Chapter 297: Nosy November

Of course, mingling around with cast members and profiling them isn't the only thing to be done in this production excursion.

This was a film production set and there were plenty of production matters for Alexander to sink his interest into.

He had done this with most of the Back to the Future set visitation but the Top Gun film was much more of interest to him.

Back to the Future was all about manipulating a studio set or pre-existing locations to fit the bill.

Top Gun, on the other hand, is all about real army men and real locations, and very real jet flights. There is floundering here and there but it is much more grounded compared to BttF.

Anyways, here in San Diego, Alexander had been able to sightsee and truly visit places that would become quite iconic due to the aviation film's popularity.

For example, there is the blue-painted beach house, namely 102 North Pacific Street in Oceanside, wherein Charlie resides.

Alexander wasn't sure but at some point, this whole beach-side neighborhood would actually be torn down and this blue beach house would be the only one left standing or moved around due to its "historical" value.

It must have been quite a pain for the developers to come across this kind of Hollywood sentimentality. With Alexander seeing the filming full-on, the house wasn't really anything special but it would seem that sentimentality just happens to transform a non-special thing.

After that, he had been to the bar where the group serenade and ladies' room barging has happened. It was only a quick visit to the nearby Officer's Club and someplace called Lafayette Hotel. Filming had already been wrapped for those scenes but this was where Old Sullivan booked them rooms to stay on... so it worked out in a way.

Alexander was even at that restaurant where Maverick goes for the non-piloting scenes and the scene where young Meg Ryan was finally needed.

This was the Kansas City Barbeque restaurant in Marina, San Diego. This would come to be known as the "Top Gun bar" and would become a considerable hotspot. The food was somewhat good and it could at least be considered whenever he was back in San Diego for Comic-Con.

There were other filming locations but none could really compare to the USS Enterprise. It was too bad that Alexander wasn't able to go.

It was restricted to only a few people and the filming schedule didn't really coincide with his November visitation.

Of course, there were also the unsung USS Ranger and USS Carl Vinson. Any of those two was not any less than the Enterprise but being constricted with child limitations is something he can't get around yet.

Anyways, Base Miramar was a sight in itself, with the real TOPGUN school and all the naval machinery. The F-14 Tomcat fighter squadron VF-51 "Screaming Eagles" was available for the filmmakers to shoot the aerial footage

Alexander had to admit that the jets were truly impressive sights to see up close. Adrenalinist Tom's fascination with them had merit. It could have even been better if the jet flights were filmed here in Miramar, but that had to be done in Nevada due to that state's open-field deserts.

These were the jet planes that were the crux of the whole film and the crux as to why it was important to have Reagan, the Pentagon, and the Navy's support.

A movie does not have to be a love letter to the military for the Pentagon to cooperate, however it does need to uphold the integrity of the military.

Well, as it turns out, a misunderstood support to Reaganism also works. As it turns out, aside from BttF, Watchmen with Nixon's continued presidency that led to dystopia actually appealed to Reagan as well.

With that weird "blessing", renting these multi-million, rocket-blazing aircraft was given a discount. Only the jet fuels were all that Creed Pictures had to pay for.

Of course, that would still drive up the film budget to 15 million dollars but that kind of money was something that the Creeds and sponsorships like Ray-ban could afford.

There was even the bonus of being able to waste one missile. With only one being allowed, that proved to be a problem for Hollywood filming practices where just one scene had to have multiple takes.

It was even more problematic when you consider that a lot of missile firing had to be done for the dogfighting and the aerial battle finale.

Speaking of aerial battles and dogfights, the cameras and shots really had to take in a lot of it for a more effective feel to it.

It was mostly splicing in the editing process though but hopefully, it would be smooth and understandable as it can be.

This was still the 80s and computerized visual effects aren't that ubiquitous as of yet. Ingenius clippings and segways of flying jets had to be done for the story to be understood by the audience.

With all this importance on flight recordings and shots, Alexander remember that specific flight accident and he had to look out for that Arthur Scholl fella.

Although in-film, it was "Goose" that died from their plane being dragged into an inverted tailspin, it was the Arthur Scholl fella that truly died in real life.

As of yet, the incident hadn't happened yet but Alexander didn't know whether he can save the stunt pilot from his supposed doom or not.

Of course, it didn't hurt to try.

Compared to Milla Jovovich and Cocky Cox's altered career paths, this save-a-life thing feels even more interesting for him to do.

This was no "different life and career track" scenario but bordering true life and eventual death. His Chaos Butterfly status was going to be really tested and although he may seem like playing with the life of a man... at least he was actively trying to save it.

Either way, Alexander was seeing things from a different perspective than others and how fun it was to poke his nose at a lot of things. He even wanted to poke around the music production with his advancing S'mores band strategy but Giorgio Moroder, Berlin, and Kenny Loggins weren't hired yet.

Of course, he requested his grandfather to have B-rolled recordings that had his specialized helmets in it. After all, one can never go wrong with prepared B-rolls and Top Gun seem to be fueled by it.

Most production curiosities had pretty much been covered with that. The more he prolonged his stay, the more he had a comprehensive idea of all of it.

In fact, as he played his part in this production procedure, he finally found something as a moniker for this month.

Nosy November.

This was really on the nose but it felt apt with all that he's been doing.