The movie “Fighting in the Air” is “making waves” in theaters, with most of its scenes taking place in the cabin of an airplane. To create a space inside the airplane that feels cramped and stuffy like real life, the production crew had to work very hard to set up the scene.
The filming set was a DC-4 model built in the studio at a 1:1 scale with the real plane. Only the aisle between the seats was widened to accommodate the filming and action scenes. The model was required to be designed to be period-appropriate, with the right color, cabin size, and especially to be able to be flexibly disassembled to accommodate different shooting angles.
Director Ham Tran excitedly shared: “I used to wish I had a flexible set that could move and rotate. When I sat in the plane cabin and tested its rotating and shaking capabilities, I felt very happy and guessed that this movie would be very special.”

Lieutenant Colonel Tran Nam Chung - Director of People's Police Cinema, the film production unit said: "When starting the idea of producing this film, the thing that worried the production department the most was how to restore the plane in the most realistic way."
To bring the DC-4 from the past to the present, the production team spent a lot of time and effort. The set designer - Art Director Thai Hoang Anh Dung shared: "We encountered many difficulties. First of all, the source of information about this aircraft model is quite rare. I was very worried because I myself have no experience in design, or know anything about the structure of the aircraft. The aircraft models we needed, such as the DC-4 or DC-3, were very old and quite damaged, so we could only refer to a few components."
Lieutenant Colonel Tran Nam Chung added: “After much discussion, as a manufacturer of the armed forces, we decided to use the entire interior of a real aircraft. Every detail, every screw, steering gear, rudder, control panels, passenger seats, pilot seats... were taken from a real aircraft of the Special Task Force Battalion of the Mobile Police Command of the Ministry of Public Security , transported to Ho Chi Minh City”.

Director Ham Tran recalls the feeling the first time he saw the completed airplane model: “I was very surprised. The first time I went out to admire and sit on the airplane model, it felt like I was riding a roller coaster, extremely exciting.”
Actor Vo Dien Gia Huy also expressed his surprise: "I didn't expect that on the first day I went on set, the scene was a real airplane with a 1:1 ratio, even divided into 3 compartments and had an engine to perform shaking scenes."
Actors Thai Hoa, Kaity Nguyen, Ma Ran Do, and Xuan Phuc also expressed surprise and excitement when witnessing for the first time a scene built entirely from an airplane.
Actor Loi Tran said: “When I got on that plane, I felt like I was living in the period after 1975. The space inside was very different from current planes. Although it was a bit narrower, it was still very comfortable.” That shows that recreating the realistic setting contributed greatly to the actors’ psychology, making them always immerse themselves in their characters, like a step of “time-space displacement” to the years after 1975.

The set designer shared that the crew and director had set a requirement from the beginning that the plane must have the ability to vibrate mechanically, not relying on special effects or graphics. After considering many options, the crew came up with the result of using a rotating shaft system. Place the plane model in the middle of the shaft, with gears so that the plane can vibrate according to the gear lift. In addition, 10 people were needed outside to support pushing, pulling, and rotating the plane's body to perform the required scenes.
Director Ham Tran recalled: “When the film crew tested a scene where the plane tilted to one side, the crew did not dare to shake the amplitude too much, for fear that it would be difficult to return to a balanced position. From 30 degrees, they gradually increased the amplitude until 60 degrees was the highest.”
Lieutenant Colonel Tran Nam Chung further explained: “Because when filming, there is not only the plane on the lift but also the actors, cameramen, and crew of up to fifty or sixty people. If there is even a small problem, it is extremely dangerous.”

According to Art Director Thai Hoang Anh Dung, the plane has a total length of 24 meters and a diameter of nearly 4 meters. The size seems quite large, but when placing the camera and arranging the actors inside, it is very narrow, the cameraman cannot stand inside to film, so it needs very long camera arms and brought in from the outside to perform.
Actress Kaity Nguyen recalled: “During the entire filming process, Kaity never thought she was on a simulated plane. Stepping into the cabin and closing the door, I felt like I was on a real plane. That space helps actors get into character very quickly. It felt like I was really on a flight, and only had 75 minutes to survive.”
All the efforts of the producers and crew for “Fighting in the Sky” have created the first movie about hijacking in Vietnam. With a dramatic action theme that is not common in the Vietnamese cinema market, the movie has brought a new breath to the audience, and is still holding the top position in box office revenue.
Source: https://nhandan.vn/ben-trong-khoang-may-bay-dien-ra-cuoc-tu-chien-tren-khong-post912229.html
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