Channel Catalina

In my last posting (before I was waylaid for a week with the flu) I promised a little treat for Grumman Goose fans and here it is:  In my visit to Yank's Air Museum in Chino, I got a chance to see a recently-purchased example of this species of amphibian as first related to me by Mike Sheehan.

According to Yank's Operations Manager Frank Wright, the Goose was purchased about three months ago and plans are still up in the air as to how it will be best utilized by Yank's. For those of you who haven't been to Yank's, it is a beautiful, immaculate museum with lots of room for their many planes.  I have spent a great deal of time over the years working for non-profits/museums, including the S.S. Lane Victory and the Catalina Island Museum, so I know a fine museum when I see one.

Frank told me the livery/paint scheme has not yet been decided upon and I've been toying with the idea of starting a little campaign to get this Goose painted up in Avalon Air Transport or Catalina Air Lines colors.  Anyone care to climb onboard this campaign?

It's been a few days since my last post, mostly because I've been on a field trip to the mainland, or "overtown" as we call it on the Island. I haven't posted because I've managed to stay in hotels with internet problems and am currently stuck in Long Beach because of boat cancellations due to weather.

In the coming days, I'll post some more blogs about my trip and why I came over.

In the meantime, enjoy these photos I took while at the awesome Planes of Fame air museum in Chino, CA.  (NOTE:  Click on the P-40 to access four of the photos I took at the museum.  I'll have more photos in the coming days).

Had a conference call meeting this afternoon with individuals interested in possibly putting on an Air Show and Fly-In on Catalina in the near future.  I can't divulge too much right now, but it could turn into an annual event.

The idea is basically to put on an Air Show over Avalon Bay for the whole town to see, followed up by a Fly-In at Catalina's Airport-in-the-Sky.

The initial events would be a lead-up to a bigger event in May of 2012 for the 100th anniversary of Glenn Martin's flight to the Island (pictured).

For those of you who haven't seen WINGS PART 1, Glenn Martin's historic flight--the first flight to the Island--is covered extensively in the early part of the film.

I will keep you all posted.

Today is a milestone of sorts for the production of WINGS 2. I made the first of what will be many trips to the Catalina Island Museum to get high resolution photos from their great collection, including this one of a Catalina Air Lines Goose at LGB(?).

I normally use a mixture of scanned photographs and actual copy-stand photographs in my films, but prefer the copy-stand photographs. In most cases, scanned photographs have too much of a "flat" or "Xeroxed" look to me, whereas directly taking a photograph of a photograph (with a high resolution camera) brings out the sepias and the dimensions a little better.

Over the next three or four months I will be visiting Jeannine, Gail and Christina at the Museum Research Center on Metropole Avenue about once a week to tap into their great collection. (Stacey Otte, the long time Executive Director is leaving in a few days for a new job with a museum in the Santa Barbara area).

In tomorrow's post, I'll talk about a great little discovery Jeannine and I made at the Museum today.

From time to time, I will post these progress reports on the status of the development of WINGS Part 2. (The chapter-by-chapter synopsis can be viewed here)

JANUARY: Finish research & writing for "Knight Flights," the chapter covering the end of the war through 1959. Also will begin assembling existing video footge and stills, which involves purchasing archival footage and many, many trips to the Catalina Island Museum.

FEBRUARY: Finish research & writing for the other two segments "Final Approach" and "Flight Plan". This will mark the end of the Pre-Production phase.

MARCH: On-camera interviews and film-to-video transfers of archival footage.

APRIL: Begin editing phase. Editing is by far, the most time-consuming part of any film projecet. Also, will begin narration sessions with my voice over guy, Gino Burton who did the narration for WINGS Part 1.

MAY: More voice overs and editing, editing, editing.

JUNE: Final voice overs, final editing (including music sounddtrack, much of which is written and recorded by myself) and cover artwork for the DVD.

JULY: Replication and distribution: I am planning on a release date of July Fourth weekend. (Not quite Spring as I had hoped, but only a week or so afterwards and more realistic).