Saturday, January 17, 2009

"Impending Fury" SRS's 2nd YouTube Production

Earlier today I finally uploaded Part 1 of my "Operation Pedestal" movie on to YouTube. My recent production details the course of action mentioned in my previous wargaming posts. (See "Wargaming" posts dated 22 Nov & 14 Dec 08).

Like many other writers I fell into the trap of getting carried away with my research. Pictured here is the cover of one of the reference booklets I used: Supermarina II, by John D. Gresham and Michael Markowitz.

I found this particular operation fascinating and as a result the scale of this wargame movie project grew exponentially. Instead of playing-out a simple game involving a convoy and it's escorts, I'm now running a campaign involving 6 Royal Navy task forces versus hordes of Axis aircraft, submarines and ships.

Impending Fury, as I titled Part 1 of this saga is 8:36 minutes long. To make this, I took 84 pictures of which 75 are used. In addition to painting on most of the pictures, I downloaded sound effects and license-free music in order to add action and drama to the program. I also experimented with some of my computer's special effects in order to create the constant movement of the ships and aircraft.

I primarily used music instead of the "battle ambiance" sound effects I added to my first movie The Road to Eggmuehl. Unlike a short land battle, Impending Fury is the opening of 5-day naval campaign. So there was a lot of audio dead space that I wanted to fill and I couldn't find any "nautical ambiance" to add to the 8.5 minute program.

I'll probably use more "battle ambiance" in my upcoming--but as of yet, unplayed--films. Especially as the convoy nears Malta and the battles intensify.

I was surprised to see this movie already linked to this blog. (See the Stern Rake Studio Productions Section near the bottom). However, you can see a better picture by logging directly on to YouTube.

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