FilmSkool — a free film school
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Directed by Steven Spielberg · Shot by Allen Daviau · Cut by Michael Kahn · Music by John Williams · 152 min
How it was made
- After a year of negotiations, the production became the first American film to shoot in Shanghai since the 1940s, using more than 5,000 local extras and members of the People's Liberation Army cast as Japanese soldiers.
- Four Harvard SNJ trainer aircraft were modified in France to double as Mitsubishi Zeros, and three restored P-51 Mustangs flown by pilot Ray Hanna took over ten days to film dropping plaster-filled replica bombs with simulated blasts at low altitude.
- Spielberg tested large-scale remote-control aircraft models, including one B-29 with an 18-foot wingspan, but found the results unconvincing and extended the contract for full-size planes and pilots instead.
- Industrial Light & Magic handled the film's visual effects, including early computer-generated imagery used for the sequence depicting the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
Elsewhere
More by Steven Spielberg
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.