Vintage/Analog 747 Cockpit design for a movie set - purely fake/superficial design

[mliva1031]

Hey guys,

I've been tasked with designing an analog commerical airline cockpit (i.e. 747, though exact model is unspecified) with a rear nav station for a very small independent movie. The story takes place in 1974 and therefore the entire unit should be vintage/analog, if possible. Now for the hard part: I have about 4 weeks & $3k to design a superficial set that only needs to LOOK authentic.

Again, it's merely a fabrication-- a shell of a cockpit that looks good enough to fool (very critical & intelligent) audiences. I don't need working gauges, needles or simulators (we can green-screen FX those in post production, I'm told), though it would be great if we could have the ability to backlight some/all of the gauges (or if you have easy/cheap ideas for creating gauges that one can manipulate, I'm all ears!).

Particularly, I'm looking for advice on faking seats, steering wheels, yokes and wall textures-- as well as finding matching sets of vintage gauges.  I realize it's a tall order on such a budget and time constraint...

The exact dimensions we will likely fiddle with to compensate for camera men/lighting, etc, but do you guys have any advice on how to fake or where to find accurate-looking gauges and wall textures, etc? We're looking for the cheapest options possible but it will be the highest definition photography, so painted cardboard may appear to be no more than just that, unfortunately. 

Any and all advice would be EXTREMELY helpful. I really appreciate you guys taking a look at this. I truly admire that great amount of detailed information many of you have already posted on this site!

Thank you so much for your time!

Matt

[ShaneG_old]

You may want to take a look at JBarymore's homemade cockpit threads, where he provides excellent pics on how he did it.

http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaB ... 1083057764

You of course probably won't have to worry about most of the electronic wizardry he employees, but I'm sure his construction techniques will be helpful.

Also, check the site : Airliners.net to find all the pics you will ever need of a vintage 747 cockpit.

Hope this helps some, feel free to ask any other questions you may have,and best of luck.

[JBaymore]

Thanks for the vote of confidence there Shane, but I've worked on some movie sets/shoots in the past........ and with the description Matt gives above...... my setup won't pass the test even on a long shot.

Matt.... if you really mean the "fool the highly critical eye" comment above,..... it is certainly doable... but you probably want to add a zero to the budget figure you quoted.

Get your set designer looking at cockpits on Airliners.net.

There are suppliers of all of that kind of fake aircraft panels and guages and such ........perfect copies...... ....and you could have much of what you need shipped almost overnight..... BUT it is going to cost you.

[mliva1031]

I realize what a creative challenge this is; but this is all very helpful information. Thank you for these suggestions. The passion and detail you guys put in your work is inspiring!

[beaky]

For $3K you might be better off finding a mothballed 747 you can rent or get permission to use where it is, or at least the nose from one.

[RaptorF22]

What rottydaddy said, also check out eBay and eBay Motors. They always have a bunch of old parts(gauges, switches, etc.).

Getting a mothballed 747 would be a good solution, but they are not something you can get at your local HomeDepot.
You need to go to a "airplane graveyard" to get one of them, and they're not always in the best shape.