beforesandafters.com: Stuart Baird’s Executive Decision is a quarter-century old. Back in 1996, effects involving planes—in this case a 747 and the experimental ‘Remora F117x’—were still something largely realized with models and miniatures.
And that’s exactly what was done on the film; miniature planes crafted by Grant McCune Design (sadly, Grant McCune passed away in 2010) served as the basis for the aerial and crash scenes. A variety of visual effects studios also contributed key digital VFX to the movie.
2 comments:
What a funny thing to see a person standing next to a plane and being taller than it! I think it is really cool that this is how so many different visuals were created in this movie and so many others. I think when I was first reading this article I was thinking about models in the same sense that I am used to, a small thing you can hold in your hands, like a box model for the stage. So it was really a shock when I went to watch the videos to see a plane the size of a person! The scale was certainly not what I was anticipating, but it makes it much more understandable how these effects are believable for films. It must be really fun to make these models, because you are building a plane, but not literally! What a fun project to work on!
I love making models and miniatures!! It’s cool to think that there are so many different film effects and scenes that were possible because of miniature versions of vehicles, buildings, and creatures. I’ve only really thought about miniatures on a model making for scenic design and table dioramas for a museum level. The fact that model planes are actually very big with wiring and automation is a much larger scale of miniatures (hahaha) than I had previously thought about. I think that the craft of miniatures is a very neat cross-section of all the crafts that can be utilized in props and scenery construction – engineering a structure for whatever the miniature has to do, designing any mechanisms for effect, figuring out the wiring and rigging, fabrication with a variety of speciality materials, and applying appropriate finishes and details. It’s also neat that miniatures are then integrated with digital effects in post to make it all the more realistic or dramatic. I bet the world of puppetry intersects with the world of miniatures too.
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