Another Week on “The Hill”

Doug and Mike back at Oklahoma D-Day.

Oklahoma D-Day 2009:

Yep, Doug and I were back at it again this June. Once again we piled my trusty Ford Escape up with camping gear and film equipment to drive the approx. 1,200 miles from Washington, DC to Wyandotte, OK. We were headed back out to our new home away from home – “The Hill” (AKA: The D-Day Adventure Park). Our mission was a bit different this year – we weren’t going to have a big crew with cameras all over the place, this time it was just Doug and myself and we had some specific things we needed to shoot to officially complete the filming for “Soldiers of Paint.” And, after spending so much time in the confined space of our dark and stuffy edit suite, we were excited to be back on the open road – to visit with our friends – and to make some new ones….

Things change & that’s a fact. We knew that the community was undergoing some changes since 2008 & we didn’t know what to expect to see when we arrived at D-Day this year. Well, it is good to know that some things never change – as has been the case over the past two years that we’ve been working on this film, we were immediately greeted with open arms. Every year we are blown away at how open and welcoming this community is to a couple of dudes from DC. From the main man Dewayne himself all the way to the first year player at D-Day, we feel the support & encouragement that has motivated us since day 1 to push forward with telling this story.

Besides filming a few additional things this year, we also decided to show off some clips of the film to the D-Day crowd. Thanks to Chuck & Aaron at JT Sports and Brent @ AirUps, we were able to show sample clips up on the big screen at JT’s outdoor movie nights. Each screening was a rousing success and we are thrilled to know that our film’s subjects were enjoying what they saw. Each night at the screenings we expressed our gratitude and also asked for patience and continued support:

Making a feature length documentary of this scale as independent filmmakers is an extremely costly and time consuming task. We are not independently wealthy, nor do we have the backing of big name studios. Doug and I have to work to make our livings as well as work on completing the film. The good news is that we are making great progress on the edit and we know that we have something special. We are still striving to have the film finished before the end of the year. However, in order to make it as good as it can be and have it reach the larger audience, we still need your help.

From joining our mailing list, to sending your friends to our Youtube link, you can help spread the word for free. If you are feeling somewhat more generous, for just 10 bucks you can get YOUR NAME in the credits of the film. Want to give more than $10? We even have a way to donate to our cause that is 100% tax deductible & you get cool stuff. Finally, if your wealthy uncle is still looking for a great project to invest in, then we’ve got a plan for that too (email us directly: info@soldiersofpaint.com)

So thanks again for your time and support and keep your eyes open for the latest news about the film. Until then, here’s some photos of our latest D-Day adventure.

Cheers,
Doug and Mike

Mike’s Happy To Be On The Road

The Open Road

Visiting the Louisville Slugger Factory

Camping

Visiting St. Louis

Catching A Cards Game At Busch Stadium

Doug Drives

Doug & Mike Back On The Hill

Doug on Tank

WWII Vet Jake McNiece Talks

Mike & Jake

Big Storm Over Neosho

JT Movie Night Screening

Doug Filming

South Tower, Utah Beach

Mike Films Poison

Doug In Full Battle Rattle

Mike & Doug Visit Gene & His WWII Spotter Plane

Doug Films In Gene’s Plane

Mike Gets Audio in Gene’s Plane

Flying In Gene’s Plane

Mike’s Ford Escape

Passing St. Louis On The Way Home

Mike’s Souvenir Paintball Bruise

Doug’s Souvenir Poison Ivy

See clips from the film at OkDDay 2009!

Hey Folks. As many of you know, we were at DDay 2008 with ten cameramen embedded in what turned out to be arguably the most historical and closely fought battle in the history of OkDDay, and we got it all on film. But we weren’t just at the battle, we covered the preparations both sides undertake in the many months leading up to the game, from Axis leaders in Chicago to Allies in Florida to Dewayne himself. We’ve been working hard since the end of the last year’s battle to edit the film, which is ongoing. We hope to have a completed film by the end of the year.

The good news is you don’t have to wait until the end of the year to see clips from the film. JT Sports is having 3 movie nights during the DDay week and have given us some time before each screening for us to show our current trailer PLUS some footage from our work-in-progress film and the 2008 game for you all to see. This will be an exclusive event and the first time we will have shown any of our footage anywhere to anyone. Come check it out on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday evening!

If this is your first time hearing about our film, please check out our original trailer (with footage from the 2007 game) and our website.

http://www.soldiersofpaint.com

See you all on the hill soon!

Doug Gritzmacher & Mike DeChant
Producers
“Soldiers of Paint”

Editing has begun! Get your name in the end credits!

Ah, it’s that time of year again. Jack Frost is nipping at your nose. Folks are dressed up like Eskimos. Sounds like a great time to be indoors snuggled up to a … computer?

It may not exactly be chestnuts roasting on an open fire, but the warm hum of our brand new G-Tech RAID hard drive is keeping us toasty as we log through the 140 hours of footage we have from Oklahoma D-Day.

Wha-?! One_hundred_and_forty_hours, you ask?

Yes, making feature documentaries requires shooting A LOT of footage to capture those golden moments that will make you want to laugh or cry (or both). Over the past few months we’ve been busy feeding that footage into our computer and watching every single minute of it and, boy, have we got some great stuff! Our task now is to distill all that footage down to an action-packed 90-minute film, which we plan to start doing early in the new year. We know many of you can’t wait to see this film (heck, we can’t either!), but as you can see making documentaries is a very time-intensive process. While we’d love to have DVDs available for you this holiday season, we are on schedule to have DVDs available for you to view with your egg nog next year.

Footage isn’t the only resource-hog of making documentaries. The other, of course, is money. As we move forward with making this film, we still need all financial help we can get, even if all you got is 10 bucks. In fact, for a donation as small as $10, we’ll put your name in the end credits of “Soldiers of Paint”. Click here to get your name in the credits NOW.

For those of you with slightly deeper pockets, or are just feeling the Christmas spirit, you can now make tax-deductible donations to our film. You’ll get your name in the end credits and depending on how much you donate, we’ll throw in a movie poster, a DVD, tickets to film festivals our film appears in—or all three. Click here to help us and lighten your tax burden.

Donations aren’t the only way to help us financially. We have a business plan for interested investors that makes a strong case for a potential for success that is as good as, if not better than, many other non-film investments. You don’t need us to tell you that the stock market stinks right now. So instead of letting your money sit on the sidelines, why not invest in our film? Email us for our business plan and levels of return on investment.

If you’ve blown your stash on holiday gifts, or just never had a stash to begin with, you can still help us in a big way. Click here to find out ways you can become a fan of the film and help us spread the word.

Thanks for checking with back us and thanks for your patience while we continue making this film. Don’t forget to sign up to our mailing list so we can keep you updated on the making of “Soldiers of Paint.”

Happy holidays!

Doug and Mike

SOP is “In the Can”

We did it. We made it to Oklahoma D-Day 2008 and we filmed our movie. And our timing couldn’t have been better – it was the closest battle in the eleven year history of the event. We know that we captured some golden moments on and off the battlefield and now we have to begin the long process of editing many hours of raw footage into a tight, dramatic, and entertaining feature length movie. (While the bulk of the filming is completed, we do have a couple “pick-up” interviews to complete and we plan to do a little filming at next year’s event to get a few shots we think we didn’t get in June.) We estimate that the film we will be in “post-production” for at least a year and hope to have DVD’s for sale by Christmas 2009. Until then please check in on this blog regularly as we will update everyone on our progress. You can also go to the SOP website to get the latest news on the film as well as subscribe to the official e-mail list. Also, please become a fan of SOP on our Facebook page and help us spread the word.

We also want to take a moment to thank everyone associated with the Oklahoma D-Day family, including Dewayne Convirs and his family, Jeremy Hanna, and the entire D-Day staff. The people we interviewed did us a great honor to trust us to enter their worlds with big, scary High Def. cameras and without that access we wouldn’t have a movie. Throughout the entire filming process we were welcomed with open arms and we are now proud to consider ourselves a part of the extended D-Day family and we look forward to seeing everyone at OK D-Day 2009.

Cheers,

Doug and Mike

PS: Here’s a few photos of our adventure:

FLA & The Big Easy

The SOP adventure continues as our most recent travels took us to lovely,Ft. Myers, Florida – where we had a great (but brief) time visiting with the Allied Brigadier General Andy Van Der Plaats. It was typical Florida weather: beautiful, hot and sunny. A good place for Andy to strategize for an Allied victory (no time for golf, thank you.)

Speaking of hot places….we then jumped over to N’awlins to hang out with Juan “Beatle” Parke (CO of the 899th) and his son Dean (AKA “Deeno”). They gave us a local perspective on the city and took us to some authentic spots for some good food and good vibes.

New Orleans is one of my favorite places on earth and that is mostly because of its residents and their positive spirit and love of life (and music, food, art, and general revelry). Despite the crushing blow that Katrina dealt, the people that make that city great (like Juan Parke) are soldiering forward and rebuilding. Difficult times, yes, but we can all learn something from this community that has stood together and helped each other through the darkest of days – never forgetting to take time to enjoy life.

Beatle and Deeno were great hosts and they make a great father and son team. Among other things, they gave us a tour of the impressive D-Day museum (one of their favorite places to visit before coming to OK D-Day). There’s a lot more to their story and you’ll be seeing more of them in SOP, sho’nuf.

Until then – check out a couple pics:

Here’s Doug, Mike, and two beatles.

And here’s Deeno getting a chance to run the HD camera.

And here’s Doug posing for a shot (clearly he’s better behind the camera than in front of it).

Here’s Beatle, Deeno, and myself enjoying and New Orleans tradition: sno-balls.

More to come,

Mike

Field Work

Last week we headed back out to Oklahoma and shot some footage of Dewayne Convirs, OK D-Day facility owner, head promoter, and master of all trades, as he fought mother nature to continue several field construction projects including the installation of Pegasus bridge.

We continue to marvel at the dedication of Dewayne and his immediate and extended “family” as they all chip in to get the facility ready for the upcoming June event. He is certainly a man with a vision and it seems like its gonna take a lot more than some rain and mud to stop him…

Also, thanks to Dewayne and his massive collection of military vehicles, Doug had the pleasure of driving a Deuce and a half for the first time. It sure beat having to take our whimpy rental car four wheeling.

Forward Ho!
Doug & Mike 

SOP Filming Continues

Doug and Mike continued filming for Soldiers of Paint last week.

Our first stop was Chicago, where we were invited to a cookout at Buckshot’s place. We were treated with warm hospitality (including some monster steaks) and, among other things, got some great footage of a German command strategy meeting. Many thanks to Buckshot and his family for letting us into their home and a shout out to Grendel for providing the action pic of us at work.

Next stop was Wichita, KS where we got to witness Psycho, the Supreme Allied Commander, doing what he does when he’s not planning for his latest assault on Normandy. We learned that not only is he a top notch bowler but he’s also a kick ass DJ. And well, we’ll let the picture do the talking…

 

 More to come, Doug & Mike

Soldiers of Paint Now in Production

Doug and Mike commenced shooting for the feature film this February.
We interviewed the German commander, Bill Bailey, at his home in Missouri and then headed to DDay Adventure Park in Oklahoma to get some footage of the winter meeting.

We were thrilled with our warm welcome and we’ve already got some great stuff in the can.

Keep checking the Soldiers of Paint blog for the latest news on the film.

Cheers!

Doug and Mike

SOP BLOG LAUNCHED

We’ve launched our official blog site for Soldiers of Paint.

Check in regularly to see the latest posts from Mike & Doug