All right... story time..
2010 and helping out in what was to become our largest national Airsoft event.
Being slightly artsy-fartsy I decide to make two promotional videos. Easier said than done.
Disclaimer: This is all about an airsoft event. None of this stuff is real. All weapons depicted are harmless airsoft replicas, all participants were of legal age, and so on. The action takes place into a parallel universe, all semblance to real world factions is unintentional, blah, blah, blah
SERIOUSLY. I mean it.
/disclaimerNeither one of us had acted before, and we had zero experience with cameras and whatsoever.
The story of both videos is quite simple. The army leaders of the two battling factions seek the spiritual leaders (A light-sided Prophet and a dark-sided Bishop) to acquire power.
We had borrowed a camera from a friend, got together some fancy clothing, we trespassed on private property (a stone quarry) and got to work.
Representing the first faction, the "good guys", the defenders, the ones that get invaded...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U50ghbW1F1QThe camera guy's hands were trembling so hard I had to stretch out pieces of 1 or 2 seconds while editing the clip - those being the only usable parts.
Also, until that day I've never touched any editing software in my life.
We shot the whole thing in 20 minutes, then the owner of the stone quarry came riding a motorcycle, all clad in leather, threatened to sue and threw us out.
I edited the whole clip in the next 24 hours, yes, while searching for royalty-free music, and learning how to use Sony Vegas at the same time.
All things considering, it turned out quite decent.
Now we had to do the same thing for the bad guys.
We scouted out some old abandoned AA turret at the outskirts of the city.
This time I filmed it all myself, with a few exceptions. Turned out my hands were a bit steadier.
So, we start shooting the darned thing. While filming the "running and securing the perimeter" with the troops, I slipped and faceplanted into the mud, all while managing to hold the borrowed camera out of harm's way.
Of course, things got all messed up. We were filming after a long day's work, and the "Commander" and his crew arrived after the sunset. They somehow managed to lock their car keys inside one of the cars. Great.
So, I admit, I had to ... erm... borrow the day-to-night transition from one of the Gods: Romero himself. I just hope he'll find the heart to forgive one of his greatest fans. As sort of a tribute, I included him in my clip.
Anyways.
The commander arrives late. He
was supposed to be escorted by the tactical guys, but that was no longer possible, seeing they had already secured the perimeter.
So. One of my best buddies, and our designated driver grabs an M4, puts a skull-jaw scarf on his face and joins the fun as an "extra".
I put the camera on the tripod, grab my shotgun and join the photo shoot.
So, the Commander gets escorted by us two. Later, in the game, the "Shock-troops" got skull-faced bandanas and the 2 engineers in the game played in back coveralls and used shotguns, to stay faithful to the movie.
As we are nearing the end of our movie, we decide to use the remaining gasoline in our torches to draw the triple-cross on the floor and set it ablaze.
Great!
Also, being underground we almost choked to death. But hey, all is fair in art and war?!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ff0uIE4rccWhile everyone was packing, I decide to take one last frame, for the clip's ending.
The one with the running alongside the candles, and then panning up on the flag/weapons.
I do the running shot. I'm getting near the flag, I kneel to take a low shot. I bang my knee so hard, and so loud on the concrete that everyone got silent for a second.
I limp my way home.
I packed my knee in ice and got to editing the clip the same night. I'm just about done in the morning, all in time to get to work.
In 2011, second edition of the event....
I got so busy at work that I couldn't help the guys, and missed the event.
However, I could not let it slide just like that.
We gather all our toys, meet at an apartment owned by one of us, and in 20 minutes we come up with a script, I shoot the thing with a photo camera (we didn't manage to borrow a real camera this time) and edit it all during the subway ride home.
We couldn't do it all serious and heroic this time, so we aimed for short, simple, humorous.
Obviously, being a zombie movie lover, I had to slip a few easter eggs into this one as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtLBrXc9Xzc
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Topic: Random Things you drew/shopped/made/etc. (Read 1352788 times)