1) The Sound Of Music (1965)
In cinema these days, wide, panning aerial shots are more often than not filmed using ultra-manoeuvrable, unmanned drones. Back in 1965, however, no such thing existed. So when it came to how to solve a problem like Maria coming into shot from across the distance of a sweeping Austrian vista and starting to sing the title song, the most advanced method available to The Sound of Music’s filmmakers was a helicopter – with the door removed.
The film’s technology did reach new heights, however, with their method of transport. In order to get the people, the props, and the masses of camera equipment to the top of the mountain in the first place, everything was hauled up in open carts, pulled by oxen. Julie Andrews and the crew members sat on top of the equipment.
The process of filming this globally recognized opening scene involved Andrews coming from one end of the field, while the helicopter swooped in from the other end. The cameraman, hanging from the open door by a harness (most likely not one of his favourite things) had approximately eight seconds to capture the shot of Andrews as she passed by underneath and made the arms-outstretched spin, with which she begins to sing. At this point, the helicopter would turn around, and Andrews would have to literally run back to her original starting point so that they could do it all over again.
This is, perhaps, a fairly familiar scenario – it is well known that actors sometimes have to do arduous and exhausting takes over and over again. But it is probably less common for the actor to have to endure the downdraft of a helicopter repeatedly hurling them head first into the buttercups (the helicopter had to get as close as possible in order to capture the 70mm shot; Andrews was knocked over on almost every take.) And they certainly wouldn’t be expected to do it for a measly £150,000.
Andrews had to have her hair and make-up redone after every run, and apparently actually lost her temper at one point, yelling out loud at the crew and the circling helicopter, “that’s enough!” Unfortunately for Andrews, the pilot merrily misread her hand gestures for a thumbs up (quite what she was doing for that little miscommunication to have happened is anyone’s guess), and promptly circled back for another take.
Matters were not helped by the fact that it rained during most of the filming of that scene. It actually took until that particular shoot’s last day (they had to conserve helicopter budget for the filming of the last scene, in which the Von Trapps escape over the mountains) for just twenty minutes of sunshine to appear. It was during this day that they finally got the shot of Andrews that they needed.
