the aerial sequences are incredible this movie has some of the best looking World War I biplane dogfights on film.
When the Zeppelin fell and they show it burning was that a model or a real Zeppelin?
When they bomb the ‘munitions depot’ it looks like they really bombed a real set.
Did they use miniatures in making some of the sequences?
It was in deed a real Zeppelin. In fact, three stunt pilots died in the making of this film, according to IMDb's trivia section on this movie. I am not sure about the bombing of the 'munitions depot', though. Thank you and have a nice day.
Ma Pops Wunce Sed, dis:
CLEAN YOSELF, BOY!!!!!!
'The Aviator' has an incredible scene which portrays the shooting of the aerial sequences in 'Hell's Angels.' Check it out.
shareI'm actually seeing it today. And thanks for the recommendation.
Ma Pops Wunce Sed, dis:
CLEAN YOSELF, BOY!!!!!!
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wtf?
shareI have no idea
Just saw the Aviator yesterday, great film
Also, I don't believe the Zeppelin was real, the explosion of the zeppelin in Hells Angels is not how it would happen had it been real. The entire thing would have been one huge explosion, just just at the severed part of both halves.
Lots of models were used in the film too though, along with the live action dog fights, such as the two planes crashing head on, obviously models.
"We're all in it together, kid" - Harry Tuttle (Robert DeNiro) "Brazil"
Actually I heard that the Zepplin scenes were real and several pilots died in the filming of it. I heard they did in fact use a real Zepplin...although the explosion of which may have been a models, but I read that most (if not all the scenes) were filmed with real planes and some pilots died in the making of it
shareThe bombing of the munitions depot is obviously models.
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The aireal sequences in THE AVIATOR , were shot over Catalina Island. That's were I live. Infact they've shot alot of movies over here. air sequences in Pearl Harbor. Jaws, Bounty, etc.
shareWhile parts of the frame may have been matte paintings, the explosions looked real. When it is shown on TCM, check out the bombimg sequence in Flight Commander(1930), renamed from its original title The Dawn Patrol. Hughes sued Warner Bros. for duplicating his shots of explosions. When movies in the early 30s used models, it was obvious, such as the fuel dump blowing up in Flight Commander. Those Hell's Angels bombing scenes, including the bombing of the truck, look as if large quantities of real explosives were set off.
shareMy guess is that they were larger than normal models meaning that they can be more realistic, and the explosions can be similarly larger and more realistic as well.
share"The entire thing would have been one huge explosion"
I actually didnt see this movie so i dont know what it looked like in the movie, but i've seen moving pictures of a zeppelin explosion (think it might have even been the hindenburg), and it isn't just one huge explosion, it kinda just quickly burns from front to back like a huge cigar.
maby this helps, maby not :)
Considering the size of the HIndenburg, it seems like a long slow burn, but those are explosions.
In Hell's Angels it just burns at one of the ends where the zeppelin broke and doesn't spread any further.
But then again, this was ages ago and special effects were nothing compared to today, so there's really no purpose in arguing about it anymore
"We're all in it together, kid" - Harry Tuttle (Robert DeNiro) "Brazil"
The Zeppelin scenes were indeed modelwork, I heard the crash scene was filmed in a warehouse in LA.
One of the fatalities was the engineer in the captured German bomber scenes.
The pilot lost control and told the engineer to jump, and left himself. The engineer was lost in the plane. The scenes of the dives and spins are real.
It was not a German bomber, it was actually the one and only Sikorski S-29 which had not been a commercial success, spending time among other things as a flying cigar stand before it's short movie career. It was owned by Roscoe Turner, who leased it to Hughes, and it was lost in the filming. (Turner was trying to make an income off of it, he later became one of the greatest racing, and record breaking pilots of the 1930s, famous for his flying companion, a lion cub named Gilmore)
Hell's Angel's, and Wings are the finest of the aviation movies of this period, the combat scenes of both are magnificent!
The Pictorial Histories book "Motion Picture Stunt Pilots has quite a bit in words and photos on the filming of "Wings" and "Hell's Angels".
It also has a photo of the zeppelin model.
It is out of print but you should be able to find a copy someplace through Bookfinder.com
The Motion Picture Stunt Pilots and Hollywood's Classic Aviation Movies
Author; H. Hugh Wynne Publisher; Pictorial Histories Publishing Company.
ISBN0-933126-85-9
thank you Hathaway-2 for the great answers.
shareI think the Zepplin is pretty obviously a model.
The munitions depot bombing, on the other hand...I'm not sure. If those ARE models, those are some DAMN good models.
The thing that makes the model work for the zeppelin and the munitions dump so convincing is that it looks as if they were built on a fairly large scale. That's pretty much been a requirement for high quality model effects, the kind that really deceive the eye, since the early days of film.
Remember: the zeppelin appears in scenes with several built-to-scale two-man biplanes. There's a limit to how small an airplane model can be and still be detailed enough to look believable, and not draw attention to the wire it's attached to. But these appear quite real, so you know the zep must have been pretty big. (Ten or twelve feet long, maybe?)
Plus, the explosion sequences for the zep and the ammo dump were undoubtedly filmed using a high-speed camera (another standard sfx technique). When the frames are projected at "normal" speed, this slows the explosion down, giving the viewer a bogus sense of time and distance.
Loved the quick CU of the Zepp moving past the camera - reminded me of Star Wars and stuff...
"Wait till they get a load of me!"
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There were in fact two sixty foot models of Zeppelins that were made for the burning Zeppelin scene
The mid air collision involved 2 twelve foot long models.
I'd hardly call these "miniatures" , but yes they were models.
2 pilots died during the filming, but I don't know how or who they are
The Mechanic who died was Phil Jones he died while making a smoke effect when the Sikorsky S29-A converted to represent the Gotha bomber antecedently crashed. The decent was what they used, but they had to re-shoot the crash by rolling a plane off a cliff.
Look closely at the scene where the truck is leaving the munitions dump. As the truck is lifted off the ground by a massive explosion you can see the tow-rope pulling it along. No models there. The explosion looks full scale.
And the bombs hitting the warehouses explode right where they make contact. You can't predict where they would land and depend on the demolition man to have planted TNT charges in those exact places. With Hughes' money it wouldn't be inconceivable that he built a full sized set and blew it up using real bombs. The subsequent explosions "set off" by the bombs were most probably staged but I believe the aerial bombs were genuine.
It's pretty complimentary that eighty years later, we're asking if some of the shots were "real".
What I had in mind was boxing the compass.share