BACK TO PROJECTS
Initially inspired by the influx of war footage on the news from Iraq and subsequently hearing the track �Deathzone� by Apocalyptica, I began to fuse the two together in my head creating a rough idea of what finally became this short film. To begin with I considered focussing on solely footage of soldiers at war throughout the 20th Century, but whilst surfing the internet I began finding various clips of warfare all over the place. I therefore decided that for this �found footage� film I would only use clips that could be easily found online.
As the idea developed on the back burner whilst I completed other projects, I began to focus on the controversial nature of �Operation Iraqi Freedom� (which should really be called �Gulf War 2: Unfinished Business�). The mixed reception of this latest Iraq war and the coverage of it, reminded me of the Vietnam war � both in how the public reacted and how the media followed the events, showing the world essentially what it was like to be �in� the war. This then led me to think that perhaps I should make �Deathzone� a piece which centres entirely on two wars � Vietnam and �Iraqi Freedom�, both worlds apart as well as essentially quite similar. Now with this examination of war at its worst (i.e. no clear enemy or definite reason to fight like World War 2, perhaps the last justified war of the 20th Century) I thought about where such fighting could lead � complete destruction � the Hydrogen Bomb, mankind�s biggest mistake? It�s an interesting topic, without it World War 2 might have dragged on for years longer than it did. With it we have nations all over the world in a state of stalemate � even if you were the first to fire to protect yourself, nobody actually wins in the end. The Hydrogen Bomb is almost a manmade final solution, a device which could provide worldwide suicide.
With this thought process in full swing, I gathered various war footage from around the internet before using the telecine style to filter out what I didn�t want and to get everything in one single format. The actual process of editing was similar to �In A Heartbeat�, but the focus wasn�t on bringing audio and video together to such an extent. Instead the footage is organised to begin with training, moving onto some gentle war footage and then showing the �guts or glory� side of war, cutting back and forth between the allied soldiers doing what they�re trained for and the violent reaction which sometimes meets them. Both sides are shown to have moments of barbarism, from allied corpses being beaten and strung up to the famous, methodical execution of a Vietnamese soldier to an American soldier finishing off a dying man in a ditch. Such imagery combined paints a rather grim vision of war (but what other vision can there really be?). And ultimately we go a step too far and this is where we are blown apart by the unforgiving blast wave, the film fading out on a strangely beautiful sight � what appears to be trees poking through the clouds is no such thing. Nature swamped by the destructive power of man. For the original edit I maintained the colour of each clip, simply turning up the contrast of the whole piece to emphasise the grittiness of the footage. I then did two other versions, one in black and white and another in �Blood Red�, so the whole piece is in black & white & red.
