- Joined
- Apr 8, 2018
- Location
- Coffeeville, TX
(Me in my admittingly not correct Union uniform and overweight self, fooling around the saloon on the set of No Man's Land 2019)
I like movies, and a year and half ago I was invited to work on one. My role was as one of the prop masters, and as the weapons coordinator, with an offer to be credited as a historical consultant that I declined. I thoroughly enjoyed working on that budget western, even if more than once I had to suppress the urge to bash my head into a brick wall over some "details" of the movie because I'm so discriminating on such things. Heck after it got released several months back I got reacquainted with that feeling when I finally saw it, and somehow someway literally all gunfight scenes were cut except for the very first one, and I am confident that was the main reason behind the terrible reviews of it. Which is too bad as it had such potential story wise, still a decent good watch, though I am a bit biased.
After that I've been involved with several other budget films, and many fellow reenactors of the campaigner variant I've invited to come help, but they refused outright and because farberism abounded. Where they were stuck up, and judgmental I gave it a chance because I saw opportunity, and am looked down on by some for it. As things have progressed I was urged to take some screenwriting classes and am happy to say I'm working on a few, (not CW) and can't wait till I'm done with the first two I'm writing to see what happens. Normally I wouldn't discuss all this, but seeing where one CW movie thread went, ( https://civilwartalk.com/threads/ive-run-out-of-civil-war-movies-to-watch.162484/page-5#post-2129427 ), combined with seeing reviews of that first movie I worked on, and the realization that a distributor bought that independent film and released it, not to mention the new budget CW movie about Sherman in as the back cover says "1962 March to the Sea" an intriguing idea occurred to me.
Why not do as others have done, get together with new cherished friends in that business and write, maybe direct or co-direct an independent CW movie myself!
I'm often accused by some of being overly competitive, but I feel they simply mistake me being critical of EVERYTHING I see wrong, whether it be a movie on the TV, CW uniforms, and history, or just everything I see going wrong in everyday life, (I may have spent too much time around my father who WAS overly competitive over everything). This is just an idea I've had, and I'm curious about what folks here on CWT will think of this latest crazy idea from a person prone to crazy ideas.
As for a synopsis of the idea I've been putting together in my head, I want to set it in a CW surrounding that I've come to love studying, NW Arkansas after Prairie Grove during the often unheard of guerilla war that happened there, with main character on both sides related to one another with showing not only the bushwhacking, but hopefully smaller battles like Fayetteville or Devil's Backbone. Personal bias and love for that region is one reason, availability of reenactors, and budget money in the future if this goes forward being another, after all no independent film can try to make something about say the Battle of Chickamauga, and have satisfactory results. One aspect of this crazy idea is I want it to be on the level of films such as Wicked Spring in historical accuracy on uniforms, cloths, etc. partly because I despise historical inaccuracy in such regards because there is literally no excuse for it in this day and age, and partly because a good director/producer friend of mine said it can't be done. Also there's the personal matter of myself being very discriminating in such things.
But anyway, I know this is a long post, but let me hear y'alls thoughts!