AJChenMPH
Forum Health Inspector
Read this in the Navy Times the other day. I plan on seeing it!
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True-to-life ‘Top Gun’
Reservist’s documentary puts two fighter pilots in spotlight
By Chris Amos
Staff writer
For six years, Cmdr. Francesco “Paco” Chierici flew fighter jets for a Navy Reserve adversary squadron by day, then returned home to write screenplays at night.
And these weren’t ordinary screenplays. One was recognized by the prestigious Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project. And he is working on another with noted Australian filmmaker Maciek Wszelaki.
But Chierici, who is scheduled to retire next year after more than 20 years flying A-6 Intruders, F-14 Tomcats and F-5 Tigers, said he always wanted to do another film — one that would accurately depict the lives of Navy fighter pilots.
“The best story ever told about what we do for a living is ‘Top Gun.’ That’s a fun movie, but it’s not super accurate,” he said, pointing out that a pilot would likely be bounced from a squadron after buzzing a Navy control tower as “Maverick” did in the 1986 movie.
“You do that stuff once and they kick you out,” he said.
So Chierici approached his friend Peyton Wilson, a veteran of documentary film and television commercial production, and asked her if she would like to work with him on a film about Navy fighter pilots.
Wilson, who never served in the military, was intrigued by the idea, especially after traveling to Naval Air Station Oceana, Va., to meet a group of young naval officers who were about to be handed the keys to Tomcats.
“All the sacrifice that goes on is so foreign to most people,” Wilson said. “It was fascinating to me. It’s a very personal thing about going after your dream — about having a passion that keeps you up at night.”
A tale of two pilots
The stories of two pilots grabbed Wilson’s ear and would become the focus of “Speed and Angels.” Wilson and Chierici asked that those pilots’ last names not be published because of security concerns.
Jay’s love of flying started when he was 2 days old. On his way home from the hospital, his father, also a pilot, stopped at a small Massachusetts airstrip and took his son flying.
But when he was 16, a Marine shot him in the face at a high school party. The shooting nearly derailed his appointment to the Naval Academy and his dream of flying Navy jets.
Jay, who almost died because the bullet severed an artery in his neck, had his mouth and tongue reconstructed and had to learn to talk again before Naval Academy officials would allow him to enroll. Four years later, he went through another round of paperwork and examinations to convince aviation officials that he could cut it as a fighter pilot after losing 25 percent of the blood flow to his brain after the shooting.
“He had this uphill battle,” Chierici said of Jay. “He should have died. He shouldn’t be here right now.”
Meagan, a former Naval Academy rugby player, grew up with a pacifist twin sister and a very liberal older sister in Pittsburgh.
But she said both sisters have been supportive of her career choice despite their objections to some aspects of American foreign policy.
Wilson said the stories of Jay and Meagan would appeal to audiences, whether they are interested in naval aviation or not, because their life stories and the film’s gripping aerial footage connects Jay and Meagan with the audience.
Film marketing director Martina Luchengco agreed, saying that “Speed and Angels” had received very favorable reviews from overwhelmingly civilian audiences after an August screening in San Francisco.
“We chose that site to see how the film would reach a nonmilitary, nonconservative, predominately female Middle American audience that has no ties to the military,” she said.
Luchengco said each of the more than 100 screeners rated the film in the top two of five available categories.
“You always hope your film plays well with a nonobvious audience,” she said. “We were very pleasantly surprised.”
Wilson said the same qualities that had grabbed her ear would appeal to viewers.
“This film very much humanizes fighter pilots,” she said. “When Jay and Meagan are in a dogfight, [the viewer] is in a dogfight. When Jay and Meagan land on a carrier, [the viewers] land on the carrier.
“They are everyone. They can be middle of the road; they can be conservative, liberal. They are us.”
Chierici, who doubled as flight choreographer, said producers went to great lengths to show the perspective of the pilots while they flew.
“One of our big goals was to put the viewer in the cockpit,” he said.
Chierici used a rented Learjet with three mounted high-definition cameras to film training footage. Camera crews placed themselves on mountaintops near NAS Fallon, Nev., to get more footage.
Chierici said the film was a tribute to Navy fighter pilots.
“I absolutely loved flying for the Navy,” he said. “I loved every minute of it. I loved the people, the airplanes, all of it.”
Jay and Meagan are now transitioning to the F/A-18 Super Hornet. The last Tomcat squadron was to formally stand down Sept. 30 and become an F/A-18 squadron, and the final three aircraft were to fly west to be preserved in the desert as part of the “war reserve” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.
Camera crews recently finished shooting, according to Luchengco, who said she expects the film to be released early next year.
Chierici said he and others connected with the film are considering innovative approaches to releasing the movie that will allow viewers to see it in theaters, rent copies of the DVD or download it from the Internet all on the same date, but Luchengco said no decisions on the release have been made.
http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-213098-2148728.php
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More at: www.speedandangels.com
-----
True-to-life ‘Top Gun’
Reservist’s documentary puts two fighter pilots in spotlight
By Chris Amos
Staff writer
For six years, Cmdr. Francesco “Paco” Chierici flew fighter jets for a Navy Reserve adversary squadron by day, then returned home to write screenplays at night.
And these weren’t ordinary screenplays. One was recognized by the prestigious Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project. And he is working on another with noted Australian filmmaker Maciek Wszelaki.
But Chierici, who is scheduled to retire next year after more than 20 years flying A-6 Intruders, F-14 Tomcats and F-5 Tigers, said he always wanted to do another film — one that would accurately depict the lives of Navy fighter pilots.
“The best story ever told about what we do for a living is ‘Top Gun.’ That’s a fun movie, but it’s not super accurate,” he said, pointing out that a pilot would likely be bounced from a squadron after buzzing a Navy control tower as “Maverick” did in the 1986 movie.
“You do that stuff once and they kick you out,” he said.
So Chierici approached his friend Peyton Wilson, a veteran of documentary film and television commercial production, and asked her if she would like to work with him on a film about Navy fighter pilots.
Wilson, who never served in the military, was intrigued by the idea, especially after traveling to Naval Air Station Oceana, Va., to meet a group of young naval officers who were about to be handed the keys to Tomcats.
“All the sacrifice that goes on is so foreign to most people,” Wilson said. “It was fascinating to me. It’s a very personal thing about going after your dream — about having a passion that keeps you up at night.”
A tale of two pilots
The stories of two pilots grabbed Wilson’s ear and would become the focus of “Speed and Angels.” Wilson and Chierici asked that those pilots’ last names not be published because of security concerns.
Jay’s love of flying started when he was 2 days old. On his way home from the hospital, his father, also a pilot, stopped at a small Massachusetts airstrip and took his son flying.
But when he was 16, a Marine shot him in the face at a high school party. The shooting nearly derailed his appointment to the Naval Academy and his dream of flying Navy jets.
Jay, who almost died because the bullet severed an artery in his neck, had his mouth and tongue reconstructed and had to learn to talk again before Naval Academy officials would allow him to enroll. Four years later, he went through another round of paperwork and examinations to convince aviation officials that he could cut it as a fighter pilot after losing 25 percent of the blood flow to his brain after the shooting.
“He had this uphill battle,” Chierici said of Jay. “He should have died. He shouldn’t be here right now.”
Meagan, a former Naval Academy rugby player, grew up with a pacifist twin sister and a very liberal older sister in Pittsburgh.
But she said both sisters have been supportive of her career choice despite their objections to some aspects of American foreign policy.
Wilson said the stories of Jay and Meagan would appeal to audiences, whether they are interested in naval aviation or not, because their life stories and the film’s gripping aerial footage connects Jay and Meagan with the audience.
Film marketing director Martina Luchengco agreed, saying that “Speed and Angels” had received very favorable reviews from overwhelmingly civilian audiences after an August screening in San Francisco.
“We chose that site to see how the film would reach a nonmilitary, nonconservative, predominately female Middle American audience that has no ties to the military,” she said.
Luchengco said each of the more than 100 screeners rated the film in the top two of five available categories.
“You always hope your film plays well with a nonobvious audience,” she said. “We were very pleasantly surprised.”
Wilson said the same qualities that had grabbed her ear would appeal to viewers.
“This film very much humanizes fighter pilots,” she said. “When Jay and Meagan are in a dogfight, [the viewer] is in a dogfight. When Jay and Meagan land on a carrier, [the viewers] land on the carrier.
“They are everyone. They can be middle of the road; they can be conservative, liberal. They are us.”
Chierici, who doubled as flight choreographer, said producers went to great lengths to show the perspective of the pilots while they flew.
“One of our big goals was to put the viewer in the cockpit,” he said.
Chierici used a rented Learjet with three mounted high-definition cameras to film training footage. Camera crews placed themselves on mountaintops near NAS Fallon, Nev., to get more footage.
Chierici said the film was a tribute to Navy fighter pilots.
“I absolutely loved flying for the Navy,” he said. “I loved every minute of it. I loved the people, the airplanes, all of it.”
Jay and Meagan are now transitioning to the F/A-18 Super Hornet. The last Tomcat squadron was to formally stand down Sept. 30 and become an F/A-18 squadron, and the final three aircraft were to fly west to be preserved in the desert as part of the “war reserve” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.
Camera crews recently finished shooting, according to Luchengco, who said she expects the film to be released early next year.
Chierici said he and others connected with the film are considering innovative approaches to releasing the movie that will allow viewers to see it in theaters, rent copies of the DVD or download it from the Internet all on the same date, but Luchengco said no decisions on the release have been made.
http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-213098-2148728.php
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More at: www.speedandangels.com
