As war has changed, the war film has found a new lease on life. Gone are the table-top tactics, missions and fanfares. Now it’s about darkened torture cells, civil war and corporate killing: “a message from our sponsors” written on the bullets. Cynical, sharp and every bit as action-packed as war films from the 1960s, these new movies are hard hitting, politically savvy and not afraid to put their heads above the parapet.
For low-budget filmmakers, this means that the genre is more easy to make, with no need for huge fields of battle. It offers the perfect mix – a chance to grab the audience firmly by the throat with visceral action filmmaking, but also make serious political points and lob a few grenades at the powers that be. Good luck.
MY KIND OF MOVIE?
You don’t seek the easy life. You know your own mind and although sometimes you go too far at least you say what you think. You like the idea of making films because you know you are right. For you filmmaking isn’t about getting angry, but about getting even, a chance to see it like it is and shout it loud.
For you, the war film is the perfect blend of brain and guts. Action movies were too stupid and political movies were too talkative. But you wanted a bit of both and now the war film presents you with a movie that is clever and physical.
WHAT’S IT FOR?
War films are no longer the macho outpost of Hollywood. It used to be a dumb action spectacle, but now it’s smart and gets good reviews. Audiences are big, and willing to make a war film their Saturday night. They might be put off by too much political stuff but are easy when it turns into conspiracy theory territory, and even better if you take aim at the lurking presence of big business.
There is less of a market on movie sharing sites like YouTube, but it does well on cable, DVD, pay-per-view and download sites, where it’s seen as a safe bet.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE ME?
The war film tends to be heavy on locations, and needs some expendable props. Writing the war film takes time, so let your ideas gestate over months while you do other stuff. The actual dialogue needn’t be too clever, but the overall story and structure has to be strong to support and compete with the action.
HOW HARD IS IT?
Difficulty level:
The war movie is demanding in terms of how you organize the production. It’s likely you’ll have a number of locations, more characters or extras than usual, and more props.
You need:
To be a good organizer
To enjoy working with a large team
To prefer location shooting
To be able to create strong and believable characters, avoiding clichés often found in the genre
To be able to fuse strong characters and plot with action
WHO ELSE DO I NEED?
A full squad:
Two cameras would be ideal
Sound
Producer
Runner
Plus any other help you can get for the logistics of the production
WHAT KIT DO I NEED?
Two cameras (of the same format and quality)
Boom mic
Lavalier mics, or radio mics
Lamps if shooting interior scenes
Reflector boards for increasing or bouncing light on location
IF YOU LIKE THAT WATCH THIS
Any sprint through the genre has to stop at Apocalypse Now! (1979), not least to catch the surreal dialogue and car-crash story of the making of the movie itself. Since then, war films sobered up, in the horrifically real Saving Private Ryan (1998), Platoon (1986) and the gut-churning Black Hawk Down (2001). Take a look too at Terence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1998) for a peek into the dark abyss and a lesson in how to make a war film with poetry as well as bullets. Also try the dark comedy of Three Kings (1999) just to hear the Beach Boys I Get Around as a war movie song.
For twenty-first century wars, there are a stream of powerful low-budget war thrillers from Redacted (2007), to Body of Lies (2008), to Rendition (2007) and The Hurt Locker (2008).
GET INSPIRED
Read the newspapers, diary accounts of wars, and magazine features from war zones. Tease out the stories that people forgot like a piano player who carried on playing nightclub standards during the Iraq war, in Sean McAllister’s The Liberace of Baghdad (2005). Documentaries work well as war films, and the drama-documentary has been one of the most successful of the war genre since the early 2000s.
PREPRODUCTION ESSENTIALS
Storyboards; script; location photos; release forms; style sheets/designs; costume designs; backstory; treatment; lighting designs; budget; permission forms for locations; health and safety sheets; contracts; copyright release for music; shot list; shooting schedule.
See Chapter 11, Brief Directory of All the Paperwork You Need.
WRITING THE WAR FILM
• Characters and story
The best war films focus on a small human tragedy set against a vast backdrop. Whether it’s the ruined streets of a Balkan city, the villages of Vietnam or the beaches of Normandy you’ll need to find a microcosm of the larger devastation within the lives of a few characters. Create characters that are deep enough to hold the themes you are trying to get across.
• The protagonist
Central to this is the protagonist: the person we identify with in the movie. Memorable war films like Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Jarhead or Full Metal Jacket all have a quiet observer who offers us a neat way into the film. This person might be a drifter in life, or been overlooked by the officers, or courtmartialed. They would be a whistle-blower if they cared enough, but are more often an intelligent but detached presence – a witness, like Sean Penn in The Thin Red Line. This character makes it easy for you to navigate around a series of scenes, linking by voiceover perhaps the thoughts of us all as we watch the events play out.
• Structure
To structure your war film, avoid the obvious. War films used to fall into a simple join-the-dots style of moviemaking, where the first reel laid out the mission, the middle saw the build-up and action, and the final section showed us the fall-out with mission accomplished. Instead, throw the viewer straight into chaos and confusion. Look out for too much exposition, like telling the audience too much too soon. Just a simple subtitle on screen giving location and date can be enough to give the viewer a foothold in the movie.
• Locations
Locations are crucial to the war film: find the right places to shoot. Look for open spaces or derelict industrial areas (Kubrick shot Full Metal Jacket in England, at an old factory site.)
FIGURE 42.2 Locations are crucial for a war movie. abandoned factory buildings can be ideal settings for conflict. (Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, ©gremlin, Image# 3326061.)
USING THE CAMERA
Hand-held camera can work especially well in the war movie. It’s the opposite of the tracking shot, in which the camera moves like a train along a track telling everyone where it’s going. Hand-held camera makes a powerful message by itself, even without the actors – the camera is a loose cannon; no one knows where it’s going, it’s out of control and it might just cause an accident.
If you use this method, avoid messy “hose-piping” where the camera just goes wild, by using a steadying device. FIG-RIGS are a great compromise, giving you freedom with a little stability, while Hague camera supports are a cheap way of getting the steady-cam look for less than $100 (www.b-hague.co.uk).
EDITING
In your war film, editing is a way to take the viewer off guard, reflecting the reality of war. Even shooting a simple dialogue scene can be enhanced if you opt for a style that avoids the sureness of normal life and replaces it with a nervous energy. Use a lot of fast shots, changing rhythm to keep us guessing. In the iconic opening sequence to Saving Private Ryan, the camera seems as much in danger as the soldiers, having to dodge bullets, recording the action against the odds.
Edit like no one is in control, like there’s no plan or reason to events. Avoid build-ups to big events, o
r suspense – avoid any warning about what is going to happen. Use a quick succession of good shots, bad shots, get-anything-you-can shots. Try to edit like you yourself don’t even know what’s going to happen next.
Trawl through your footage while editing to include out-of-focus images, flashes, sweeps of the camera; in fact, look for the bad shots – they give the movie some life.
COLOR
When you have finished editing, reduce the color of the movie to create a more moody and grim effect. Try taking saturation down by 60% to make a washedout and hard-hitting look.
MUSIC
Music sequences can be a chance to open up the theme of your war movie, delivering the message you are making louder and clearer. Use these parts as minimusic promos, using montage to take a break from the hectic style used so far (see Chapter 22, Editing Methods: Montage).
SOUND
ENHANCING THE SOUNDTRACK
Take royalty-free sounds and beef them up using basic sound software: many sites offer war sounds for free (try www.partnersinrhyme.com for a range of good effects). Foley experts then advise adding a few extras to create a more realistic effect, for weapons and explosions:
Add more whistle and lead-in to the bullet sound. In a battle scene there should be at least as much sound of bullets whizzing past as of bullets being fired.
Add more reverb to bullets and explosions, but don’t overdo the echo.
Pitch the sound down slightly toward the end of the sound effect, so that it appears to flatten, giving the weapon a more dangerous edge.
Add more bass.
Location sound
Don’t record dialogue and sound effects on the same mic at the same time. Actors just end up having to yell too much. Always add sounds of bullets and explosions later, or dub the actors’ lines separately, having recorded them moments later on location while they still have the right voice energy.
Experts’ Tips
Preston Randolph, film director/writer of war film Proud Sins (2008), Los Angeles
“Every film has its hardships. You will have times where you are stressed and may even feel like giving up. never give up. keep your head high and act like a professional. You are a filmmaker so prove it. at times you will get frustrated,but fight through it. If you are destined to make films than you will overcome the adversities that come with it and learn from your mistakes.
Enjoy what you do. You have the privilege to make art and nothing compares to that capability.”
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LEGALESE
Make sure you have done the following:
Checked with the copyright owner if you use music tracks in your movie.
Before you shoot – get permissions from every location owner, especially if you think there’s a chance you might cause damage.
Get release forms from every actor stating that they agree to your use of them in the movie.
Agree how everyone wants to be credited in the end titles.
If you plan to make a noise while filming, contact the neighbors to let them know – and always contact the police to tell them your guns aren’t real.
Upload It
Best sites to upload to:
YouTube or Vimeo
Best communities to join:
FH Internship Programme at Vimeo
War Room Collective at Vimeo
Best channels to watch:
Humanity Productions at Vimeo:
“Humanity Productions exists to produce and support media that celebrates the inherent dignity of human life. We work to inspire a courageous, compassionate and authentic response. We want people to act on what they see.”
* * *
WAR FILM SCHEDULE
This genre works best at longer schedules, at least 21 or 28 days.
Use the plans in Section 6, Make It Happen: Schedules but also add these extras:
FOUR TO FIVE WEEKS BEFORE YOU SHOOT
Research into the setting and background to the movie. Find oral history books or online resources to get the soldier’s view of a conflict rather than rely on the history books. Try www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar.
Also find views from civilians caught up in the conflict.
Chapter | Forty-Three
Freecording
WHAT IS IT?
An improvised video involving you and what you did, like a place, a situation, a journey, a party.
Musicians call it jamming – playing without knowing where you are going to end up, responding to where the music leads you. In video, this sort of fastfooted improvisation is now easier with camcorders that are light to carry and make shooting as natural and effortless as sketching or strumming a guitar. Just like jamming, sometimes you get a great melody going, other times it just goes nowhere. But once you start using video in this way it becomes liberating – and the more you do it the better your hit rate in getting unique mini-movies.
Freecording is about letting the camera roll and seeing what happens. You watch what you are recording, and make immediate decisions about what to do next. You notice the footage is going a certain direction – like toward comedy, or a journey – and you move with it. Just like jamming where you listen out for the changes in key or tempo, so you keep one eye on what is on the LCD monitor and one eye on where it might all be heading.
Probably the most attractive thing about freecording is the way it is immersive. Usually when you shoot you are an observer, sitting it out and watching the action unfold on the camera screen. Instead, you are the participant as well as the camera operator. You are the action.
MY KIND OF MOVIE?
You like chance, fate, serendipity, and are willing to film far and wide to stumble across a hit, where you shoot while being a part of the action. You take your chances, thinking of filmmaking as a little like surfing – one good wave, 99 duds, and all worth it for that single good one. You think filmmaking must be natural and you don’t get hung up by shaky cameras or messy shots. It’s physical, led by chance but not always pretty to look at.
WHAT’S IT FOR?
It’s your party and the door is open to anyone, but this movie is for you and yours. This is not for cinema-style viewing and you are never going to sell it or see it hurtle around cyberspace. Instead, this is going to be the way you bond with your camera, incorporating it into your daily life. There’s no “movie world” separated from “your world”; instead everything is potentially a slice of video.
Upload it to social network sites or link it to other films you have made. Apart from those involved in the movie, it doesn’t need to interest many other people. However, there is a strong free-running element to many freecording films, and these get a good airing on free-running or Parkour sites.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE ME?
If you are going to the beach, or to a party, or just loafing around, prepare what you can by arranging a rough idea of how to shoot in your mind. But limit it to just a broad, overall view, and avoid trying to make it look like a genre movie.
The big moment comes when you switch to record, and from then on your mind is on a loop: seeing, shooting, thinking and watching, and round again, the whole process taking place in seconds. You need to be in a heightened state of awareness so you are able to think quickly on your feet.
HOW HARD IS IT?
Difficulty level:
It’s probably the easiest way to shoot, but what it lacks in difficulty it makes up for in agility: you really need to think quickly and trust your decisions.
You need:
To think that all life is a potential movie
To put ego aside and go with the flow of what you shoot
To always have a charged battery or two in your pocket, plus tapes
To be unobtrusive, able to blend in and shoot without trying to control what you see
WHO ELSE DO I NEED?
Just incorporate your camcorder into your everyday life. Films with people are better on camera than just places or objects, so hook up with your friends and include them i
n your video jamming session.
WHAT KIT DO I NEED?
Your camera
Spare batteries
A lot of SD cards/tapes
IF YOU LIKE THAT WATCH THIS
Try movies that unravel a story in video footage regardless of how many glitches it has. Cloverfield (2008) and other imaginary narratives such as Paranormal Activity (2009) show how the fictional characters responded immediately to events and composed a narrative. For the real thing, watch freecording hits online, but steer clear of corporate examples in favor of real jamming from no-budget filmmakers.
You could also check out Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2006), a hypnotic multi-angle movie about the football superstar shot by UK art-movie director Douglas Gordon.
Try Parkour videos at www.3run.co.uk.
Stand-Out Shorts Page 24