Aerial Dogfight : 2 Valley Entrepreneurs Battle Over Who Holds the Advantage in Airborne Film Photography
Their images transport moviegoers from cushy theater seats to the sweaty cockpits of fighter jets performing some of the fastest-paced scenes on the screen.
Their visuals awed audiences of Tom Cruise in “Top Gun” and Arnold Schwarzenegger in “True Lies” and other action-packed thrillers of the sky.
Fixed-wing aerial photography is but one of the techniques that make movies larger than life. But behind the cameras in this tiny segment of filmmaking, there is a flat-out competition, and two Valley companies seem to dominate in a market that pays as much as $15,000 for four hours to get a memorable image on film.
The aerial photography rivalry is between Clay Lacy Aviation, which flies out of Van Nuys Airport, and Wolfe Air Aviation Ltd., which flies out of Van Nuys and Burbank airports. Each uses camera systems designed by the same person, and each boasts credits with blockbuster films.
Other than that, neither Clay Lacy nor Dan Wolfe likes to acknowledge they share anything besides the same airspace. Each claims a lock on the market. Lacy estimates he gets 10 jobs to every one of Wolfe’s. Wolfe chuckles at the idea, saying it’s OK with him if Lacy doesn’t realize how much business he has taken away.
“It’s like General Motors and Ford, only on a much smaller scale,” said Robert Mehnert, who has been a client of Lacy’s and now does free-lance camera work for Wolfe. “It’s good old-fashioned competition.”
Lacy, 62, is a burly expert pilot who has run his company for 30 years from Van Nuys Airport. Besides the work for Hollywood, his aviation company flies organs for transplant operations, charters planes and rents hangar space, and he has filmed commercials for Boeing and Cessna aircraft.
Wolfe, 50, is a pilot too, though he hires others to fly the intricate missions for commercial shots. His 14-year-old Wolfe Air, formerly called Cine/Exec Aviation, is one of his several businesses, which include a production company, a studio, a camera equipment firm and a restaurant. Recently, Wolfe has also done commercial photography for NASA and Lockheed.
Though other companies provide aerial shots, particularly from helicopters, Lacy and Wolfe each swears he is unique. Yet both use photographic systems designed by E.F. (Bob) Nettmann, 56, a soft-spoken three-time Academy Award winner, who once leased his systems to Lacy, but now leases them to Wolfe.
Cinematographers “probably think of Clay Lacy first. With my equipment, I helped him get established,” Nettmann said. But he says that Wolfe, who uses Nettmann’s latest camera system, produces “the better-quality product.”
Nettmann’s work has changed aerial filming. When Nettmann came to the United States from London, he worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the 1960s and soon turned his attention to cameras, then established his own company.
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At the time, camera operators would shoot from gunners’ positions of B-25 bombers. The World War II planes were the only type then that could provide the slow, steady ride needed for filming. But they could be dangerous, and after a friend died in 1969 as a result of a fall through an open door of a B-25 during the filming of “Catch-22,” Nettmann set about designing Astrovision, a camera system with a relay periscope that protrudes from the belly of a modified Lear jet.
At first, Nettmann leased his system to Lacy, who married the advanced technology to his flying skills and sold the combination. As film work poured in for Lacy, Nettmann grew resentful because he was getting little credit for his invention.
“I was doing all the work in the background,” he said. “I’m not one of these back-slapping glad-handers, and it’s been to my detriment.”
Lacy doesn’t quarrel with Nettmann’s version of events, but he said that with the myriad mechanics and other technical staff needed to fly, it wasn’t always possible to recognize everyone. Lacy says he and his company “were the ones who got all the calls for the work.”
Nettmann sold Astrovision to his partner, who died soon after. Lacy then bought the camera system from the partner’s estate in the late 1980s, just after Nettmann developed the more advanced system, Vectorvision, which he now rents to Wolfe. Nettmann and his camera systems are a primary selling point for Wolfe Air, which makes a point of touting Nettmann’s name in promotional materials.
The new system has zoom capability and an ability to shoot with less light. On technology alone, Wolfe supporters claim the edge. But Lacy’s fans say that in aerial photography, the pilot is more critical than the camera. And Lacy says that a cameraman “can only shoot where he’s at.”
But sometimes Lacy is perceived as inflexible to cinematographers with ideas contrary to his.
“For years Clay Lacy has been synonymous with aerial photography--like Kodak with film,” Mehnert said. But, he added, Wolfe is “more accommodating to producers” and will adapt to their needs.
That was important in the aerial filming Wolfe did for Schwarzenegger’s adventure film “True Lies.” Jeff Senour, the Wolfe Air pilot in charge of some of the aerial filming of “True Lies,” met and practiced with the movie’s technical staff to calculate an elaborate sequence in which Schwarzenegger swoops over a bridge in the Florida Keys in an AV-8B Harrier jet to rescue his wife.
The timing of the shot had to be exact, because Wolfe’s Lear jet could go only so fast, and the speedy Harrier could fly only so slow. Other special effects had to be timed as well. As Schwarzenegger’s plane was supposed to swoop low over a bridge, water-based explosions were set to go off. Too soon or too late, and the scene would look staged.
Senour practiced the timing for days as he flew alongside the Harrier jet to make sure it went off exactly. “I think our footage speaks for itself,” he said.
Past successes with each company prompt cinematographers to fall decidedly into camps devoted to one company or the other. Dean Cundey, the director of photography for Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster “Jurassic Park,” swears by Wolfe Air. David Nowell of “Top Gun” says no one matches Lacy’s reputation. But as each fights for the edge, personality increasingly separates their operations.
Lacy started flying when he was 12 by persuading the pilots in Wichita, Kan., to let him go up in exchange for washing their planes. He later flew for United Airlines and once held the round-the-world speed record. United kept him busy only 14 days a month, though, so in 1965 he leased a Lear jet to capitalize on the new market for executive business travel. The folksy, silver-haired executive with a taste for well-cut jackets started rubbing elbows with the Hollywood set.
If Lacy grew up at the airport, Wolfe was reared in the studio. He graduated in 1969 from the Art Center in Pasadena and began his own production company three years later. Wolfe cultivates the photographer’s reputation for going to the edge to get a perfect shot. Two photos, displayed on his office wall, tell the tale. In the top photo, he stands on the skids of a helicopter, strapped by a safety harness. Below is the result of the shoot: a man mowing his lawn. Wolfe said he spent weeks searching for just the right grass before he could set up the picture for an advertisement.
By comparison, Lacy’s company has the starchiness of a military operation, with employees sporting crisp white shirts with the company emblem. They work assiduously as the boss tours the operation that he claims generates $15 million in annual revenue, with aerial movie and commercial work comprising 10% of sales. Of his film work, Lacy says, “It gives you a chance to be creative.”
Wolfe’s company seems more casual, with staff members in cowboy boots or sneakers. His various companies, which include filming, a restaurant and real estate, have more than $10 million in annual revenues, with aerial photography comprising about 25% of sales, he said.
Each vehemently defends himself against any charge of weakness levied by the other. Wolfe talks of the superiority of Vectorvision, Nettmann’s newer camera system. But Lacy discounts Vectorvision and says that his company is developing a new and even better system.
