PRODUCTION MASTERS OF THE AIR
the book of the same name by Donald L Miller with No Time to Die helmer, Cary Joji Fukunaga, directing the first four episodes, setting the tone for the series alongside cinematographer Adam Arkapaw. Rutkowski’s two instalments are directed by Dee Rees with whom he worked on 2017’s Mudbound . “My role on Mudbound was fairly small,” continues Rutkowski. “I had filmed parts of the Mudbound aircraft scenes for Dee, getting the aircraft to look like they’re flying over Europe for some of our lead characters. Dee had remembered me from that and brought me onto this. She was my first point of contact for the content, style and ambition of the show.” Rees and Rutkowski’s portion of the show is full to the brim with enthusiasm and uniqueness. The episodes connect scenes set in England – on the Thorpe Abbotts airbase and in London – as well as France and Poland – at the prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III. The episodes also take us to Ramitelli on Italy’s Adriatic coast, home to the Tuskegee Airmen. This group of African-American pilots,
AT THE TAIL-END OF KNOWING FIRST-HAND what it was like ”
including the 332nd Fighter Group or Red Tails, famously adorned the tails and noses of their aircraft with crimson paint. Episode 8 features a thrilling Red Tails attack sequence, culminating in the shooting down of several fighters and the subsequent incarceration of the airmen. “Dee and I had the crossover between our airmen at Thorpe Abbotts and the Red Tails,” explains Rutkowski, who has previously earned much critical acclaim for his photography on the early seasons of the Cold War spy drama The Americans, and for his camerawork on the wartime drama Manhattan (which garnered two ASC Award nominations for best cinematography).
“They come together at the POW camp. That’s the site where integration begins for the Tuskegee Airmen and that felt like a huge lift of the script to perform. Dee worked very hard on those scenes with John Orloff and she brought a lot more to that story.” Rees is also a very adroit camera choreographer: “She would often sketch out the coverage for scenes way in advance of the shoot day,” he adds. “She is a terrific researcher.” Indeed, her research uncovered the memoirs and hand drawings of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Jefferson, a Tuskegee Airman who chronicled his time in the USAF at Ramitelli and as a POW. “He actually drew many of the frames
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