WW1 commemorative short edited in Vegas

[Ian Stark]

Produced on a near-zero budget for Thame Museum and Thame Town Council in Oxfordshire as a promo for their centenary commemorations. Edited entirely in Vegas Pro 13 (with Photoshopped material for compositing in a couple of the scenes).

There's also a very quick video showing a couple of before and after shots.

EDIT: Ever so sorry but I've been asked by the Museum to take the link down for the time being. Hadn't realised that by posting it to the forum it would almost immediately start showing in Google searches and the Museum isn't officially launching the video until next week. I'll repost the link as soon as it's live.

Thanks for the kind comments from Lesley and Mike, though!

[Leslie Wand]

ian, a bloody work of art mate - WELL DONE!!!!

[Mike Kujbida]

+1,000 to what Leslie said. Gorgeous work Ian!!

[Ian Stark]

Just been told I can put the links back now the project has gone live. Sorry about that!

Thame Remembers:

Thame Remembers - YouTube

Transforming Thame:

Transforming Thame - YouTube

[David Johns]

Superb! And quite the family production it would seem ;-)

[Ian Stark]

Thanks David :-)

Yes, the family were drafted in to help out. Daniel, my eldest son, was always lined up to be the soldier but my wife was dragged in at the very last minute (along with some other friends) to be an extra. I was originally told that the local am dram society were going to be extras for the station scene etc, but it seems that everyone thought that everyone else had told them when in fact no-one had! I discovered this the night before we were to shoot the 'crowd' scenes and had to do some last minute story replanning. It's a shame because it's probably quite obvious that we had to reuse extras in different locations! You might have wondered why you don't always see the faces of some of the extras ;-).

Thanks again for the kind words.

[Gerald Webb]

Nice work Ian.
Out of interest, which cameras did you use?
PS. Love the shot looking down through the rain.

[Ian Stark]

Thanks Gerald :-)

I used a Panasonic AF-101 with a Voigtlander 25mm, Tokina 11-16mm and a Rokinon (Samyang) 85mm. The stills used for compositing (the overhead shot, the wide battlefield shot, the country lane and the close-ups of mud) were taken on a Panasonic GH3. Also the close up on the newspaper was shot on the GH3 a week or so after the main shoot (I forgot to get it when we were on location!) The overhead rain was a clip I bought from Videohive - don't inspect it too closely!

All sound was added in post, some from a sound effects library, others from recordings I made on location.

[Richard Jones]

Excellent and moving. Well done Ian.

Brief question and not in any way a negative comment or criticism --- would a 1914 soldier wear gaiters or puttees? I think the latter but am not sure.Whatever, it doesn't detract in any way from what you are saying in your film.

Richard
.

[Ian Stark]

Thanks Richard,

It's a good point! In fact he was wearing puttees but he was wearing them incorrectly! One of the crew dressed the soldier based on how he himself had dressed as a soldier in the 1990s. Just one of those authenticity facts that we slipped up on. There are plenty more if you look hard enough! World War Two hand grenades, Doctor Marten boots, the list goes on ;-)