infrastructure day …

so, today is a pretty big day for Scenario Paintball Films. Aaron(me) has been busily researching many many different shopping cart packages, trying to find the best of features for our purposes. Jay has been living in the editing room frantically getting our sales demo / trailer thrown together. Jay and I both have been working with the latest addition to our team, a professional graphic artist. We should have a logo by the end of this week, and some art for some other *secret* projects as well.

Check back often, within the next day or two I will be ready to activate order accepting for pre-sales. We may even have a loose release date by the end of this week or next.

Yukon(me) owes BennyT an apology!

Those of you in the northeastern Scenario community have likely heard of BennyT, Kendall and Train. Harder. If you haven't, please check them out - great guys all around: youtube channel

Well, in my anxiousness to get this site up and running I looked through all the names I could think of and they were all used except scenariopaintballtv.com, so I quickly registered it, began to move my blog to it, and post it around a few forums. I knew our names (mine and BennyT) were similar with him using SPbTV, and me using scenariotv on my original blogspot site, but Benny and I had already spoken about it and were cool with each other. Benny hadn't been overly thrilled with the idea, but he knew he was using a generic sounding name - and I was looking for a generic sounding name for the same reasons. It was inevitible that they were going to be similar. I knew my new domain was even more similar to his name, but I didn't think they were identical because as I rememberred it, Benny always used the abbreviation. I have been ridiculously busy the last few days and have had very little sleep (working late every night on this project + a 0430 alarm to drive into NYC for my *real job*). That all combined to equal the following mistake: In my idiocy I failed to remember that at the opening and closing credits of most (last count well over 60) of Benny's youtube videos he doesn't use the abbreviation SPbTV, he spells out "Scenario Paintball TV." I rewatched a few of Benny's videos a little after 10 last night, and immediately registered a new domain name. That being said you can all see how my registering and beginning to use the domain scenariopaintballtv.com name was a pretty lousy move. On the plus side, at least it was me, and not some jerk offshore none of us have ever heard of and would try and charge Benny and exorbitant amount to acquire the registration for scenariopaintballtcv.com. Benny and I know each other on and off the field, phone calls amongst the community have commenced and all with be settled shortly.

I reiterate, I have nothing but love and respect for: BennyT, Kendall, and Train. Harder. Please visit their site via link earlier in this post, or the link on the right column of the main blog page.

This blog has moved (again) to http://blog.scenariopaintballfilms.com, please update your bookmarks and check back often

new blog, I will continue to double post for a week or so

here is the new site of the new Blog:

http://blog.scenariopaintballtv.com/

It's on wordpress, and I have all sorts of new features to go with it. RSS, email links, etc.

The single most important feature I added is the ability for you to sign up for an email list. As a network engineer, trust me I get enough spam and hate it. I vow to never sell, misuse, or otherwise abuse your email addresses. I am just asking for you to sign up, so in the future I can send out some messages about how to go about pre-ordering your DVD copies. If you're really lucky and there is enough interest we may do a limited quantity pre-release edition which will include a regular DVD much later when they come out at little or no additional cost. Jay and I still have to work out the details for that.

we're going to move soon ...

You just never know what you as a reader will find hidden in my posts here. Occasionally (such as today) you will find a lot of useless ramblings, however some days (possibly today - you'll just have to read below and make up your own mind) you will find a nugget of real hard core meaty information. I mentioned in the beginning I won't hold anything back. I will keep the general public as informed as I keep my close friends, and you are all now paying the price ... be careful what you wish for.

So, I have been thinking (I know I know, I should stop - it usually sets what little hair I have left on fire, etc. etc.) about this project a lot lately. Jay and I set forth since the beginning two driving forces: One was to do this for my love of paintball, and to further grow our beloved sport. The other was to keep this project completely professional and to "do it right." In keeping with that ideal, I've begun to consider that using a free blogger (google) account may not have been the most professional looking way for us to go. Earlier this morning I purchased a new domain and web host space:

http://www.scenariopaintballtv.com/

There isn't anything there yet (so don't bother browsing to it), and it will take us a little while to get it up and moving - but I do believe it is "the right way" to go. We have already been approached and have briefly considered what our next project might be, and it's sounding like we may actually be able to turn this into a small (part time at least) business. To be honest, that is all really a pipe dream for Jay and I, and we are really just trying to concentrate on making this first one as successful as possible (and sell at least enough copies to make back our personal investments) - but I did want to let you all know my gears have been turning lately.

Sales, Strategic Alliances, and other fun stuff.

I know I know, its been a few days since I posted, but I haven't had anything really interesting to tell you all. Jay has continued to edit lots and lots of film and we're quite confident in the shape this project is beginning to take. This is likely to wind up as an "introduction to Scenario Paintball," filmed at one of the best games in the business, West Point USMA.

I've begun to reach out to industry people and am having some really interesting and exciting conversations. From magazines to manufacturers the feedback I've received has been 100% supportive. Not to punch a gift horse in the mouth, but so far I'm amazed to report not a single person I've reached out to has given me the old blow off. It really just proves to me that the professional side of this industry is just as warm and hospitable as the player side that we know so well.

Some really awesome marketing (and cross-marketing) ideas are beginning to form in my and others' heads. Very soon some of them may be coming to fruition so make sure you all check back here for information often.

Jay is a machine in the editing room!

All:

I just got off the phone with Jay, and I'm crazy psyched. We've got some really awesome footage, and after a 2-3 days of sitting in front of his Mac Jay is almost halfway through previewing available footage. So far he tells me we have a good one hour show, which was our original goal. The DVD release will be longer containing extra scenes, and may contain some bloopers such as inside jokes, some people tripping, etc. We're still probably a month or two away from a full length trailer that I can begin circulating through the paintball industry and go to networks with, but things are looking great.

For today's "appetite whetting" Jay has picked out a frame grab from inside one of the tanks:

First Teaser.

All righty guys, you've been asking for it, and Jay has been dutifully sitting in his editing room working to appease you.

On the right side you will find our first Teaser clip. Also you can watch it on the Vimeo site where you can pop it out into full screen:

teaser on Vimeo


West Point Paintball Combat Classic Spring 2009 Teaser from Jay Lavely on Vimeo.

First production images ...

Here are the first few production stills:
Mud & heavy rain + much steeper ditch than expected + tank =


and a couple of our crew members (Tom with the camera and Topher with the mic) talking with the Red Comms Officer (Hollywood, from team Delta Co.):


and of course one of yours truly, (also the the Red team's XO) all kitted up:

bad bad bad people

I will try and keep this blog on topic most of the time, however there will be extenuating circumstances from time to time. This is partly due to my personal goal with this production is to bring more media coverage to the scenario side of paintball and help legitimize what we do into being recognized as a *real* sport. The athleticism, teamwork, sportsmanship, and strategy this game requires will beat most any other "legitimate" team sport out there, and I think its high time some of our greats are recognized as such. One of these greats is a player known within the community as "BennyT." He has started a new phenomenon within paintball called "Train. Harder." which is basically the concept of building an athletic body and maintaining it for paintball duty. Benny started a youtube channel called SPbTV a few months ago to assist in getting his ideas known through the community: http://www.youtube.com/spbtv

Last Sunday some morons in PA struck a deep blow against everything that Benny (and the rest of us) stand for within this sport. They ended a high school kid's future sports career with 10 seconds of brutal stupidity. I believe Benny has summed up all our thoughts best, and his video can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_QU6ya6ySc

The morning after!

I can't stop thinking about Danny Glover and the Lethal Weapon series ... "I'm getting too old for this sh*t." I'm moving (allbeit a lot slower than usual) and made my long trek into the city for my regular job this morning, but I put off getting out of bed for an hour and my drive took twice as long due to traffic. Luckily I'm a computer geek, and only have to type during my usual day because I still have no voice. Now, on to stuff people care about:

We watched a few clips of film yesterday afternoon with MSG DuBois around 1700 just before we rolled the RV out of the camping area. We have amazing footage. Thank you all for *trying* not to shoot the cameras too much, the cameramen certainly did get a work out, though. By mid-day mayhem on Saturday I believe every one of them had asked me on the side when the next the game the Loaded Crows were going to so they could put down their cameras and pick up some markers to play with instead. Ideas are already floating around everyones' heads in respect to filming a scenario like this even better.

For those of you who missed the introduction, our goal with this project is to go to network broadcast. This may happen as a one-off type special, however if my dreams come true it will be sold as a pilot for a reality / documentary type series. We will have DVDs printed and available for sale within about 8-12 months. There may be an "early release" copy for sale in limited quantities a little earlier, to be honest its still a little early to tell too much.

Jay will begin thoroughly watching in the range of 80-120 hours of raw footage in a couple of days and hopefully we'll have our first teaser clip put together within about a week. We all need a couple of days to recuperate.

I have so many people to thank, I really don't have the time or space to list them out, that will be in a later post. For now: The US Army and USMA cadets, all of the collected scenario teams on both the Axis and Allied side. You guys did amazing, you all fought hard, and most importantly you all fought with honor. Thank you!

1 day and a wake up ...

last day before shooting commences. Stress levels are high, but the Producers have been working together long enough to keep everything in check. We're both running around like chickens with our heads cut-off today completing our final preparations. Jay is picking up cameras, cards, and other assorted goodies. Aaron is is carrying a huge pile 'o stuff up stairs to stage and be ready to pack first thing tomorrow morning. As I look at the massive pile of gear forming near the front door of my house, I'm seriously beginning to question if it will all even fit in my little Jeep Cherokee. My shopping errands will start later today, I'm still at my *real job* for now.

planning, more planning

So, for the last few weeks at least my life has revolved around one weekend: 3-5 April. Today is no different. For those who don't know me well, I'm actually responsible for 3 very different roles for the Combat Classic: Co-Captain and logistics for team Loaded Crows, Axis XO (second in command, and of co-Producer of this insanely awesome project. Before 10am I had already done the following:
Producer work
re-confirmed the RV rental
updated the crew "character" sheet and emailed final version
worried about cash on hand & credit remaining
researched even more storage space, might still have to buy more with the next day or two
verified next shipment of supplies (crew radios) is on time
working on this blog (much later than10)
Captain duties
re-organized Friday's dinner
spoke to two team members about (food) arrangements
XO duties
made myself available for final pre-weekend strategy/command conference call

And of course, I do still have my day job as a network engineer to complete. I was here in the data center in NYC by my usual 6:45am today.

we are currently working on an email mailing list to notify you our friends, and supporters of new information. when I figure out exactly how I want to manage it, I'll let you all know.

shoot date, almost here

Hey folks,

Just beginning to setup a small blog to journal our production status. We've already come a long way in producing the best Scenario Paintball documentary ever to grace any screen large or small.

We worked with the USMA and the DoD to secure a contract allowing us to tape at one of the premier scenario paintball events in the world. The producers have been meeting and planning for months putting together this project. We are supremely confident we have hired the best crew, contacted some of the best and most unique players in the game and are positioned for complete success.

Check back often, we will be updating this frequently with statuses and snippets throughout our post production processes.

For pre-release copies and information, keep reading!