"YouTube Movie for Historicon" Topic

Hey Folks:

Back in January, HMGS asked me to produce a movie to generate interest in their upcoming Historicon-09 event.

YouTube link

This is the first in a 6-part series. Both Episodes 1 & 2 can be viewed on the HMGS Historicon website:

historicon.org

The remaining episodes will be posted on Historicon's site each week in sequence until the 4th of July weekend.

So enjoy and please help spread the word about Historicon-09!

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Ted

Brilliant.

Congratulations – that was really good – imaginative and original.

Doug

Great stuff! Good work.

Sorry. That didn't work for me. Not my cup of tea. What was the goal? Get people to attend?

As a battle report video I think it is great. I'd love to see more game battle reports done to a good quality video standard like this.

As a convention advertising video, I have to agree with avidgamer and say it really misses the mark. The reason I say that is because there is not a single person shown playing or interacting in the video at all.

I enjoyed it… but did find the lack of any framing shots of players a little odd. I am looking forward to seeing more vids in this series.

Ted, I thought it was really quite good.
--
Tim

We've seen a lot of galleries of photos from Historicon over the past twenty-odd years. Be honest now: are shots of typical attendees *really* going to entice anyone to come?

Allen

are shots of typical attendees *really* going to entice anyone to come?

I was speaking to having a display of camaraderie, shopping, and general social experience. Anyone can play a game at home or shop online. The draw of a convention (in my opinion) is the social interaction. It has to look like a group of people having fun.

Be honest now: are shots of typical attendees *really* going to entice anyone to come?

Not women, Allen?

Ralph

I liked it as well Ted.
For those of you who mentioned the lack of Players, this video was made earlier this year for HMGS. Some may recognize Dana Lombardy. He was the organizer and producer for this video.

link

This is a nice video of something I have no idea what it is about. I have been to all Historicons and this is nothing like anything I have ever seen.

How much of our hard spent money went into this production?

Am I wrong that an advertisment for Historicon should start off with some description of what it is about and maybe pictures of the venue -- real games, the dealers' area, Lampteter room, the roast pig dinner? This could have been shot at Cold Wars as it looks about the same.

I had trouble finding the second part on the H'Con site. There was no "Video About Historicon." Isn't that what people would look at. This is a very interesting naval battle report, but does not represent the vast majority of what Historicon is about.

A big Napoleonic battle, based on the theme with players about would be nice. Or any big miniatures battle. If I had a friend who wanted to know what Historicon was about, this video would do nothing to interest him or give him information about the event.

Would someone explain to me how this otherwise well done production for HMGS will "generate interest in their upcoming Historicon-09 event." I just do not get it, sorry.

And how much is it costing us?

Grunt1861,
I thought the video you placed the link for was much better than the first one I saw about the naval battle.

cheers,
rob
eureka miniatures usa

I don't get it…I only watched part one, and I assume part two is similar. What exactly is this trying to promote…miniature wargaming? Most of what I saw was computer generated graphics…and pretty crude ones at that. As a after action narrative, I suppose it's OK, but what intrigues me is the statement "Back in January, HMGS asked me to produce a movie to generate interest in their upcoming Historicon-09 event."

If HMGS asked him to produce a movie to support Historicon 09, then why not focus on the 1809 theme rather than a WWII naval theme? How ironic…HMGS East has got to move to Baltimore since we've "outgrown" the Host…so why does East have to generate any interest in Historicon at all.

Just a word of warning to Bob and his pootch, as we get past Historicon 09, the amount of hype East is going to have to engage in to generate a crowd for Historicon 10 will make this look like childsplay…and the amount of money that gets spent in this effort will exceed anything we've seen.

db

First of all, I'd like to thank you for your compliments and comments.

The constructive criticism is appreciated as well. I currently live in Washington State and have never been to Historicon. So I'm afraid I don't have any stock photos of the convention itself to use. As I mentioned in my initial post I was asked to do this based on the impression made by my earlier work.

Keep in mind this is a 6-part series of one battle. There is more to follow. Episode 1 sets the stage. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clearer. The follow-on episodes will be posted one per week until 4 July.

Historicon's main theme is indeed Napoleon's 1809 Campaign, however, I must admit I do not own any Napoleonic miniatures. Furthermore, in order to meet the advertisement deadline and because of my job's rotating schedule I couldn't coordinate a game among my local wargaming friends. (On an unrelated note, I did produce "Preparing for Battle at Enfilade" which does in fact show players involved in their table-top battles).

The original plan was to produce several movies in the following popular eras: Ancient, Napoleonic, ACW, WWII-Europe (Land) and WWII-Pacific (Naval).

I chose to do the WWII-Pacific (Naval) and this scenario in particular due to the ease of playing it solitaire. (Japanese convoy must reach Balikpapan, ABDA must stop it).

Another delay was incurred when our house was broken into and my laptop was among the items stolen. So as a result this was all I was able to muster for HMGS-E this year.

As to the comment about the primitive "special effects": You are correct, they are primitive. I started making these movies just under a year ago. I was never into photography prior to this and am not very computer savvy. However, at the risk of sounding my tin-horn I feel each movie I produce is better than the last one as I try to bring action and drama to pictures of stationary miniatures.

Once again, I appreciate all your comments and your patience during my learning process.

I hope this answers this forum's questions. If you have any specific or more detailed comments, please feel free to e-mail me at:

tedhenkle@yahoo.com

It is my sincere desire to produce the highest quality movies (or more like audio-visual graphic novels) I can for my fellow wargamers to enjoy.

Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Ted

PS:

Here's a direct link to the Historicon website's "video page":

link

I hope the historical narrative will answer some of the "what's this about?" questions posed by members of this forum.

Sincerely,

Ted

Okay; it is far cooler than any production I could do, but I think the advert for check your six was a much more effective style to advertise a convention.

YouTube link

Jim

If this is the winning bid for "a movie to generate interest in their upcoming Historicon-09 event." I must wonder who lost.

The production is interesting and well done. I just do not see what it has to do with the Convention? How does it generate interest in the convention?

I am at a loss to understand this project. The cited link explains the battle quite well but not the objective of the video.