Lost in Vietnam: UPDATE! PICTURES OF GEAR ON PAGE 3!

[ALove]

UPDATE
The film is tentatively titled. May change, but I updated the title to reflect the name.

UPDATE 2
PICTURES OF GEAR ON PAGE 3!!!

So, heres where I guess I'll post updates for my upcoming movie that takes place during the Vietnam War. It's not your average war film, the script is different, I'd probably call it a black comedy. We will most likely begin shooting next weekend, assuming some stuff arrives before then, if not, then the next weekend. Script is almost complete, and for fun tomorrow, Ill upload some pictures of the gear. Sometime this week I'll try to get headshots of the main actors. For now, you'll have to settle with these shots of some of our locations, and a random bayonet.

[Bocca]

real nice locations, I hope by the time your finished with them it will look nothing like that.
Half the foliage should be burned, trees splintered by bullets and the stream red with blood

and a very artistic shot of the knife there :p

lookin forward to the updates.

[ctbullet]

noooo, you can't burn foliage, greenpeace will have a $hit fit

locations are looking great though

[ALove]

As promised, here's gear....

[Firestorm]

That's a really nice setup you have there.

[Epsilon]

What kind of ammunition pouches are those? I've never seen any like them before. I love the location though. I just realized that's in a bedroom too. You'll be sweating for real!

Need any props? LOL

Also, you need... DOGTAGS!

[Mr.Anderson]

Very nice. I've been looking for cloth helmet covers like that one forever, i tried to make one myself which turned out awful. Where did you get the webgear? Looking great so far. Glad to see someone venturing out of the WW2 era and into some Vietnam age. I was gonna make a Vietnam War movie, had most of the gear and weapons, but then main actors and friends completely rolled over on me and ditched it....bastards...anyways, good luck to ya. Put up more pictures when you can.

[ALove]

I actually have dogtags on, but one's under the coat, and the other's on the right boot.

Right now I need 3 more pants, 2 jackets, 2 fanny packs, 1 helmet cover, M60 and ammo belt, 3 pairs of boots, and 5 20 rd vietnam era mags.

Also awaiting my SG35....

-EDIT-
Also 4 bayonets.

[delta_echo]

Lookin' really good overall. Several things I noticed.

What type of barrel is the that M16? It looks like it has a cutout for the M203 (could just be the pictures). Not a big deal, but not accurate either.

Keep your finger off the trigger unless you are firing. This is the simplest thing to look for to determine whether a person has had weapons training or not. The finger should point straight out. During BASIC, I once watched a kid get chewed out for 15 minutes for walking around with his finger on his trigger. It is something any professional military does not tolerate.

Make sure basically everyone uses those 20 rd. mags. 30 rounders were rarely seen and notoriously faulty during that time without alot of tinkering.

You gotta replace those M14 magazine holders with M-1956 mag pouches (they can be had for 2.50 - 5.00 each). Unless you are trying to portray an early marine unit armed with M14's I have *NEVER* heard or seen anyone use those pouches, especially with the M16.

Lastly, unless you are going for a FNG look, go wash those greens alot or leave them in the sun for a few weeks. Then, go roll in the mud and beat them with a 2x4 to get most of the dirt out. When we did our Vietnam film my greens were literally rotting off my body (trust me, it wasn't tearing)! Yeah, I wore them that much and they got that filthy!

All these, of course, are nit-picky things. The goal of my film might have been very different from yours. Accuracy in both clothing, equipment, weapons, and vehicles was of the upmost importance to us.

Anyhow, looks like you're on a good start. If you could describe the purpose, nature, and scope of the project to me in more detail I may be willing to help you out with props. Oh yeah, what are the ages of the actors?

By the way, I'm in Colorado Springs most of the year.

[ALove]

Wow thanks for the information, and if your in CO springs, then maybe we could get together? Anyways a PM is on its way.

[Epsilon]

I was serious about props... Like I've said I own about 1/3 the production wardrobe from We Were Soldiers, and it takes up an entire garage. So if you need any Nam stuff at all, I've got every kinda s*** from belts and ponchos to socks and laces! Surely you need outfits for the bad guys too...

Didn't I get you those helmets too?

If you want a number of original M-56 gear, I can get you those too. Or you can just doosie through eBay. It's cheap if you know where to look.

[Lawriejaffa]

Jesus Epsilon lol thats a lot how can u afford all that stuff! Is it just ur sole passion - buying uniforms! (i could understand if it was!)

As for ALove, looking good. I'm still a little concerned at how mcuh the jungle will look like 'jungle' based on the foilage your showing. For it looks great, but it is not very jungle looking (yet) but im sure with some very subtle post effects you could bring out something in it!

The set up looks good too for the chroma, i mean theres every impression your giving here, that this is a serious and careful project your attempting so kudos to you for making a genuine attempt.

My advice, may come in more handy i hope when you get your script up (if you choose to of course) but so far it looks very promising. The one thing to avoid is casting actors that look too young (understanding that conscripts of young ages were used in that war, they still were nothing like the pre-teen armies of some posters here lol) I have absolute faith based on what uve shown so far, that u have no inclination to make tha mistake !

Keep it up, im keeping up on this one - looking good

[smokeythebear]

If you have any questions on the war go to
http://www.incountry.ca/icforums/

[Mr.Anderson]

Are you using blank firing weapons?

[Epsilon]

Hopefully, not indoors! Ouch!

[ALove]

Thanks for the positive feedback guys, it means a lot.

I have been wanting to do a Vietnam film for over a year now, so I have been steadily collecting props for a while. I think I've spent somewhere around $5000, not including the camera we're shooting this on. I've been writing the script for about 3 months now, so that's coming along.

As for casting right age actors, we have a great make-up artist to help us make the 18 year olds look older, as for me, I'm 16 and I'll be playing for 17. Also, for smaller roles, like the officers, we have people who are aged 30-50.

And no those are not blanks, they're airsoft guns that I painted with gunmetal spray paint.

Speaking of makeup though, anyone know where to buy some cheap morticians/stage wax?

And Epsilon, I may take you up on some of those m56 pouches, I'll drop you an IM.

-EDIT-
For those wondering about Color Correction, here's a frame as it would appear in the final film.

Uncompressed TIFF

Compressed JPEG


Also, keep in mind that for the film, I'll be using the SGpro to help give a very filmic shallow DOF.

[Epsilon]

You could try looking into Ben Nye production makeup sets. I know they make all sorts of items for film, and are supposedly the best for the price.

A traditional weebing setup would consist of a pistol belt, ammunition pouches, first aid pouch, H-suspenders, buttpack, and e-tool. All of it M-56 type. You attach the bayonet scabbard onto the e-tool cover.

I'll try to get a photo of a setup for you.

[delta_echo]

The M1961 buttpack was more commonly seen than the M1956 (plus its alot cheaper). The "issued" set of web gear was typically heavily modified, usually with more ammo pouches and canteens with covers. The amount of E-tools in a squad depended on the mission. You probably already know, but www.mooremilitaria.com is a great place for gear as well as answering any super-specific questions you may have. They also have photos from their own reenacting group, as well as others around the world. I have dealt with Trey several times and he is incredibly helpful. If you have time, however, ebay is the best way to go as you can get gear MUCH cheaper. I bought my $300 GI lightweight rucksack on ebay for $125 after waiting patiently. As for uniforms, I was able to equip 8 GI's and 20 VC pretty cheap after browsing thrift shops for about a year. With patience and persistence, you can save yourself alot of money.

[Lawriejaffa]

Hey Delta echo good for you, on a cite note what did you arm your VC with? In the UK its a pain in the a*** with weps - deacts is all u can get and cost a bomb, airsoft helps but is no solution for rifles... for example mosin nagans that i wanted cost 140$ deactivated here! In the USA under $50 u can get in some places...

[delta_echo]

Hey Delta echo good for you, on a cite note what did you arm your VC with? In the UK its a pain in the a*** with weps - deacts is all u can get and cost a bomb, airsoft helps but is no solution for rifles... for example mosin nagans that i wanted cost 140$ deactivated here! In the USA under $50 u can get in some places...

It really depends how close of a shot you need. For our close-ups, we had a WASR (looks exactly like an AK47), an SKS, or one of two WWII Jap Arisaka rifles. Captured GI weapons also work for a few VC (if you need a mass shot). We had two VC manning an M60 for one scene.

For farther off shots, we simply used Mosins (as you already pointed out), dummy rifles (one of the guys used to make scale models out of wood as a kid - they were actually pretty good), or even bb guns. Really, it was just what we already owned.

Wonders can be worked using photoshop for muzzleflashes. We ended up making our own to more accurately depict a "real-life" non-hollywood flash. Like I said before, for our purposes, the truest depiction was a must. Don't ask me how it was done as I have no knowledge of photoshop. I just sat back and commented.

I'm sorry its so hard to get weapons, but, well, thats a reason I don't live in the UK nor in California! Great people, but dumb laws. Please don't turn this thread into a debate over gun laws, though. Hopefully this will help Alove, too.

[Lawriejaffa]

Yup thanx delta echo

So Alove! I don't this has been answered yet! But whats the chroma screen getting used for any particularly monstrous horrible explosion effects shot Let us know!

[smokeythebear]

http://www.fxwarehouse.info/

[smokeythebear]

delete this one

[DEDFX]

www.fxwarehouse is loaded with everything.

only thing is some products don't have any pictures.

I'm hopefully getting some foam from them this summer.

[ALove]

Ok I'll check them out.

Right now I'm having trouble securing a camera for the headshots, but I'll keep trying.

Also Delta, that site is amazingly helpful. *bookmarked*