Chiropractor backs World War I film
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

If you want to find your way to Hollywood stardom, you may want to start with a backache.

Local chiropractor Brad Batchelor’s passion for both flying and movies has found a match made in heaven in his new project. Batchelor is in the midst of filming his new movie, “Against The Wind,” under his Flying Scotsman Productions shingle.

He’s made three trips to Costa Rica and has also shot some scenes at his farm in the Boone area. Recent shoots have been held at Marion’s Shiflet Field, a private airport where Batchelor bought a hangar to serve as a set and house the World War I-replica biplane he’s using in the movie.

While Batchelor is a little guarded about the script, he said “Against The Wind” is set in the early 1900s and contains some elements of World War I, including trench warfare and the golden days of gentlemen’s duels in the sky, when pilots would salute one another before engaging in aerial dogfights.

Sunday’s scenes were shot in the hangar, with Marion serving as France, where the Flying Esquadrille was a hodgepodge of pilots from different nationalities and had a reputation of being unconventional and daring.

Batchelor has also tapped some local talent, making a number of connections through his chiropractic business and his previous movies. Lou Brancourt, who lives in Boone and is a French teacher and soccer coach at Avery High School, said he was approached by a client friend of Batchelor’s when she learned the movie needed a native Frenchman.

Brancourt, who describes himself as a “French redneck,” plays Capt. Thenault. He’d been in an earlier shoot at the airport and said he’d been interested in acting before finding out about the movie. Now he’s thinking of taking it more seriously.

He spent some time rehearsing his lines and showed up on the set early to practice with the other actors. “I repeated the lines a lot, and I wrote them down,” he said.

Jim Schaller, a local jazz musician who also owns Dove Carpet Cleaning, said he likes to diversify to keep life interesting. He plays a corporal in the movie and his own name is the character’s name. It’s his first acting gig.

Actor David Lorczak of Charlotte met Batchelor at a chiropractic school and was talked into playing an aviator in the movie.

Andrew DeRiso has some acting credits already, making appearances in “Shallow Hal” and “Talladega Nights.”

“Brad called me up and said he had a small part for me in this new movie,” DeRiso said. “It turned out to be three weeks.”

DeRiso said he’s developed his acting career for years while working as a bartender and Realtor. “I’ve been in the restaurant business for 20 years,” he said. “It’s the only way you can afford to be an actor.”

Craig “C.J.” Wood is serving as assistant director, cinematographer, and jack of all trades, and was also a soldier in a muddy trench warfare scene shot in Boone. “This is my first time with a movie,” he said. “I’ve dabbled in it before, but here I do whatever we need.”

That included serving as second-unit director, operating the camera from the bed of a moving pick-up truck that rolled alongside Batchelor as his biplane took off from the grassy airstrip.

Batchelor plans to use different takes, combined with stock footage, to create the effect of a squadron of planes.

Betty Kinzler of Blowing Rock is a client of Batchelor’s practice and was talking with him about her work at an antique mall. Batchelor told her about the movie and asked if she could round up some World War I props and uniforms for him.

“I found them in Alabama, Texas and even right here in Boone,” she said. “It’s been fun finding all these two-way radios, boots and helmets.”

Kinzler got so excited about the project she even became interested in computers and learned the Internet’s power as a research tool. “It’s an adventure,” she said. “About half of the equipment is authentic and the other half is replica. A lot of stuff from World War I has disintegrated.”

She became involved enough that Batchelor brought her on board as costume designer for the trench and airport scenes. Her job is to make sure the actors have the right uniforms, sometimes even making them swap clothes between shots if a certain wardrobe item is in short supply

Sunday’s scenes covered nearly 20 pages of script, in which Esquadrille pilots are hanging out at a hangar between missions. Proof that nepotism is as valid a doorway to Hollywood as any, Batchelor’s brother, Dan Batchelor, plays a reckless, drunken pilot who lands in fog and is relieved of duties. Other scenes include a group of pilots gathering at the bar and Capt. Thenault ordering a clerk to round up pilots.

Batchelor even recruited me for the movie, since I was going to be on the set writing this article. He put me in a “Rocky The Flying Squirrel” cap and leather jacket, then has me entering the hangar in a couple of establishing shots. He had me shave for my role as “Cpl. Scott Nichols.” Unlike my appearance in “A Tale About Bootlegging,” where I was a hillbilly in a crowd scene, I get some “solo face time” in this one,

assuming I don’t end up on the cutting room floor along with my beard. He has also promised me a few lines for my next set visit.

Batchelor expects the movie to be released next year, and he’s already in preproduction for his next movie, “Vengeance.” Its log line is “The sins of the father are visited upon the son.”

“A Tale About Bootlegging” stars Sonny Shroyer, best known as Deputy Enos on the “Dukes of Hazzard” TV show and also features Randy Jones, best known as the cowboy from the pop group The Village People.

While Batchelor has a passion for the roles of director and producer, he’s no stranger to the front of the lens, appearing in both his movies. He’s also had parts in “The Patriot,” “Miami Vice,” “Grave Dancers,” and “Tolerance.”

One of his frequent sayings is “Don’t look at the camera.” His most common directorial command, however, is delivered with a calm optimism: “Just act natural.”