One of the great privileges with a factual broadcast project is to meet and interview the pioneers of our generation, particularly in fields of such specialisation that our paths would not cross in many lifetimes. One such project is “How we invented the World” for Discovery, for which I Directed two episodes on Planes and Guns. A' heady' title which, mainly due to the lavish drama and CGI elements, was said to be the most expensive series that Discovery had ever commissioned.
One of the contributors was a bit of a hero of mine - aerodynamicist Burt Rutan. At a time when most of us were fumbling with Lego, he was building flying model aeroplanes. He honed such a mathematical knowledge of aerodynamics, that he was soon able to simply set about building aircraft that flew beautifully and broke records without sitting down and 'designing' it by putting pen to paper. He is simply a 'doer', he doesn't do small talk, or concern himself with fiction and he ran his business only affording meetings to be standing only for a maximum duration of 7 minutes.
From embarking on his career as we landed on the moon, Burt is now enabling us all to go into space with the design of Virgin Galactic. He also pioneered the use of composites in the 1960's, personally demonstrating how simple the process was to homebuilders of his kit planes and was the first to use winglets, again in the 1960's.
Now in retirement, Burt is embarking upon yet another incredible project which he was gracious enough to tease us with, but that story is sadly not mine to tell. He also has a policy of not talking about projects until they are delivered and proven.
A story I can tell however, is of ex- British Army sniper Frank Fletcher and Accuracy International, a company that specialises in manufacturing sniper rifles and featured in the episode on Guns. This is a subject about which I truly knew nothing previously and perhaps why I found this shoot so engaging.
The result of Accuracy Internationals precision engineering is quite astounding, and frankly frightening. In theatre they have delivered target accuracy at 1500m, (1.5miles), the entire length of Oxford Street, from Marble Arch to Holborn.
To illustrate this on television is quite tricky as it all happens so fast. However, despite the bullet travelling at over twice the speed of sound it still takes 2.5 seconds to reach its' target and I decided to attempt to capture a shot for real at the maximum distance.
As you will understand, there are precious few locations where won can legally take shots of this distance in the UK, but we found one in Wales that gave us just under 1000m. We're still talking Marble Arch to Centre Point here, so watch out.
As you may already know, snipers work in teams with a spotter who together work out the maths of the shot, taking into account the windspeed, distance and even earth rotation I'm told. No sooner had they worked this out, which barely took a few breaths, Frank was ready to take his shot.
The target we had set was a simple piece of white steel measuring 18” square, with a central ring roughly the size of a grapefruit and this was only just visible to the naked eye.
One breath held, the trigger was squeezed and the very first shot hit within the central ring.
This was truly astonishing, but what made it a running joke of the series was a subsequent indoor range shoot we did in Washington with an ex-US army shooter. I won't give you his name but, he had a current assault rifle and was unable to hit a target from just 1m. I have to impart the fact that he did bear an uncanny resemblance to our Winter Olympic mascot Eddy the Eagle in the glasses department, so quite why we given him on our Risk Assesment remains a mystery – he was supposed to be a sharp shooter.
I should add that following the 911 call the DoP did only require 12 stitches and once we man handled him to point in the right direction he did indeed hit the target, the fact that it was a target on a range in the next neighbourhood he maintains is down to his prowess, but we decided not to argue that one and retreated quietly.
"How We Invented The World"
Discovery
Chris Hook, Director