MASTERS OF THE AIR PRODUCTION
FLYING HIGH Rutkowski’s
cinematography (left) in episodes 7 and 8 is rooted in authenticity when recreating the intense aerial combat of WWII
that we emulate inside the POW camp,” Rutkowski explains. “His drawings were incredibly detailed, even down to the kind of cans that would be around, the wax candles used, the storage they had and how the tables and chairs were arranged in the barracks.” Jefferson, who was a second lieutenant at the time, and his artwork feature prominently in episode 8 (played by Branden Cook). “His drawings also showed that it was a grim lifestyle,” continues Rutkowski. “The conditions were extremely claustrophobic with very low ceilings – not at all like the expansive spaces in a Hollywood POW camp.” Stalag Luft III was the camp from which Allied airmen fled in the WWII prison break depicted in The Great Escape (which is referenced in episode 7). “But when we looked at films like that, everybody’s uniform is too nice and their shoes aren’t muddy. We needed it to be more accurate.” The desire for authenticity extended to all aspects of the shoot, including the action sequences with the Flying
Fortresses, the P-40 fighter-bombers and the impressive P-51s. “The scenes in which we are in the air with multiple aircraft at once are entirely CGI created,” says the cinematographer. “They took years and were very complex. “However, we shot a fair amount of air-to-air photography with two working P-51s ahead of time. We had an under- wing camera and made some very cool frames and manoeuvres with them. They were flying in such close proximity, you could hear them inside our cabin. Those shots then became modelling to help the CGI artists. “It was really quite complex to storyboard and realise these aerial sequences,” he says. “You have to coordinate a CGI plane coming at you with a shot of the actor in the cockpit, sometimes on a volume and sometimes against blue; then you had to organise their ejection and parachute landing. There were a lot of pieces to the puzzle.” Another challenge for Rutkowski came in the form of filming scenes set in Thorpe Abbotts, Stalag Luft III and Ramitelli all
using the same location: RAF Abingdon in Oxfordshire. “We were setting these locations up across from buildings we were already using as the British airbase,” he remembers. He also had to create the atmosphere of the Mediterranean in the middle of the English countryside. “I did some tests ahead of principal photography and reset a colour look. In the case of Italy, I added a slight antique suede filter,” he says. “That gave us an ochre, burnished look; it also helped with the uplift on the faces of the African-American flyers. They were so brave and gung-ho and we wanted to reflect that with an uplifted, warm look. “To make it more like Italy, we needed to take the greens out of the foliage. It was a complete work, involving the art department, choosing a new look and monitoring it through the dailies and into final colouring. “It was such a wonderful project. We’re at the tail-end of the first-hand knowledge of what it was like. To honour these men is just fantastic.”
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