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War Movie

S

Shaw

Greetings Everyone,

I have been contemplating making a war movie for sometime now. I believe I have the funds and a decent amount of equipment and experience with which to do this.

I have some various ideas that I wish to implement which I will not go into here. The ideas and moral comments which I wish to discuss are relevant for just about any time period.

What I need is a good idea for a time period/war. I get tired of watching the same old WWII, WWI, Vietnam movies (there are some really good ones out there of course, thats not my point). I want to find a conflict that is:

1) recent enough that I will not have to spend lots of money replicating old uniforms and weapons ( I can get modern stuff easily enough and have a good source lined up)

2) not commonly used

3) a fairly balanced conflict. This isn't going to be a "send in 10 marines/special ops guys and kick the crap out of bad guys" movie.

4) I have access to replica M16 and M14 rifles and a few AK47's. Preferably I would like to incorporate these weapons so I don't have to spend a lot more money.

I was thinking that I might go with some of the (fairly) recent conflicts in eastern Europe (ie Russia) but I am not entirely certain I can recreate the terrain with enough realism.

I currently live in Bozeman MT which is just above 46 degree's north. This corresponds roughly to southern europe so something in the Balkans would work out well. Anyone familiar with the history of this area that could give me some tips and references? I am looking these things up myself but I figured if someone knows all about this area already I could save myself some time ;).

Just for comparisons sake, here are some pictures of various places I have to work with (some are from location scouting, others are just pictures I had laying around home) I have to work with:


http://shivan.multiservers.com/gildor.html

My creativity feels slightly clogged at the moment. :shock:
 
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Wars

I think the recent civil war in what was Yugoslavia, between the Bosnian and Serbian factions would fit the profile you've outlined.

If you did a search on "Bosnian Conflict", you'll find plenty of research material. Plus, because it was mainly militia groups, you'll keep you costume costs right down.

If you want any more help, contact me, I've just shoot a number of Bosnian war sequences for my film "No Place." We were using mainly AK47s and a couple of Mausers.
 
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1) Cold war era - American soldiers crash in East German forest, and need to reach West German border on foot... not knowing whether enemy troops are hunting them down or not.

2) A face-off story, where two small sets of guards do their best to intimidate the other side of the border... which is in a remote place, with just a wooden gate that crosses the road. (Try and see some footage of places like this, on the India/Pakistan Kashmir border.. freaky)

Of course, the stories should end with everyone being suddenly eaten by zombies. /nod :shock:
 
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I think that could work for the mountains around some of the former Russian states. Lots of fighting has been done there. You can’t base this on latitude. North America is much colder than Western Europe. The Mediterranean is on the same latitude as Delaware, but Delaware is nothing like the Mediterranean. I mean those pictures could be parts of Poland, the Ukraine, or Romania - especially with the snow.
 
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Wow, my sincere thanks for all the input guys. My internet has been down the last few days so I apologize for my slow response.

Clive, your suggestion sounds great. Thanks for the link - I'll look into this some more. I'll be sure to contact you when I have some more questions (as I am sure I will ;) ). Thanks for the offer.

ZenSteve, those are some interesting ideas to ponder. Thanks.

Film8ker: An excellent point. Never having been outside the US (well I have been through Mexico and Canada) I was not aware that there could be such drastic differences. Judging from the pictures I have seen of Bosnia I have seen (and how similar they were to what I was looking for) I assumed the assumption had some general applicability.

Interesting that you suggest the Russian states. That was my initial thought as well. I'll have to look into it ome more.

I'm rather surprised and impressed by the amount of people working on similar films right now. War movies, more than others at times, require a fair amount of equipment and money!
 
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