Sorry, Bruce, but I had to start the thread for you.

First, thanks for letting me steal your idea for my film... :) :)

I think if we combined your Grampa with my Tank and put our films together, we might really have something! :)

Nice job with the edit. I liked the dissolves between the old man in the helmet and the young man. The lighting on the young man with the helmet was nice also. I'm sure you know that some of the effects looked a little bit like random explosions in space, but whadya gonna do, right? :)

Bill

The music set the mood well for the subject matter and your film gave me an even deeper appreciation for our servicemen, past and present. I loved how you suggested the loneliness and terror of combat in a simple but very effective way. Thank you.

your film gave me an even deeper appreciation for our servicemen, past and present.
Yes! Very much so. Thank you for this understated, yet sweet tribute, Bruce.

Loved the closeup of the chopper with the flag fluttering in the background. :)

This was a very nice short and a great reminder to me, of all that our service men and women have done for us. Thank you.

I liked your "gratitude" approach to this short too.

There was a shakey pan towards the end but nothing major. You had some brilliant editing transitions at the beginning which worked very well. I liked the lighting you did on the young soldier too.

Care to share how you did the explosions?

Best wishes~
Bradley

I really liked the transition between old and young, or present and past. I also liked the location of the shoot with the chopper.

Nice work.

Mike

Definately a feel gratefull short. transitions like everyone has said were good. You just need to restrain yourself from looking at the camera LCD screen, hahaha. I really like the end myself. I thought it was heartfelt and tugged at the strings. good job.

Well done! The music complemented the story very well, and I'm surprised to hear something so good coming out of SmartSound. I never thought it could do that good a job, but maybe I just haven't given it enough of a chance yet.

That music, combined particularly with the shot of the helicopter (beautiful shot, by the way, I can't get over how great it looks) really got to me. Sounds kind of cheesy for me to say that, but it's true. I try to be respectful of servicemen as it is, but to hear directly from someone who was there is different; makes me appreciate them even more.

Good show, and congratulations on your first DVC!

I really liked how you represented the younger soldier's experiences in Vietnam...it was so simple (black background with sudden bright loud explosions), but it really captured the darkness and the fear of the situation! Very nice!

I also liked the location you chose for the end. You had a very nice variety of camera angles in that section! My favorite is the shot of you walking up to the helicopter...it was really dramatic and its like you're looking right at the audience and we know you're being completely honest with us about a subject that's important to you

Sorry, Bruce, but I had to start the thread for you.

First, thanks for letting me steal your idea for my film... :) :)

I think if we combined your Grampa with my Tank and put our films together, we might really have something! :)

Bill

I just discovered this subforum. Bill, yore welcome! Interesting to see how two of us worked the same idea and yet came up with the very diffrent visual interpretations we did.

I thoroughly enjoyed your concept and have to very much appreciate the work you and your crew put into the look, the lighting, the atmosphere, and the total feel of what you created.

The young fellow in mine was my 17 year old grandson. Most of the camera work was his. We had some fun with it.

I think a lot of us had to use family.

Bruce

The music set the mood well for the subject matter and your film gave me an even deeper appreciation for our servicemen, past and present. I loved how you suggested the loneliness and terror of combat in a simple but very effective way. Thank you.

Well, hammed up a bit. I was at DaNang AB in 1970, the VC and NVA fired rockets at us every week or two and occasionally hit something. The guys in more remote areas came under much more intensive fire.

I still feel a strong bond of kinship with our folks in uniform (I retired after 20 in late 1978).

I thought about letting my grandson carry my M4 in the night scene but we did that in my backyard and I could see neighbors calling 911.

Bruce

Yes! Very much so. Thank you for this understated, yet sweet tribute, Bruce.


Our current generation of military are the best the world has ever seen. They are awesome. I live near Goodfellow AFB and see some of them frequently. At our local gun club range I shoot with some who are inbetween Iraq/Afghanistan deployments.



Loved the closeup of the chopper with the flag fluttering in the background. :)

Our local Veterans memorial. My grandson was running the camera out there and I told him to get me some "cutaways" while planning the next shot. He done good!

BTW...I reviewed all of your past submissions while waiting for Dylan to start posting links and you have a great flair for the dramatic. You gotta be having a lot of fun doing these, I've enjoyed viewing them!

Bruce

There was a shakey pan towards the end but nothing major. You had some brilliant editing transitions at the beginning which worked very well. I liked the lighting you did on the young soldier too.

Care to share how you did the explosions?

Best wishes~
Bradley

Yup...I see the "shakey" on the pan. Major would have really been bad. The lighting on the young troop was a 60 watt bulb in a hardware store type reflector out in my backyard. I have no video lighting gear but plenty of still studio lighting experience and the simple setup did what I envisioned.

It was fun.

Explosions: I can't find the site but I downloaded a few free explosions from a site that sells CD collections of explosions, muzzle flashes, and such. I'll try to find it again and post it here later.

I used picture in picture and sized the explosions to composite close to what i wanted to see. Once I had them on one of the video timeline tracks I used contrast/brightness adjustment to try to make them work well with the black unlit areas in the background. One of the problems I had was that the explosion background was not as black as the black in the area surrounding the young troop so I had a small picture in picture frame with lighter tone to contend with.

Bruce

Well done! The music complemented the story very well, and I'm surprised to hear something so good coming out of SmartSound. I never thought it could do that good a job, but maybe I just haven't given it enough of a chance yet.


The small selection you get with a NLE that uses SmartSound doesn't show a lot of promise. I had to buy 3 CD's from SmartSound to get much that was useable. I got the 22k limited fidelity versions of Scoring Essentials and Dramatic Undertones, but what I used here came from the 44k full fidelity Action and Suspense CD. The track I used was the only one on that CD that had any chance of setting the mood.


That music, combined particularly with the shot of the helicopter (beautiful shot, by the way, I can't get over how great it looks) really got to me. Sounds kind of cheesy for me to say that, but it's true. I try to be respectful of servicemen as it is, but to hear directly from someone who was there is different; makes me appreciate them even more.


We're just like you folks, our people in uniform are a cross section of our society and have always been except now they are all volunteer and don the uniform with a terrific sense of love for our country and pride in what it represents.

I'll pass your comments (and the other folks' here, too) about the helicopter shot on to my grandson. With no further guidance than "Get something on the chopper as a cutaway", that's what he got.

Bruce

Having fun makes it worth it. I loved that exterior scece with the helo and the flag too. If it had been just that with some more 'memories' it would have been one of my top 5 I think. Good job Bruce.

You just need to restrain yourself from looking at the camera LCD screen, hahaha.

Caught that, did you?

I had no one to shoot that scene and had to do it myself. Hard as I tried to keep from it, I couldn't help but take a quick look to insure I was in proper position for the dissolve transition to the young troop. I hoped it was unobstrusive enough that no one would notice buy your eye is just too sharp.


I really like the end myself. I thought it was heartfelt and tugged at the strings. good job.

My family saw me off on Dec 7th (my mom's birthday) and one year later (Dec 7th) I left out of DaNang on a contract American Airlines 707 to come back. To this day I can still remember vividly what it felt like to rejoin my wife and 2 kids in Odessa TX. I just told it like it was.

Bruce

I just discovered this subforum.
That's funny! You know, earlier tonight when I saw you'd posted on the other subforum I almost asked if you'd seen your feedback thread. It's good that you were able to see the comments and know how much you are appreciated!

Thank you for your service. I'm about to find out what it's like to be an Army mom; my son will be commissioned in May and then...well, you know the drill.

Looks like you've been working your way through all the entries. Hope you're having a great time! :)

Nice walking shot, and good camera moves when used. The exposure on the outdoor shots seemed inconsistant, like you irised down when you reset after the car. (Personally, I like the car exposure better.) I'm not sure the christmas lights at the end were entirely necessary to the story, but I might feel differently about that if I were watching it at some time when my own tree wasn't still up. The explosions looked nice in and of themselves, but the placement of them seemed a bit floating in space. Maybe that's realistic - I'm fortunate enough not to know - but it felt a bit random to me. Nice job over all. Good pacing, the story plays out well.

Smile,
Kris

I liked the interesting idea of doing the mini movie and then a sort of documentary around that. Good idea. The outside shots at the chopper make it for me.

Nice.

Served 7 years in the Ohio Air and Army National Guard units. When the first Gulf thing happened, I re-upped for a 1 year deal in case they needed me. They didn't at that time. Carried an M-203 for a few years. Interesting weapon.

Sean

I'm about to find out what it's like to be an Army mom; my son will be commissioned in May and then...well, you know the drill.


Good luck to him (and you at being an Army mom).



Looks like you've been working your way through all the entries. Hope you're having a great time! :)

Oh yeah. It's like getting to look through someone else's eyes for a change. We don't get to do that very often and I enjoy the experience. Sometimes it's almost like a mini-vacation.

I liked the interesting idea of doing the mini movie and then a sort of documentary around that. Good idea. The outside shots at the chopper make it for me.



Rare feedback from me. :)
The outside shots made this for me. I would have considered cutting the minimovie at the start out of it completely and just focusing on the documentary side, there was so much more there to eplore and expand. The footage at the beginning just didn't have the emotion attached to it that the rest of it did. Just my thoughts.