camera. What an awesome composition. For a while I wondered how they pulled it off without severely injuring or killing the cameraman lol. The glass shield makes sense, though it still seems quite dangerous (not that Hughes was adverse to that, given 3 pilots died making this film).