The soon to release French short film project, “Take Off”, plans on promoting the discipline of Mil-Sim across France and perhaps even beyond its borders. Tristan Ordas, founder of Eternum Pictures and member of the paintball team TCS, is behind the production and direction of this film that has taken several months of preparation and plans on being released soon.
This is not merely paintballers running around in the woods with their barrel cams; though I do find that very entertaining and often check out barrel cam videos on YouTube. This is a short paintball film with a more cinematic feel to it that includes a scenario, a sequence following a logical chronology, respective roles for each member of the cast, and a solid technical background in image capture, audio, compositing, editing, and visual decision views.
After watching the teaser for the short film, which is presently available on YouTube, I knew I had to know more about who is the creative behind this soon to be released short film, “Take Off”. It is with much gratitude that Jimmy Delagree, head of marketing for the film, was able to get me in contact with Tristan Ordas, the realizer of this short film.
MC: Thank you for taking time to meet with me about your short film, “Take Off.” Your project sounds very exciting and I imagine there are several people behind making such a complex production. Who is working on this project and what are their roles?
TO: It is with pleasure that I found friends who also wanted to join me in this adventure. Each of these friends has knowledge in this field, so we find in the technical team:
Edouard Raynaud : Editor / Writer
Maël Fradin : Sound Engineer
Jérémy Touzé : Cameraman, Technical Assistant, and FX
Mickael Gangate : Assistant Cameraman
Florent Lasquellec : Assistant Set
Mathilde Fagot : Assistant Set
Jimmy Delagrée: Marketing Manager
Tristan Ordas: Realizer, Director of Photography, Color Grading, and FX
Along with our technical team, many paintball teams joined us as actors in this short movie:
TCS
TMLC
GREEN SQUAD
SPAS
CAP
GBSS
These are good and lovely people who were simply indispensable throughout the four days of filming.
MC: Do you have any partnerships or sponsorships for this film?
TO: Since the teaser, we have a sponsorship with MILSIG Canada.
MC: How long have you been working on this project?
TO: It has been a long time that I have wanted to make a video on paintball but it is only when Jonathan Monfort, Member of MPN, wanted to make a promotional video for the Milsim Paintball Network that I thought this was an opportunity to start. I explained to him that it would be nice to develop something different from what we see in the world of traditional milsim paintball. I wanted it to be closer to a real movie with all that that implies and he immediately liked my ideas. The project was launched in August, just after this conversation, and we filmed during September/October.
MC: What challenges have you faced during the filming of this project?
TO: It’s a good idea to talk about that because we had many challenges. In the first place, I think it was the unpredictable weather of this winter season that proved to be quite challenging. The temperature was negative, both outside the walls of the building and inside. The humidity caused some problems with the camera lenses, mainly a lot of fog. This unfavorable reaction was probably due to the difference of temperature between the inside and outside of the camera. Yes, it heats these little beasts.
The second obstacle, which was the hardest to overcome, was the tight schedule for everything that had to be done. The last two days remain for me a memory of immense stress as time seemed to pass so quickly. I sincerely feared we didn’t complete filming the way I had wanted. Finally, some concepts of the script had to be deleted to give priority to the better scenes. Fortunately the short movie was not affected.
MC: Filming outdoors is always challenging and I’m pleased to hear you overcame the obstacles to be able to fully produce your film. Thank you for sharing your thoughts behind your film. I look forward to viewing it soon.
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