Our fundraiser at Planes of Fame air museum was a resounding success, thanks to the hard work of Andrea Eldridge and the PoF staff! Not only did a sell-out crowd get to see the nearly-completed “Legend of Pancho Barnes”, but we got to inaugurate the brand new PoF movie theatre. In attendance were several special guests, including the museum’s legendary founder Ed Maloney. Ed is responsible for preserving an incredible array of aircraft, including the sole surviving examples of several types. We also had a couple of pilots including Steve Hinton, who grew up near PoF and volunteered there as a child. Nowadays he’s rather famous – although he’s about as modest as anyone you’ll meet – as an airplane restoration expert. He’s also well known as an aerial co-ordinator and pilot for the movie business. That’s a job description that a lady named Pancho Barnes held claim to in the 1930s!

Photos (above): James Lowe shares his latest CD with Nick Spark; (below) an 8x10 publicity photo signed to Joe Nikrent by Pancho, from Nikki Robinson's collection.

There were some truly unexpected, special guests as well. James Lowe, a relative of Pancho’s grandfather Thaddeus Lowe, showed up with his wife Pamela. James, who some people know as the lead singer of the seminal L.A. rock band The Electric Prunes, bore a striking resemblance to his great Civil War balloonist ancestor. James brought with him some marvelous family photos, the most interesting of which was an image of Pancho’s brother William. William was a sickly child who passed away while still a young man, in 1913. The photo, which was probably taken just a short time before he died, was carried in a gold locket. The initials of Florence Lowe were etched on the front, and the other side of the enclosure holds a swatch of William's hair. This must have been a special memento that once belonged to William's kid sister, Pancho!

Also in attendance was Nikki Robinson, who showed up carrying a couple of photos signed by our favorite aviatrix. It turns out that Nikki’s great uncle was Joe Nikrent, who served as an official timer for the National Aeronautic Association. Joe officiated at many record attempts, including Pancho’s assault on Amelia Earhart’s women’s air speed mark. In fact the opening of our film has a number of photos of Pancho and Joe on the day of her successful record attempt. Clearly they were pals, and Joe prized the photos enough not only to preserve them, but to pass them down in his family.

Photo: Joe Nikrent shakes hands with Pancho just before (or maybe just after) her record setting flight in 1931.

If you missed the Chino event, don’t despair! We’ll hopefully be announcing another screening in the near future. Meantime, if you want to see a sneak preview of part of the film, join us at the Western Museum of Flight on Saturday, February 21, at 11 a.m. (see above)

Hello and season's greetings! Amanda Pope and I would like to extend special greetings to everyone who has supported the Pancho Barnes documentary project this year. And, we have a little Christmas gift to share! It's something truly special that dropped down our chimney…

Now, those of you who have followed our production, know that in June of this year "Pancho" was awarded the Women in Film Finishing Fund Grant. This prestigious award did a great deal to bolster our spirits, and the cash award helped pay some of our expenses. It was also a lot of fun to read about our film in WIF's press releases, and in the pages of the Daily Variety -- Hollywood's trade paper.

But the really exciting aspect of an award like this one – one that comes from an organization that promotes educational and professional opportunities for women in the entertainment industry – is that it can produce unexpected results. That's exactly what happened to us. Through Women in Film, we were contacted by various industry professionals here in Hollywood, asking what could they do to make our film a success.

A little aside here… There has always been one part of our production we've agonized about – one critical aspect to it, that seemed like it might present a real challenge. And that is, who would do the voice of Florence "Pancho" Barnes in the final film?

Over the course of the three years we've worked on the film, we've heard all sorts of suggestions. But from day one of the project, there was only one actress both Amanda and I really had in mind. Her name is well known in Hollywood, and around the world, for portraying bold female characters. She’s so well known in fact, that we figured our chances of working with her, would be remote. Unless, of course, we had an "in".

Photo: Our board operator at Larson Studios runs the Pancho Barnes recording session..

Well, people we interviewed about Pancho, have told us that positive things had a way of happening around her. We always believed that, and kept faith that somehow, we'd get a shot at talking to our dream actress. Our hope was, that if someone told her about Pancho, and she saw the rough cut of our film, that she'd agree to participate. Believe it or not, and we’re still pinching ourselves about this, that's exactly what happened. Thanks to a bit of serendipity caused by the Women in Film Grant, we ended up being introduced to our top candidate's agent, and were able to present our project to her. And that’s the long and short of how Academy Award winning actress Kathy Bates came to be our Pancho!

At a sound stage in Hollywood, on an otherwise perfectly dull weekday when the economy was sliding into the Sargasso Sea, Amanda and I had the privilege of hearing Kathy perform the voice of Pancho Barnes. Hearing her perform the lines, gave them a whole new presence. For months we'd only heard these words spoken by a stand-in; now they came alive in ways we had not anticipated. A sentence like: "My Travel Air had a big, throaty engine…" became transformed, through Kathy's forceful, confident delivery, into a booming "My Travel Air had a BIG, THROATY engine…"

Photo: Nick Spark, Kathy Bates and Amanda Pope pose after the recording session.

Kathy Bates got "Pancho" like we dreamed she would -- not that we ever had any doubts. We knew that, just like Pancho, Kathy had overcome huge odds in her own personal and professional life, and triumphed. Not just through hard work, or because of her talent, but because of a sort of indefinable gumption and her ability to let it all hang out literally and figuratively.

Well, I wish all of you could have been with us on the sound stage to witness the performance, but unfortunately it would have been a bit too distracting. The good news is, sometime this coming year, you are all going to get an opportunity to hear Pancho come alive.

So 2009 is nearly here, and it looks like it is our year. The film is nearly done, and there are many, many important announcements that will be made in the coming weeks. Let's just say, we're poised to barnstorm "Pancho" on PBS, and around the country at various events including a film festival near you. Stay tuned, happy holidays, and see you all very soon!

The Planes of Fame fundraiser screening of "Pancho" has been rescheduled!! The new screening date is January 22nd. The new date has a lot going for it, as we've already got a lot of RSVPs. So, if you'd like to go, now is the time to file your flight plan!

If you want to attend, RSVP to Andrea Eldridge at: andrea.eldridge(at)planesoffame.org The suggested donation per seat is $50-$100, with checks made payable to the KOCE-TV Foundation. All gifts are tax deductible. This event will be a big deal, attended by some surprise guests (we think!) and featuring an opportunity to enjoy Planes of Fame's brand new 45-person movie theater. See you in January!

Back in the year 2000, I served as the first assistant editor on the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "The Sixth Day". At the time, it seemed impossible that our star would become Governor of California, or that I'd end up getting "Pancho" off the ground. It just goes to show you, in both instances, that where there's a will -- there's a way.

Working on the editorial side of an $80 million Hollywood feature was eye-opening to say the least.

Photo (above right): Digital effects allowed us to have Orville Wright "sign" Pancho's pilot's license.

One aspect of the production that especially drew my attention, was the special effects work. I spent almost an entire summer designing a helicopter flight sequence at the beginning of the movie, and the rooftop gun battle finale, with pre-visualization artist / designers Rpin Suwannath and Rob Smith. We all worked in a digital environment, using animation, green screens, Maya, Avid and Photoshop. It was thrilling work that translated directly to the big screen. I came out the experience convinced that the only limit, when it came to visual effects, was the imagination of the people working on them. The impact on the show could be tremendous.

"Pancho" offered a whole new set of challenges in the editing room, but I knew almost from the outset that I'd like the film to have a few effects. I didn't want them for the same whiz-bang reasons that Arnold's video-game-like action flicks have them (and literally, have to have them!) The reasons to have visual effects in the documentary were entirely a matter of story telling.

Photo (left): FX artist Jin Wha Lee made Pancho's cigarette light up and smoke, in an otherwise still photo.

Case in point: one of the wonderful stories surrounding Pancho, is that after getting her pilot's license -- despite the objections of her minister husband the Rev. Rankin Barnes -- Pancho buzzed his church. On a Sunday. During mass. Now, it is one thing to tell that story. Michael Patris, who describes it in the film, does a wonderful job. But it is another thing entirely to actually see it happen! Of course, you're not going to find vintage film of Pancho or anyone else for that matter, buzzing a church. If you know what you're doing though, you might be able to create a shot out of whole cloth. Which is precisely what we set out to do.

Two wonderful visual effects artists contributed their skills to "Pancho". Jeffrey Dietrich, a graduate of Otis College of Art and Design, built 3-D effects for the show, one of which you can see as a streaming video on his website, www.jeffreydietrich.com The other artist, and our Visual Effects Producer, is Jin Wha Lee. Jin Wha hails from the University of Southern California's Animation and Visual Arts program. Her role was to work closely with our director, editor, and me to create visual effects that were in keeping with the film's tone and style. Visual effects that did not detract from the show, or call attention to themselves, but which seamlessly fit into the narrative.

Some people might question whether it is even ethical to add visual effects to a documentary film -- to literally "make up" footage. But in our minds, it made a lot of sense. For one thing, Pancho often embellished her personal story, a fact that all of her friends widely acknowledge. That, and the fact that some of the story was told in Pancho's own words, made it easy to justify making the film a little bit different than a standard historical, can I say dry?, documentary.

That being said, we did establish some rules or guidelines to follow. For one thing, we agreed that the addition of the wholly created images and effects, could not deceive the viewer or stretch the truth to the breaking point. For another, we committed to the notion that wherever possible, we'd be as historically accurate as we could be, within our created frame. Finally, we'd acknowledge to anyone who asked, that we'd done what we'd done. No reason to lie about our trickery, you see!

Which leads us to the church shot. We started with a temporary place-holder, a photo of a church pulled off of Google images, with a split-screen image of a plane on it -- just to identify where the shot would go, and estimate how long it might run. After a fashion, I managed to visit St. James Church in South Pasadena, where Rev. Barnes had his parish. The church historian allowed me to scan several 8x10 glass plate negatives of the church building, circa 1920. We reviewed these photos, and tried to determine which one would be best for our planned effect.

Next, editor Monique Zavistovski and I spent considerable time looking through hundreds and hundreds of feet of historic 16mm aviation motion picture footage, trying to locate a shot of a biplane that might work for our purpose. It was a tricky proposition, but we finally came up with a few candidates that we showed to Jin. Jin selected a shot that showed a biplane zipping out of the sky and flying in towards the camera, and brought it and the photo of St. James into her world of visual effects software.

What she did in Aftereffects and Photoshop, and a couple of other programs, is a little hard to describe to those not familiar with such things, but I'll give it a shot. First, she painted out everything in the biplane movie that wasn't actually part of the biplane -- such as the ground and the horizon. Then, she patiently scaled the biplane to the right size to make sense, and married it with the foreground shot of the church. At the same time, she adjusted the brightness and contrast of both elements to match. It took several passes, each time adjusting the tracking of the biplane shot, and other variables. Then, to really sell the shot as a piece of old-time movie footage, Jin added the kind of dust and scratches you see on old movie film to the finished product.

The end result of all this work, is a piece of footage that looks like it could almost be real. I say "almost", because part of the beauty of what Jin did, was to not make the shot entirely perfect. This way, our audience can enjoy the shot for what it is, while at the same time they are in on the gag -- here's something Pancho said she did, and maybe she did, who are we to say?

And that's exactly the kind of effect that we wanted.

Can't make it to the event in Laguna Beach on Monday, the 17th? Don't despair. There are still another couple of opportunities to come hear about the film, and get a preview. For starters, on November 21st, Nick Spark will be speaking at an event hosted by the Red Barons at the Alpine Village in Torrance. That's located at 833 W. Torrance Blvd. at the 210 Freeway. Things should start around 11:30 a.m., and you can get lunch while you're there. Please note, if you plan to attend, you must send an RSVP email to the leader of the group, Larry Warner. His email is: snpd(at)dslextreme.com

Another exciting event takes place beginning at 5:30 on Thursday, December 11th, when the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino hosts a fundraising screening and reception to benefit the completion of the film. Director Amanda Pope will join me at the event, which is being organized by Andrea Eldridge and hosted by Karen Hinton. You can be one of only 45 people who get to attend this screening -- and wow will it be fun given the venue: Planes of Fame has one of the best collections of historic aircraft outside of the Smithsonian Institution.

If you want to attend, you'll have to RSVP right away. You can do that by sending an email to Andrea at: andrea.eldridge(at)planesoffame.org

The suggested donation per seat is $50-$100, with checks made payable to the KOCE-TV Foundation. All gifts are tax deductible.