Effects & Techniques The aerial scenes were planned using storyboards - thumbnail sketches that depict the flow of the action and are used as a reference point for camera angles. One hundred thirty shots were required to portray the aerial chase and crash scenes in the film. These shots took eight months to develop, lasting only about eight (8) minutes on-screen in the completed film. Kenneth Childres led the model team and constructed the main P-38 flown by Sully in the film. Kenneth also built a detailed version of the wrecked P-38, designed from photographs of the actual plane as it lies in the jungles of New Guinea. Ron Leker built the Japanese enemy fighter, a Ki-61 Tony David Carter built several models for the film, including two P-38s, a B-25 bomber, a P-40, and a small Australian plane that meets an untimely end before the film is over! Close up action was shot in front of a blue screen in the life-size P-38 fuselage and cockpit mockup. The wings, scenery, and background action were added later. Full shots of the flying aircraft were recorded with our professionally-built models hanging on wires. Each element was then built into a composite image in a special computer program. In some cases a photograph of a model was combined with a seperate video clip of a live actor in the life-size set piece to create the finished shot. Occasionally, a shot would require the actors to be placed in a non-existent set piece. The exterior portions of the plane were constructed piece by piece in the computer, built around the actor who was shot in front of a blue screen. Other digital composite shot progressions from Injury Slight. Home The Project The Story Photo Gallery