SilverWook said:

MaximRecoil said:

That's awesome that they are building real props to represent ships. I've seen a lot of CGI airplanes and helicopters in Hollywood movies lately, and they are just ordinary, real world aircraft that they wouldn't have even had to build in order to film them for real.

It is the height of laziness when you have a big Hollywood budget and you CGI something (or more likely, just grab a pre-existing CGI model from a hard drive) that exists in the real world.

On relatively low budget TV shows from the '80s they filmed real aircraft (e.g., Airwolf, Magnum, P.I., and many others), yet certain big Hollywood productions today can't be bothered to rent or otherwise acquire an airplane or helicopter and point a camera at it?

Miniature remote controlled aircraft figured into many of those productions.

And Airwolf was hardly a low budget show, at least not until it's awful last season shot on the cheap in Canada. That copter was expensive to fly, and stock footage was run into the ground towards the end, along with some of the worst model shots outside an Ed Wood film.

All TV shows are very low budget compared to a typical theatrical release Hollywood movie, which is why I said "relatively low budget". There were quite a few aircraft scenes in Magnum, P.I. (mostly T.C.'s helicopter, but also helicopters and planes in Vietnam flashback scenes, all real). Even one scene showing real aircraft flying is more than some Hollywood movies today are willing to bother with.

For a Hollywood movie to use CGI helicopters and airplanes is lazy, cheap, and it looks bad. The first time I remember seeing it was in "Big Trouble" (2002, $40,000,000 budget); a pair of CGI fighter jets, and I've seen it in an increasing number of movies since then.

Scenes of real aircraft are common as dirt throughout movie and TV history. How long before they make a habit of using CGI cars for car chases?