And earlier today, we filmed our second set of plane scenes. You may remember our first set of plane scenes for a 1947 flashback which we filmed back in September. This second set of plane scenes were for a 1978 flashback.We filmed out at the Vancouver International Airport today. The Barn Scenes may have been our overall most expensive set of scenes, at just over $3,000 (including reshoots), however, these plane scenes were our by hour most expensive scenes at $125 per hour. Thankfully, we only filmed for 4 hours, and thus these scenes weren't all that expensive (compared to the barn scenes).
This is yet another God story. I began looking for planes to film in all the way back in March of 2008. No one would let us film, and the ones who seemed interested never called back or returned messages. So, after we finished filming in the summer, I began pursuing these scenes once again.
A good friend of mine gave me the number for his friend who works at a small airline. I called him and he passed me along to another guy. By then, all personal connection was lost, and he was simply going to charge me the "normal filming rate". This would have been $225 per hour for a very small 2 pilot, 3 passenger plane used for scouting forest fires.
Convinced that I could find a better plane at less cost, I continued looking. One guy even said we could use his plane for 4 hours for $2,000. We decided against that. It was either overpriced, or someone was a little arrogant.
Then, I came across a small airline which services Vancouver, Victoria, and Tofino. They were very helpful, had an 8 passenger plane, and much lower rate for filming ... in fact it wasn't even a set "filming rate", it was just the cost for us to hold one of their planes in their hanger for the day.
So, this morning, John (the writer) and I left around 10:30 AM and headed to the Vancouver Airport. We were stuck in traffic the ENTIRE way there. We arrived by 12:30 PM, 1 hour longer than it usually takes, and 30 minutes late. We were scheduled to be there at 12:00 PM. Our actors were scheduled to be there at 12:30 PM.
We had four Kiwi actors (actors from New Zealand) cast for the part. Two of them canceled last minute, but the other two still planned on coming. So, we could probably pull it off.
By 1:30 PM, I had already gotten everything setup and already took a few shots which didn't require actors. The airline even let us go up in their simulator and they gave us a pilot to intentionally crash the simulator so that we could get the shots we needed. However, by 1:30 PM, our two actors still weren't there.
So, in the middle of a busy hanger, John and I decided to pray. Shortly after, I got a text message from one of the actors, she said she'd be there in a few minutes. She was running late as she had taken public transit and we were at a part of the airport which has very limited transit access. When she arrived, we were still short actors. We realized that the remaining actor probably wasn't going to show up.
But, God provided... John said he'd be willing to be in the scene if he needed to. So the airline employees brought us a couple uniforms for him to try on. They were both too small though. So, the airline then called one of their own pilots and asked him to come be in the scene. Then, one of the managers of the airline offered to be in the scene as well.
We were able to film the scene with one actor (who just came to Vancouver from New Zealand a few weeks ago) and two airline employees. It turned out great! The airline and all of their employees were very helpful, very friendly, and great people to work with. A number of other amazing things happened that day as well which God had definately orchastrated in advance, but I won't get into all of those at this time.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to watch for more updates for The Scarf.
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