Ta.
KnightFandragon, it's all to do with choosing the best lighting, skins and maps, and then using the best camera angles to show off the best of IL2 and hide the worst.
Then a few filters in post production to remove thr "gamey" look. Things like reducing the saturation, adjusting brightness/contrast, colour balance. Sometimes even a little gaussian blur can make it look more real.
As for the shooting, you should see my attempts flying online, lol. Doing it in the movies is easy
I'll leave advice on the finer details to the aces, and probably in another thread.