Peter Schnall Air Force One producer/director/cinematographer
Six-time Emmy Award-winner Peter Schnall, president and executive producer of Partisan Pictures, became interested in filming aboard Air Force One when his co-producer, Mark Wexler, first came to him with the idea seven years ago.
In fall 2000, Schnall led his film crew onboard the “flying White House,” where they had unprecedented access to the jet’s passengers and crew.
Q. What is it like to fly on Air Force One, as both a filmmaker and a private
citizen?
A: In this crazy film world of ours, we get to do some wacky things, like travel to the
Amazon or journey to faraway places, particularly on stories for National
Geographic. But to actually imagine that I would one day fly onboard Air Force One with the President of the United States was way beyond my wildest dreams. It has got to be one of the coolest things I have ever done.
There is no comparison between a regular 747 and Air Force One. It is a plane unto itself, which is what makes it so amazing and so unique. It is the President’s Oval Office in the sky, and is often referred to as the “flying White House,” but it’s more than that to the President.
It’s a place where he is on his own. Aboard, he can relax and sleep in his own bedroom quarters. He has an office. He has a conference room. It is a place where he can do what he wants, and he is not bothered by the press or by his own staff. It’s his own private place, and that’s what presidents look forward to when they take these flights.
Q: Was your access to the plane limited in any way? Were you allowed to see the
plane’s cutting edge defense capabilities and communications systems?
A: As you can imagine, the security is pretty ferocious on Air Force One. And yet, we
were allowed to see things that nobody else has seen and were allowed to film
things that nobody else has ever filmed. As in such situations, things are still kept secret and classified—for the right reasons.
Technologically, Air Force One is a marvel. It has an entire communications center
in the top part of the plane, in what normally would be a first class section in a commercial 747. There are other things on its exterior and scattered throughout the plane that the Air Force likes to keep top secret, and that’s what makes it different from any other 747.
During our in-flight shoot with the Clinton administration, we filmed all throughout the plane, including the cockpit. We had a marvelous opportunity to shadow President Clinton and interview him while he was working on the plane. Just recently we did the same thing with President George W. Bush. And nobody has ever done that.
Q: How big is the plane? What are the passenger accommodations like?
A: Well, it is a 747. It’s big. It’s as high as a five-story building and as long as a city block, yet it is a Boeing 747 that only can carry 70 people, versus the 250 people that fit into a commercial 747. Also, it has lovely, comfortable seats, each with a desk so that you can work. Or, you can sleep or watch TV or listen to music.
Besides the presidential living and working quarters, other areas are divided into sections for staff, security, VIPs, and members of the press. Passengers are not allowed to move forward within the plane. If the President wants to speak to a passenger or member of the press, he will bring them to his office, or more likely than that, he will walk back to them and talk to them.
Q: Your film seamlessly weaves together both the plane’s past, its history, and its
present, a modern day mission. How did that approach come about?
A: You cannot tell the story of Air Force One unless you tell its history. Air Force One is
so much a part of the American Presidency. It brought the President to places where
he normally never would have been able to go to. For the obvious and most
mundane reason that, before there was a jet plane, he couldn’t get there.
And Air Force One, in all its magnificence and in all its glory, was, and is, the vehicle
by which the President can bring his policies and the American ideals to places
where he had never been before, like China, where no President had ever been until
Nixon journeyed there. Kennedy flew across a divided Berlin, landing in West Berlin
to call for the end of the Berlin Wall.
That tradition has continued over the past 50 years of Air Force One’s existence. It’s
not that the plane itself does anything more than transport the President, but it is
such a powerful symbol of America. Presidents use it for that, and they use it very
well.
Q: Were you surprised by the sheer scope and number of people and planning
involved in the mission you went on?
A: All the planning and coordination boggles the mind. Most of it is done for security
reasons, but it is also done so that the President gets to his destination on time and
can then leave when he wants. You don’t want him standing on line at the check-in
counter. You don’t want his plane waiting to take off at some crowded airport. You
don’t want him taking a taxi when he lands. I mean, he is the President of the
United States.
The same coordination is undertaken every time. It doesn’t matter where he flies.
The transporting of the President from one place to another is a military operation. It
requires not just his normal staff, the Secret Service and armed forces, but it also
requires that when he lands, he has his bulletproof limo, the Secret Service has their
vehicles, and so on. The Air Force transports the White House and all its trappings
from each place to the next.
Q: What was it like interviewing a host of former Presidents, some of the most
important men in the world?
A: Interviewing a former President is a real privilege, but it’s also a lot of fun, because
they can talk about things that when they were President they really couldn’t. They
can talk reflectively and passionately, and about things they miss. In particular,
Jimmy Carter, who is a lovely and incredibly intelligent man, surprised me with some
of the things he said.
You don’t think of Jimmy Carter dancing in the aisles, letting his hair down and
popping in a Bob Dylan tape as he travels halfway around the world. That was a
lovely experience for me, going down to Atlanta to interview him.
Q: The former Presidents all seem to have very fond memories of Air Force One.
A: They do. The plane, to them, really represents a place where they can be
themselves, relax and get away from [the demands of] the White House and the
Oval Office.
Former President Bush would sometimes go to Andrews Air Force Base the night
before the flight, get on board, go to sleep on the airplane, and wake up in the air.
You [also] get a sense of the freedom the President feels onboard by working
around the people who maintain and care for the plane. They are the most dedicated people, and the most relaxed military people, you will ever meet. They have a mission and a job to do, and they do it well. They love what they do, and they absolutely love the plane.
Q: Does the crew feel the sense of historical significance and power that the
image of Air Force One conveys for the rest of us?
A: To [the crew], it’s a job, although an important one. And yes, it’s the safest plane in
the world, and yes, it’s the most famous plane in the world, and yes, they’re flying
the President of the United States, but as Pilot Danny Barr said so beautifully in our
film, “When people ask me how does it feel to fly the President, I say to them if I can
get home to my wife and kids, then I know I’m going to get the President home
safely, as well.” And that’s what it’s all about.
What I find interesting in historical films is not just the retelling of what everybody
knows, but the history as told through those who witnessed it, those who
experienced it. That’s what we tried to do in this show. We tried to retell Air Force
One’s history through those who experienced it firsthand.
Q: You’ve been on boats, looking for shipwrecks, traveled down the Zaire and
Volga Rivers, and filmed on Sunset Boulevard. How was this film different for
you as a filmmaker?
A: This is one of those experiences that I will never forget. This is a journey that
filmmakers, producers, and the average citizen just dreams about—getting
onboard Air Force One and flying with the President of the United States across the country.
It just doesn’t happen very often. I feel incredibly honored and privileged. It’s
something I’ll never forget. It’s also very hard to fly in a plane ever since that flight.
