Crew 19

This was the video documentary I created while in grad school at Mississippi State University in 2001. I was working on my MFA in Electronic Visualization, with a multimedia emphasis. It documents the experience of my relative Johnny Butler (my paternal grandmother's 1st cousin) and his crew mate, Flight Engineer Howard "Joe Turlington, with the 384th Bomb Group, 547th Bomb Squadron. They were shot down over France aboard B-17F 42-5849 "Hell's Belles II", and both managed to evade capture. I had hoped to interview all 7 survivors, but time and money dictated otherwise. I was inspired by the Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War and the PBS documentary "They Drew Fire."
I did this on the shoestring budget of a college student...meaning nothing more than student loans. With much local assistance, we organized and held an airshow in Starkville, MS on Memorial Day 2001 and brought in the Lone Star Flight Museum's B-17 "Thunderbird" and were able to shoot some scenes with it, including cameos featuring Dwayne O'Brien, member of multi-platinum country music act "Little Texas."
There is so much I would re-do, or do differently...this was all shot on tape, before the big switch to digital cameras that I couldn't afford back then. The audio is spotty in places...there are some inaccuracies, some shots and sequences could have been done better, and I've learned so much more historically since then. It was an honest effort at documenting and telling their story, and Keeping The Show on the Road."