Golden Parachute Part 1 of 3

This is a short film that my friends and I made in high school. It was our first real production. Looking back it is very cheesy and over the top, but we had allot of fun making it and did a great job given are level of experience.

The film is based on the true story of the infamous hijacking of Northwest Orient Flight 305 on November 24, 1971 by "D.B. Cooper." Cooper boarded the flight from Portland, Oregon to Seattle on Thanksgiving carrying a bomb in a briefcase. He demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in 20 dollar bills.

After his demands were met, he released the passengers and one of the flight attendants and ordered the crew to fly the plane to Mexico City. After sending the remaining flight attendant to the cockpit, he took his bomb and his money, and used one set of parachutes to jump out the rear air stairs of the plane, somewhere over Southwest Washington state.

The serial numbers of his money was recorded, but has never appeared in circulation. In 1980 an 8 year old boy found approximately $5,000 of the ransom money on the shores of the Columbia River.

Dan Cooper was never seen or heard from again. His real name and identify have never been discovered. His crime, codenamed "Norjak," has never been solved.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• db cooper
• dan cooper
• norjak
• flight 305
• hijacking
• vancouver
• portland
• seatac
• vsaa

[Ay2har]

What editing system did you use back then. This is PICTURE PERFECT quality, like an 80's film! What grade did you get?

[matthewpfingsten]

@Ay2har We rough cut the movie with Casablanca system. It was an early NLE system that was kind of a low-cost, set top box affair.

If memory serves it couldn't bring in all the footage at full resolution so we sort of did a "conform" using a Panasonic SVHS deck to deck system. Transitions were done with a Videonics MX-1 switcher, titles with the TitleMaker 2000. I think we brought the cheesy royalty free music in via a CD player hooked into a little 8 pod Shure mixer.

[VonSchrader8842]

How and when did you film this???? Cause I fing it very hard to understand how the hell you were able to film in an airport thise day in age?

[matthewpfingsten]

@VonSchrader8842 We shot it in the fall of 1998. The stuff in the terminal was no big deal as we just had a Hi8 handycam and one actor, and it was a weekday. The stuff on the tarmac we called and got permission and were escorted around by airport employees.

The airplane interior was not in a decommissioned 727 that was owned by a man named Bruce Campbell (not the actor) who was converting it into his house.

[jmmurdy]

Nice video I hope you guys a got good grades for this.

[VonSchrader8842]

Never then less, great job with the movie!:)