Absolutely! Our own little Industrial Light and Magic man.Originally posted by MrVH:
Might as well chuck me into the mix somewhere if ya need any more.![]()
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BA, it's probably safe to say if you want the job of music man, it will be yours. Of course, if there are any more musicians out there who are interested, let us know. 'The Last of the Mohicans' had two composers and resulted in one of the best soundtracks I've heard, so it's possible to have more than one cook without spoiling the broth.![]()
I wasn't sure if this would generate much interest, but it's great to see many of the old hands getting involved. Hopefully this will be the first of many collaborative projects.
Ntesla, I take it that was a "count me in"?![]()
BA, I think it would be great if you used music of your own creation. That would really help set this project apart from earlier films and make it a true product of the community. We don't expect Hans Zimmer quality. Just something very, very close. (j/k)Originally posted by RAF-Blackace:
I have more than enough audio software to cope and i would be deeply honoured to do the score.
Not my music of course but whatever the rest decide we use.![]()
A few thoughts…
All the enthusiasm in the world will do us no good if we don't have a decent story to make into a movie, so anyone involved in the project is welcome to submit a story idea. The role of screenwriter should be retained by the person whose story gets chosen for this project. That is unless the author would rather delegate that task to someone else. But I suspect whoever's idea is selected will most likely want to be the one to write up the final screenplay. That means, potentially, any of us could wind up in the role of screenwriter depending on who the group picks.
Writing a screenplay may be new to some of you who are used to creating films on your own. It doesn’t need to be anything terribly fancy. The screenplay should paint a picture of each scene, describe the action that takes place, list the characters involved and any dialogue they have. It can have camera directions for the director and any other instructions you want to convey to the group. It will be the roadmap for the other members of the group.
Once a story has been selected, it will be the job of the author to write up the screenplay for the film and submit it to the group for feedback. The group can then propose changes, etc. which the screenwriter will incorporate into new drafts which will be resubmitted to the group until we have a final shooting script. I don't anticipate there being a huge number of drafts. We could probably hammer out most of the details in three or so drafts. Getting from the first draft to the final draft can hopefully be done in a week or so.
Ideally, we'd all be able to sit down in a room together and hash out the myriad details involved in the film. I thought about trying to meet in a chat room for some pre-production story meetings, but that probably will not be possible. We're scattered all over the world in different time zones, and trying to get everyone together for a chat session isn't realistic. Therefore, communication will have to be via email. That's a less efficient way of doing business and means we probably won't be able to hash things out to the nth degree the way we would if we were all together. In other words, people in a given role will have to exercise their best judgment in making a lot of the decisions that will come up. Major decisions should be presented to the group, but for the most part, we'll all just have to rely on everyone to do their best in their given assignment.
As you can see, I've already made a number of decisions about how to proceed with this. I apologize if I seem a little presumptuous in doing so, but I think a project needs someone to take the initiative and make certain decisions. If every decision required for this project to come to fruition were put to a vote from the group, this film might never see the light of day. It could suffer a fatal case of 'paralysis by analysis.' Having one person (the producer) make some of those decisions can expedite things and get the project rolling. With that said, I think I'll take the role of producer off the table and hang on to it, although I may need to pass certain responsibilities off to someone else depending on the work load. Thrustmaster has expressed an interest in producing, so he may be asked to take on certain tasks. We'll see how it goes.
Perhaps the most important decision I’ll make will be in assigning roles to those who want to participate. We’ve had a great response already, and I think the ‘open enrollment’ period will have to end soon or we’re going to have too many workers and not enough work. I’ll try to give everyone at least one of the roles they’ve asked for. Some people have shown an aptitude for certain areas of filmmaking, and I’ll try to let people do things they do well.
All of you are skilled enough to produce an entire film on your own, but necessarily all of you will have to settle for a smaller role than you are used to having. Not only will you not have the level of control you’re used to, the distribution of ‘cool’ assignments can’t be entirely equal. Of course, the reason we’re all doing this is for the fun of creating a film as a community. And don’t forget you’ll be able to help produce a film for a fraction of the time and effort you would normally have to invest in a solo project. Hopefully, this will only be the first of many collaborative films as people realize and exploit the advantages of producing films as groups. You may not get as big a role in this as you’d like, but things may be different in your next group project.
A final thought…being a group project, I think it would be neat if many (if not all) of the people involved in this could have at least a small part as a voice actor. Keep that in mind as you craft your story submissions.![]()
Hi GL2,
This idea of yours is ace, and by the looks of the response you should get some fine people to work on the project.
If i finish my latest movie in the next 3-4 weeks and all other real life needs are under control i would like to help out, but i can't give you a "yes" at this moment in time.
Great idea GL2![]()
Again, it's great to see so many of the regulars expressing interest. This truly will be a community film.
Tooz, I'm sure we can work a good Scottish accent in somewhere.Consider it done.
Monty, I don't think I can claim credit for the idea of making a community film. People have suggested it at various times, but it just hasn't happened. No problem on the commitment, either. An editor position is still available and wouldn't require any participation until later in the project.We'll save you a place at the table.
Interest has exceeded expectations, so I think we'll let this run for the rest of the weekend and then launch things on Monday. I'll post a list of who will be doing what then. It seems most of you can probably have at least your first pick of positions. Some positions will clearly need to be shared; lots of people want to direct, but I think we can accommodate that. Scenes can be carved up and assigned to different directors.
Voice acting--not many of you have volunteered for that. The final script will of course determine how many roles we'll need filled, but (unless the group wants to make a film without dialogue) many of you will likely find a voice-acting conscription notice in the mail.![]()
And there are a couple of people we definitely need to rope into this project somehow, someway, even if only for a minor voice acting part. For starters, there’s Viper and Wiley. Those two guys have probably done as much to promote the IL-2 filmmaking community as any. For any who don't know, Viper is the administrator of the Virtual War Cinema (see the link in my sig). His site has been a great resource for delving into the finer details of filmmaking. The serious filmmakers have been hanging around there for as long as I have known about this community. I highly recommend it to all filmmakers.
And Wiley (AKA fliegeroffizier sp?)is not only the de facto dispenser of the golden Olegs, he’s also the guy behind the late Wiley’s WWII Guncam Site. Up until just recently, it was your one-stop shopping center for IL-2 films. He had pretty much every IL-2 movie of any significance available for free download. Without it, I might never have given this forum a second look.
And there are a couple of old salts I'd like to see participate as well: JRJacobs, Maxwellsmart, Mysticpuma and Scragbat. When I first got involved in the community in early 2004, it was films by guys like them that sucked me in. And though I may have been a little anal in some of my critiques of their work, I have to admit they represent some of the best talent this community has produced. Their work certainly inspired filmmakers who followed. This would really be a special project if all of the old guard played a role in it. Of course, some (like Ntesla) are already onboard. Again, maybe we can coerce a little voice acting out of all of those guys.
Sorry if I’m biasing the group, but I hope we end up doing a film with enough voice roles to include as many people as possible. Even if a guy’s only line is, “Incoming!” It would be fitting for a community film like this.