American Cinematographer - August 1985 - 77

'David, I need this look
knows

exactly what I

it. Or

we

can

feel,' and he

or

mean

reverse

and he gets

roles and

as

a

director he says, 'Stan, this is what I
need and I think you can make it work.'
I think that's a pretty special marriage.
"Airwolf wouldn't have the
same visual excitement in the aerial work
and on some of the ground work if it
weren't for David. He must take the script
and interpret what the writer has written
and know what the producer needs, then

interpolate that once again into the re¬
quirements of the scene: the photography,
if there is one ship, two ships or what¬
ever, the speed at which the ships are
traveling, how the scene works in terms
of excitement, if there is danger, impend¬
ing danger, no danger
if it's the
...

conclusion of the scene, etc.
"David is a unique talent. He
is not only a pilot, but he is a director

and,

as

far

as

I

am

concerned, he is

also a cameraman. He is sensitive to
what it takes to make a shot work.
Airwolf is a helicopter show. Jan
Michael Vincent and Ernest Borgnine

fine

performers and fine people.
Both are very popular, but the people
are in love with that helicopter!"
To illustrate his point, Lazan
refers to one Airwolf episode in particu¬
lar. "I think it's the most spectacular
thing we have done on the show," he
says. "It was probably the most diffi¬
cult, as well. It was a sequence where
Archangel (Alex Cord) was being held
captive in an East German castle. David
had to lift the chopper over a wall and
sit it down in the middle of a courtyard.
We filmed it on Castle Square on the
backlot at Universal. We had people in
the immediate vicinity of the helicopter,
we had explosions, lighting equipment,
cross camera coverage plus a hand-held
camera almost directly under the chop¬
per as it came down. David had to put
that chopper down exactly right. It
are

couldn't be four

mark; it

or

five feet off the pre¬

spectacular, almost
impossible shot. David had to do it
twice in the script, and one of the times
was at night! I don't know anybody
else, frankly, that I would have trusted
to set a chopper down in such a con¬
set

was

fined space.

"Unfortunately, in television
we

the Castle scene, I rely heavily on
David's expertise. On a shot like that,

nothing

moves until David says it
He is the one most qualified to
determine whether a shot is safe or
not."
moves.

Safety is, of course, a preoc¬
cupation with Jones. "The pilot is the
one responsible for the safety of an
aircraft and everybody around the air¬
craft. Not the director, not the producer,
not the cameraman. It is in the lap of
the pilot," he says.
Lazan has complete confi¬
dence in Jones' capability. They have
been working together for nearly 20
years and have developed a rapport that
is absolutely essential. According to
Lazan, "I started flying with David
while I was doing commercials. In those
days I was functioning as D.P. as well
as being my own operator and I would
fly with him all the time
usually
hanging out the side of the chopper."
There is a great deal more to
operating a helicopter on a motion pic¬
ture set than just safety or getting the
shot. These points can be of extreme
importance to Jones. "I don't know
anybody else that can upset or even
ruin a set as quickly as the helicopter
pilot. He has to be smart enough and
considerate enough to be aware that a
cloud of dust can not only upset every¬
body on a set but damage the equip¬
ment
especially camera and sound
equipment - and cause long and very
expensive delays in shooting. A pilot
that does that isn't going to be on the
set very long or very often. He's also
going to make his own job a great deal
tougher.
.

.

.

-

"It's

rarely get the preparation time we'd

amazing how

a

coating

like. That was a feature film sequence
in a television episode. As a cin¬

of dust on the catering tables just be¬
fore lunch can cause a lot of bad backs

ematographer working in

on

a

situation like

the part

August 1985

of the

crew

when the pilot

a little help lifting some heavy
equipment. And it doesn't thrill anybody
if the propwash blows off the star's wig

needs

or

On location for
Airwolf
up

as crew sets

shot.

makes a female star's skirt blow up
her head.

over

"The

helicopter pilot also has
enough and diplomatic
enough to be aware of which way the
sun is shining," Jones continues. "That
may sound a little basic, but a director
be

to

and

a

smart

with all the pres¬

cameraman,

of time and

budget on their
preoccupied with
getting a shot of the actors walking
along the beach with the cliffs in the
background that they sometimes forget
there's going to be a big helicopter
shadow covering the actors. The pilot
has to be able to recommend an angle
that gets the same basic shot but elimi¬
sures

minds, could be

nates

so

the shadow.

"Most

important of all, the
helicopter pilot has got to be able to
say, 'No, that isn't safe for the cast or
crew, and it can't be done that way.'
You also have to be able to keep your
sense

of humor. I

mean,

if the director

fly a helicopter upside
down through a tunnel filled with water,
I'll tell him where he can get a sub¬
marine! There are some things that
aren't possible with a helicopter."
The spectacular things that
can be done on screen with helicopters
are well known to anyone who has
wants

to

me

watched television
the past few years.

or

feature films in

But the things that
you don't necessarily see are perhaps
even
more
important to the
cinematographer.
Lazan
in themselves
as

flying

of them

are

camera

explains; "Helicopters
unique. I look at them
platforms. If you think

a tripod, everything must
the nodal point. And the nodal
point of the aircraft (or point of rotaas

center on

American

Cinematographer

75
American Cinematographer - August 1985

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