Checkertail Movie - Part 1. Release at end of October. Info below

[Mysticpuma]

Okay here goes.

In 2007 I finished making "Not my time to die!" and settled back to enjoy my hobby of IL2.

About a Month later "Monguse" who is very into the B-25's in the MTO, says "By the way, have you ever heard of "The Checkertail Clan"?"............and since then my life has not had barely any breathing space.

In a nutshell, I decided to make a short 10-minute action sequence of the 325th, a typical IL2 flick, well that changed once I got in-touch with Art Fiedler a P-51 Ace who flew with the 325th "Checkertail Clan".

Since then I have spoken with many friends, family, crew and Pilots of the 325th including Art Fiedler, Barrie Davis, Jerry Edwards, Jack Sherburne, Frank Mertely, Ken Rusher and Frank Bolek.

These have been interviewed on tape and I have managed to gather approx 1300 images (approx 50% never-before seen) along with Colour WW2 Footage of the 325th P-51's and p-47's in action.

I have steadily edited together original 325th footage, WW2 archive footage, pilot interviews and photos along with recreated battle-sequences using IL2.

On September 25th 2010 I will be attending (by invite) the 65th Reunion of the "Checkertail Clan" and showing Part 1 of "Checkertails" to Pilots, crews, family and friends in Washington DC.

The footage is complete except for the Narration, which is currently being prepared for me by Gary Bullock:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0120147/

and should be back to me next-week. Gary has been a legend in his help, as he is used to Scripts and trimmed and chopped away un-needed verbiage that slowed the film down and his voice carry's great authority and is perfect for this project.
I am currently putting together the Titles and that's it gents, Part 1, running for approx 1 hour and 25 minutes will then be released onto the internet after I return from Washington.

This is all free, so you will, if interested, be able to download Part 1 as an .avi file or as a DVD image, whichever you choose. I am not into DVD authoring, so I am currently trying to work out how to add an 'extras' section to the DVD so I can put a few extra clips in there, but that's something for later.

Once this is done, I then start the larger Part 2 (Running-time approx 2-Hours), which details the p-51 era solely.

It will have more Pilot interview footage as most of the surviving pilots flew P-51's and have reams of tales, but alongside that there will be battle recreations of the P-51's including Gordon McDaniel's '5-in-a-day!', Art Fiedler's Ace-making victory and Barrie Davis's pure luck when he survived a direct hit to the canopy of his P-51, which knocked him out during Operation Frantic in Russia. He woke up about 10-minutes later flying nice and level at 23000 feet and his feet were frozen after walking through damp grass on the way to the aircraft that morning.

All these stories and more, plus the history will be covered and this should be ready for next September and will complete the story.

Part 2 will be quicker to create than Part 1 as I have the research and script already done as I progressed through the research of the Unit.

My only regret is that as a single guy researching the 325th, I just didn't have time to identify every Axis unit they fought against on these missions, so in a lot of recreations, I have had to use generic markings. That is a sad situation, but hand-on-heart I am doing this for 'fun' and as a hobby, and the story is about the 325th. My apologies way in advance for anyone I may offend with an incorrectly marked aircraft on the Axis side....but I have tried.


It's been a journey (a true journey) as I have traveled to California, Boston, Florida, California again to interview these pilots and gather information.

So, in October Part 1 will hit the internet. Ultimately it's been a real Roller coaster Ride, but in October you'll get to see the first part.

Cheers, MP

[WTE_Galway]

I look forward to it

[Bloblast]

End of October?
Much too busy playing BOB.

[Feuerfalke]

Sounds great!

[julian265]

Can't wait!

[rakinroll]

Keep goin Mp, i love your movies even reds wins.