"Thoughts on using painted miniatures in a documentary? " Topic

One big problem in doing a Civil War doc, especially on less popular subjects, is lack of media.

Use of re-enactors helps, but if you dont have access to large groups, I was thinking miniatures/dioramas might work and be something "different"

Has it ever been done?

Several "tricks" can be employed to make it dramatic..

thoughts?

It has been done, I think for Gettysburg. I cannot remember when but it was a TV production.

Gettysburg In Miniature was a VHS tape done in the early 1990s

It is VERY hard to make the miniatures look like anything but amateur night at the Bijou. They will not be treated seriously in an historical documentary.

My advice use CGI and create sophisticated graphics that illustrate positions and movement. This is now reasonably affordable and can add a lot to a production.

I think the Perry brothers could do it, and I believe they did.
If I remember correctly there was a documentary about Mafeking and they used Perry miniatuures.

I think a combination of miniatures, CGI and period photos would all together be great for a documentary. To much of any specific one of these and its just a rehash of old stuff.

But I look forward to seeing what you put together. It does sound interesting.

I wouldn't give up on using reenactors. If you feed them, they generally will show up. Everyone wants to be on TV.

I remember seeing a documentary about Trajan's column and the Dacians that used some great miniatures in it.

Yes I know it's not ACW, just mentioning.

Cheers Andy :-)

The Dacian wars is Perrys again, I have it on tape.

They used them just enough to give a feel. The bridge over the danube was spectacular though.

About fifteen to twenty years ago I was involved with the production of a Gaelic language documentary about the poet Ossian and Napoleon (apparently a great fan of Ossian) which used my 15mm Minifig's collection and a board I'd built to illustrate battle scenes.

I got very well paid for it.

We did an Irish language docu on Cromwell last year and they used some of our ECW stuff.

The History Channel had a documentary about the life of Napoleon, and used 25mm painted Minifigs on a large map to illustrate strategic movements.

It worked for me.

Go for it!

The Gettysburg VHS tape to which Der Alte Fritz refers
was begun in the late 1980's.

I lived in Raleigh at the time, and our FLGS (now
defunct) provided many of the miniatures used in the
production (including painting some of them). The
taping was done in the producer's home in Raleigh, NC.

I don't recall the name of the person who did the
production (Leighton ?), but do recall he used different
scales in an attempt to provide perspective on some of
the shots.

Basically, the tape is a series of posed scenes with
music background, so its as if viewing a series of
still photos, with the camera moving. Extensive use
was made of light and shadow and other effects to
both create mood and to reduce the 'toy soldiers on a
table' aspect of the production.

The figures are state-of-the-art late 80's, the painting
the same, but the terrain, over which the producer
labored extensively, is really well-done. He'd been
a model-maker and was a professional in media production,
IIRC.

IIRC, some of it (terrain) is still in use today, but
I'm unsure about that. It was interesting to follow
the course of production and to chat with the producer
about the challenges he met and overcame.

What about the series that used the "Total War" computer game to show the battles…. seemed like a great idea :)

Thanks for the background information Ed, the producer was Jeff Leighton.

I bought a copy of the VHS version while in Gettysburg back in the 90's, I thought it was and still is brilliant.

As Ed pointed out, the figures are very well painted, there were numerous scratch built buildings used and the overall terrain was spectacular.

I was very fortunate to be able to purchase about 1,000 of the 20mm figures used in the film, had an opportunity to buy the rest along with all of the buildings but for some idiotic reason, I passed at the time, still regret not doing that deal when I had the chance.

If you do it right with well painted figures and well made terrain, it is an excellent idea, so go for it………..

Seen quite a few now with computer generated troop actions, they at least can move. But there are some very high quality minitures that used like a still picture would that wouldn't to me detract from a program.