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What do you do when you and your friends have built a lifesize M1 Abrams
tank entirely out of cardboard?
Well the first thing you do NOT do is ask "Why?" because if you ask
that you are obviously not a teenage boy. The reason you build a lifesize
cardboard Abrams tank is so you can build a lifesize cardboard Abrams tank.
I mean, duh!
But now that you have your tank, what do you do with it? |
Well in this day and age, especially if you already have some filmmaking
chops like 18-year-old Clinton Jones, you make a movie with it. You
remember the old James Cagney musicals in which the plot was essentially:
Hey! He's got a barn, I've got some costumes, let's put on a show!? In the
21st century, this has apparently been updated to: Hey, we've got a cardboard
tank and a camera - let's make a war movie!
| Although Jones and his friends had plenty of realistic Airsoft guns,
they just looked too realistic to be used in a film featuring a cardboard
tank. So with a great deal of additional work, the young filmmakers created
detailed, lifesize, but obviously cardboard weapons, just so that the suspension
of disbelief necessary to sell the cardboard tank would succeed. And succeed
it does.
Using post-production effects and a good deal of editing skill, the simple
story (apparently a confab between two rival groups of guerilla fighters
goes sour) is enhanced by muzzle flashes, bullet holes, explosions, and
splattering blood.
Technically, all these effects are excellent; visuals and sound effects work
together extremely well, and there were no continuity jumps or screen direction
flaws anywhere. |
With the addition of post-production effects, the audience almost forgets
that they are looking at obvious cardboard weaponry - but there is just enough
awareness so that the film remains "cool and fun" rather than "violent and
tragic." These are obviously not real weapons, and though the acting is deadly
serious, everyone is obviously having fun.
The audience can enjoy some truly spectacular and well-done violence, because
that all-essential "cheese factor" of cardboard weapons remains front and
center.
As such, "Cardboard Wars" works extremely well, delivers exactly what it
set out to deliver, and is an enjoyable five minutes for almost anyone -
especially if you have ever been a teenage boy. |
Bob Forward is a past-president of AMPS and the power behind
Detonation Films
...
"Detonation Films is dedicated to putting the fun back in filmmaking by
establishing a new paradigm between digital media and online entertainment.
"
And blowing things up ... safely.
The site is packed with ideas, tutorials, free footage you can use.
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