Backs Director in Court : Worker Says Landis Held Scene Meetings

A lighting technician corroborated defendant John Landis’ testimony in the “Twilight Zone” manslaughter trial, telling jurors that every scene in the film was preceded by a meeting and a rehearsal.

Alan Goldenhar, who was gaffer on the ill-fated 1982 movie, was called by the defense Wednesday to undermine a prosecution theory that poor coordination contributed to an accident in which three died.

Landis, director of “Twilight Zone: The Movie,” has portrayed the film as carefully planned and rehearsed.

He and four associates are charged with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of actor Vic Morrow, 53; Myca Le, 7, and Renee Chen, 6. The other defendants are producer George Folsey, production manager Dan Allingham, special-effects supervisor Paul Stewart and helicopter pilot Dorcey Wingo.

Goldenhar, who lit the film set the night that Morrow and the children were killed, said Landis first gathered crew members for a “setup” meeting to discuss how the scene would be shot.

Goldenhar explained that a setup is held because “it’s necessary to find out what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it.”

Asked by defense attorney James Sanders to tell the jury what Landis said during the meeting, Goldenhar said: “He was discussing what the next shot would be; that this was the grand finale scene. There would be explosions. The helicopter would be in it.”

Goldenhar noted that when explosions actually went off, they were in a different location than had been planned.

He said he had understood that the helicopter would be “well clear” by the time the explosions were detonated.

Morrow and the children were killed when the helicopter, flying through special-effects explosions, crashed on top of them.