I made this movie to promote what the European Air Force online squadron stands for.

Hopefully, the message will be relevant to many of you who are enthusiastic about your own squadrons.

It has been a long road to complete this and I owe a lot to Monty-Dan for supporting me with his ongoing advice every step of the way.

Thanks to all the skinners (especially Keets), actors, pilots and Peacemaker for the original artwork he made for the movie.

Download from mission4today.com (you will need the DivX or Xvid codec to watch on a PC. Some DVD players will also play the file directly from this file burned to a CD/DVD as well which gives the best viewing experience)

Download from filefront.com

Standard quality 1.5Mbps streaming version from Blip

High quality 3Mbps streaming version from Vimeo (quality is improved if you switch the scaling off)

All comments welcome.

www.europeanaf.org

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Joe-90,

Absolutely Superb!!!

You've put all your accumulated experience together to produce a masterpiece! Relatively short in duration, yet encompassing a wide breadth of WWII aviation combat and theaters of war.

What a glorious tribute to your mates of the Virtual EAF...and to the RAF and RA and those who flew with, and against, them.

A huge Salute to you, Joe _90, for an incredibly well done job!!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doolittle81,

S! Joe

Unable to download it from filefront.
I'm sure the server might be very busy..

Try later....


Best Regards

Truly an amazing bit of work there, easily one of the best IL-2 movies I have seen. I found that the use of effects such as the flag were just right, you made them subtle but real, excellent work all around.

Struggled a lot to download from filefront, many attempts , but eventually... will view tonight.

Well, the master of the historical movie returneth with a vengeance here, best IL-2 movie of the year thus far IMO.
The control room is a great feature and works really well, also reminds me in a nostalgic way of pre IL-2 sims like EAW and B-17 where you had that as an area between missions, also the map which lights up with actual WWII footage is brilliant.
Some of the shots are so good in terms of cinematography it's hard to believe it's all IL-2, couple of my favs is the D-day shot of the landing craft or the Spitfire coming up through the contrails with the Macchi falling away in the back, it's a cracker mate you've surpassed yourself with this.

PS I had the same probs as biltong, filefront conked out several times but the old crap-ola megaupload actually delivered.

Excellent movie as always!
Loved the pics at the end with EAF at Duxford,as I met some of them and was standing only a few feet away..Brought back some memories!

(I wish you had used the Spit Mk1 for the BoB scenes,but thats just me)

I Highly enjoyed that mate and it was a very moving tribute towards the end.

Nice work

just awesome.... so THATS what u've been working on

hey what about that P-51 pilot Joey vs that 262?

Pretty damn Awesome Joe_90!!

SFX ambiance sounds was very good along with the engine sound mod installed.

Like the little bullet whizzes added nice touch.

Great story, excellent cinematography, and a great tribute your virtual squadron.

So good that a Golden Oleg should be awarded!!


Best Regards

Thanks guys, I'm glad you all like it. Making good movies takes a lot of effort as many of you know, but it makes it all worthwhile when you know your work is appreciated.

Uther, I would have used the Spit I if it had been available, but that scene was finished before then.

Giaplev, the Jospeh Peterburs story is on the back burner for now. I'm not rushing it, or the vet himself who has offered to help.

Falcon, you'll have noticed that I used a combination of the soundmod and extra effects to enhance where the sound mod wasn't strong enough. I also experimented for the first time doing a whole scene with no music at all. The clincher for that was watching a scene in Monty's SoW with all SFX and no music. I also wanted the final music piece to have more impact, and that worked I think because the previous scene had no music.

Great piece of work Joe. Thank you very much for putting it together. I found myself totally immersed in the film. IL2 machima has come a long, long way. And you and others are perfecting the genre.

WV

Hi Joe,

Firstly Joe I have to say that this Promo Movie is just packed with quality from start to finish and is a superb historical tribute to the EAF

Your use of classic cinematography is now awesome, and I love the addition of the subtle camera movement you have used on certain shots, that addition just gives it more of a "real" feel. There are so many stunning individual shots throughout the movie they are to long to list, but here are a couple, the Stuka bomb hitting the Spit at 3.08, the view above the Spit looking down on the con-trails at 6.56 and the ground shot of the train at 7.46

Part of what makes these certain shots so good is the detail you have put in. The missions, you only get out what you put in, these missions I know are lots of hard work just for a few seconds here and there, but it always pays off, we focus on the main object in these shots but the backdrops and detail are so important and that is what makes so many shots in this movie eye candy

What got me with this movie is that the cinematography is great by the time we get to the Invasion of Sicily, then it gets even better at the Balkans section, but the D-Day section was simply gorgeous to watch; I wanted this to be a movie on its own and was disappointed in a good way when it stopped.

Editing, sound FX and picture quality were all excellent as they should be from someone with your experience now, the only slight negative I had was the fading in and out of different music tracks, they should have been more abrupt with a sound FX to cover the transition or longer I thought, but this did not really detract from the overall package.

I really liked the integration of the CGI and IL2 footage, superbly done all-round and certainly added to the immersion and feel of the movie, you must have burnt the midnight oil on those shots The final act and tribute was also at the right level, thoughtfully done, not over the top given the sensitive nature of the tribute, and the credits with the real video was a very nice touch indeed.

I know you had a lot of help with the Skins, CGI, Narration and voice actors, all done at a very high standard in my opinion, the narration and voice acting was particularly good as this element alone could kill a movie stone dead if not executed right, I would like to congratulate all on their input

It's been a pleasure to watch this project develop and be if you will your proof watcher , and I am so glad that I did not get to see the D-Day section as this was the cherry on the cake for me. Another great movie and you should get thousands signing up to the EAF after watching this.

Now please consider making a movie of D-Day

Cheers
Monty-Dan

"Shoulder to Shoulder", as a cinematographic masterpiece, has been selected by the FSM Advisory Board for showcasing with the Best of the Best at the Flight Sim MoviesWebsite.

In addition, and in specific recognition of it being a truly Outstanding historical tribute, Joe_90 is herewith presented the Golden Oleg:



Congratulations Joe_90 !!!

Very impressive film, Joe. What a great tribute to your squad mates, too. I really enjoyed that aspect of it. You've shown great improvement with each film you've made, and you're now in rare air indeed in terms of cinematography and editing. The CGI was an unexpected touch but very nicely executed. I had flashbacks to FH&C when I saw the room. I didn't realize you had been dabbling with 3D software, although, now that I think about it, I guess you did mention it once a while back. BTW, which 3D program did you use? My compliments to your artist, too. He did a great job, as did your narrator (Eagle 1).

I can't think of anything to critique except to say that the D-day ending was maybe just a touch abrupt. Very minor, though. All I can really ask for is more of this level of filmmaking in the future. I agree with Monty, too--I would love to see a D-day invasion film. Maybe you could incorporate Call of Duty and Silent Hunter 4. Hey, sounds like a great community film project. You know, if everyone pitches in, you should be done in a mere fraction of the time it would otherwise take you...

Outstanding Job and Congratulations Joe_90!!


Best Regards

Thanks all and it's an honour to receive the Golden Oleg.

Monty, I'm glad I kept the D-Day scene from you until the end now I hear what you say about the music. It's hard cutting stock sound tracks that were not composed to fit our movies. There are only two ways to get a perfect score – get someone to compose one for your movie, or edit your movie to suit pre-written music.

GL2, I'm well pleased that you're impressed with the cinematography - many guys here have a good grasp of cinematography, but no one is as knowledgeable as yourself.

I have dabbled in CGI now, yep, but only enough to know it's very hard and I probably won't be using it again. I used Maya for the flag. As for the ops room, I cheated and used, erm, The Sims 2 building tool, lol.

The ending was abrupt, as you say. This was intentional. After so much action, I struggled with deciding how to wrench the viewer out of that frame of mind. I thought that the the ending so acute, this would leave the emotions a little mixed up and then brought firmly together again with the gentle clouds, the "in memory.." and first guitar notes from James Taylor.

I'll have to keep learning how to manipulate the viewers' emotions. Do you, or anyone, have any suggestions how it could have been better?

Monty, GL2, I do appreciate very much constructive criticism, thanks.

If anyone noticed anything that didn't work, or has suggestions where improvements could be made, then please do say. It's a great way for me to learn what does and doesn't work.

quote:

Originally posted by Joe-90:
The ending was abrupt, as you say. This was intentional. After so much action, I struggled with deciding how to wrench the viewer out of that frame of mind. I thought that the the ending so acute, this would leave the emotions a little mixed up and then brought firmly together again with the gentle clouds, the "in memory.." and first guitar notes from James Taylor.

I'll have to keep learning how to manipulate the viewers' emotions. Do you, or anyone, have any suggestions how it could have been better?

It may sound like sort of a cliched shot, but a simple shot of the planes flying away from the camera (perhaps with an exploded pill box or something in the foreground) with a dissolve to your tribute stuff seems like it would do the trick. As it is, I was being carried along by all the great action, and it sort of felt like the 'film' part ended without much warning. Again, it's very minor, and I may have been the only one who felt that way. But hey, it's good to leave your audience wanting more, right? Still, there's something to be said for transition shots, and that one extra shot might have worked a little better. Just my $.02, as usual. But it in no way detracts from this great film you've put together. This, along with all of the other great films that have come along in just the last few months, shows that the skill level in this community is very high and getting higher all the time. I think you guys are way ahead of the vast majority of others out there making films out of video games. Now, if you could just get yourself one of those nice German officer coats like Biltongbru has, you'll really be cooking.

quote:

Originally posted by GL2:I agree with Monty, too--I would love to see a D-day invasion film. Maybe you could incorporate Call of Duty and Silent Hunter 4. Hey, sounds like a great community film project. You know, if everyone pitches in, you should be done in a mere fraction of the time it would otherwise take you...

I wasn't ignoring that suggestion, I was trying to think of an appropriate response that didn't include swearing

But hey, who knows

As I posted earlier, this is an outstanding movie. The single aspect/sequence which I didn't think worked as well as it might have was the abrupt ending. It surprised me, and I almost got the impression that maybe you ran out of time in trying to meet some deadline...sorry. I've seen the abrupt ending in other movies, and it can work. Maybe this is a case where rolling in with some music prior to the ending, then having the music end with a final sudden synchronized "Exclamation point" at the Visual Freeze Frame point would help seal the Deal. For example, take a look at "Battle of Britain Eagle Day" at FSM 2006. I hope you get my point as both my musical and editing vocabulary is lacking...