Hey guys,

I've recently finished up a small military themed production for a university project, but a lot of what I learned I'd figure I'd share. Primarily I realized its actually more then possible to film a military themed film on a shoestring budget.

The main aspects you need to keep in mind when making a production with a military period are:

After deciding on an Era (You can group WWI, WWII, Cold War, & Korea. Vietname & Modern Wars are much more modern. Civil War and prior.)

Make use of locations: When filming my WWII Military themed short, I was able to recreate a MUCH larger military encampment and/or area by using a green room of sorts and well-angled shots. I hung up military tent/tarps on the walls and add stuff like ropes, linens, and guns to help decorate it.

Using good camera angles your DP should help the viewer fill in what's missing. Hell most of the time you don't even need to show the people entering the tent/encampment and if you do more well angled shots can do the trick.

A handy thing about War is very little of the fighting and/or much else goes on in an urban environment, make use of landscapes and preferabbly an area you can do a little "transforming with". Behind my house is a large protected swampland (althoguh not swampy). In years past we dug trenches and gathered guit a few wooden bunkers, these provide nice little scenes for firefights or other aspects of a military themed film.

If worse comes to worse and you need to film in an urban environment you still have a few options, none that I've used myself but one thing I plan on trying if it comes to it is actually building a fake street of buildings like this:

|
L____

_____
T

Basically you enter with the camera at L and then yoru able to do shots of the corridor and then exit with the T giving at least 3-5 independent nice look building shots. For hte buildings you construct them 7' high (slightly over the heads of the actors should do and you build the builds with a framework fo 2 by 4's and cinder blocks. Bricks look GREAT but are generally too expensive. I think you could buy a bunch of damaged ones which is double good since you'll need them to be war torn , but a fake urban environmenti s going to run you at least a couple hundred bucks.

On to Costumes, JUMP ON EBAY. Using a company called SC_Liqudations I picked up 3 full standard issue tents, 3 coveralls, 2 uniforms, 3 pants, 3 hats, 1 dress shirt, and more stuff I'm most likely forgetting for $98, an avg of $3/item. I was able to dress every character in basically 3-Item pieces for under $10/Each. Hell I could have gotten the stuff for better prices perhaps, but I didn't feel like haggling for a day or two over $.50 :P But if your filming with more then 5-6 actors, you may want to go the extra yard and get those great prices.

If you've got more then 20 Actors and your doing something WWII or later, you can actual purchase military surplus direct. You'll be getting in the area of 60 Units of Tunic, Shirts, whatever for about $75, but its cheaper then ebay and you can sell the excess lot real fast, and perhaps end up spending next to nothing.


PAUSE, Okay time to finish all this Univ work for last day of classes tommorow, then I can go back and reorganize this a bit, just wanted to get something in before bed.

Got any stills? I have some of my current WWII project at http://plaza.ufl.edu/ekubota/film.html

Mine is unconventional in that there are only two characters in uniform and it's more of a survival drama than a war film per se.

If you need urban European combat, etc. you should look for demolition sites in your town or city. There's a church being torn down near my school that looks exactly like a bombed-out example in France or Germany.

eBay or sportsmansguide.com are your best bet for costumes and many props. For weapons airsoft guns are reasonable.

I would advise against building sets for this kind of thing. It'll never be as realistic as finding an actual site.

I have helped out on a couple of films that were made with help of volunteers (myself included) and donations. The director had gathered around him a bunch of people willing to help out with everything involved and we made a series of 3 movies on WWII. He either made the costumes/ props/weapons himself or he asked collectors if he could lend some and in return they could be apart of the films He ended up being able to have use of a very old mansion (which a Sam Neil movie was once made in) a 1930's rolls royce, a 1930's motorbike with sidecart and a WWII fighter plane (which was very, very cool)
Anyway the point is, is to just go around and explain who you are and what you want to accomplish and you'll be surprised how many people will help you out