Chaos in the Colonies

[Sir Dryden]

@Digitarii

Anything but "light" or "dark" would be a hundred times better!

Also, what kind of dimwit wrote "Le Pacte Des Loups"? Mohawks are alive and well. Heck, they built half of New-York City's skyscrapers (the other half being built by Newfoundlanders if I remember correctly).

Yours truly,

Sir Dryden

[Digitarii]

No argument there. That's one of those eyecandy/inspirational movies. Historically challenged, but the fight scenes are worth watching and the story would make for a good CiC game plot.

[The_Beast]

"As far as nationality is concerned, I'd go the Vampire's way. Let Sisters be Sisters."

Meaning the followers of the light could learn something from the followers of the dark? 

I agree, but at best with a bit of friendly competion, at worst, constant irritation and 'slights'. Probably occasions of each...

I think it adds to the color of the period, and the participants.

Doug

[jet]

Whichever way you go, I think there's a lesson to be learned from Tom Weiss's Chaos in Carpathia mod, and that is, design warbands with available models in mind. So, when he created the expanded the standard warbands from CinC he included Dr. Frankenstein and his creations, Gypsies, different nationalities of human hunters, and the elite of the Vatican. Obviously, he was trying to take advantage of Westwind's many Vampire Wars offerings.

Now, when I look at Westwind's models (for example), here are some of their New World-ish models that I'd like an excuse to paint; zombies, Sleepy Hollow villager types and the Headless Horseman, various classic witch models, animated scarecrow types, yetis (which could double as Sasquatch). Anyway, you get the idea.

Looks great so far.

[Galloping Major]

'Ravenous' is good with a great cast, loads of atmosphere and a good look for 1840s "Donneresque" Rocky Mountain cannibalism.

I would certainly agree with the recommendation of 'Brotherhood of the Wolf' for a close link to what you're looking to create. I especially liked the authentic looking black rectangular Mohawk warpaint.

Now where would I recommend you go for some Mohawk looking Mohawk......... Oh yes, I know 


www.gallopingmajorwargames.com

[Digitarii]

For Indians I also recommend Conquest Miniatures.

[EDITED for spelling. Durhhhh...it's Monday morning...]

[GregX999]

Whichever way you go, I think there's a lesson to be learned from Tom Weiss's Chaos in Carpathia mod, and that is, design warbands with available models in mind.

Yes, I had thought of that. I've been on the lookout for figures I can use myself.

I don't actually have any figs from this era yet, so I'm starting from scratch. I don't think anything mentioned so far would be too hard to find though.

I think the Westwind Sleepy Hollow set and some Conquest Native Americans will my first purchase toward this. Oh, I did just order the Reaper Scarecrow/Pumpkin construct thing - should be an excellent "abomination" for the Witches camp!

[Agent Brown]

have a look at The Burrowers for some more ideas.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Burrowers-DVD-Karl-Geary/dp/B002BC9YCK/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1285610859&sr=1-1
Set in the 1880's but the story could easily be shifted back a hundred years. Plenty of european/ indian misunderstandings and some interesting monsters.

[HerbyF]

There is a period movie "Brotherhood of the Wolf" well worth viewing for ideas. The aristocrats fleeing to the new world or maybe seeking revenge for interfering with their plans.

[Connectamabob]

Ravenous is a great movie, and a perfect fit for this, inspiration wise.

One thing that occurred to me, and I realize this may be a bit left field: The Silent Hill series shows the Genus loci responsible for all the supernatural shenanigans as having a history that goes all the way back to the Native American tribes which originally lived in the area. The town's cult is supposed to be a hybrid of the local Native American religion and christian demonology brought over by the European colonists, and bits of Native American-ish iconography often crop up in the cult's paraphernalia.

Might be another source of inspiration for the natives or the witches. Light or dark: although the Silent Hill cult is evil, the genus loci itself seems like it might be be all about redemption via trial-by-fire.

[n815e]

Brotherhood of the Wolf is going to be disturbing if you are sensitive to animal suffering.  The violence against animals in the movie is almost certainly real and there is a significant amount of it.

[GregX999]

Brotherhood of the Wolf is going to be disturbing if you are sensitive to animal suffering.  The violence against animals in the movie is almost certainly real and there is a significant amount of it.

Really? I saw that movie some time ago and I don't remember violence towards animals. At least nothing that disturbed me, and I'm not insensitive to it. Are there two movies with the same name?

[n815e]

The wolf hunt seems quite real.

I found this site that goes into greater details.
http://www.ahafilm.info/movies/moviereviews.phtml?fid=7447

[Connectamabob]

Haven't seen the film in a while, but I very strongly doubt that stuff was real.

To start with, there are heavy regulations in the film industry, both in the US and in Europe, about what you can and can't do with a live animal for a movie. With very rare exceptions, pretty much everything like this you see in a film is done in a very controlled way, and is finished with special effects and trick editing.

At the very least, if it had been done for real, especially on that scale, it wouldn't be any kind of secret, and the media controversy would have been huge. Really, really, bigger-than-the-film-itself huge. Remember the bruhaha over the bull getting slaughtered in Apocalypse Now? This would have been much bigger, as a result of both the events on film, and the time period in which it was made.

Some of the stuff listed would be much too impractical to do for real on a controlled movie shoot, even if the filmmakers weren't concerned for the animals' welfare. The animals seen- especially the dogs and wolves, are "professional" animals, trained to do all sorts of odd things for the camera, like pretend to get shot, or pretend to be angry or scared on cue. Animals which aren't so trained are chaotic and unreliable, and shooting even the simplest activity can involve lost of wasted time and film, to say nothing of the liability issues for both animal and crew.

I dunno how trainable sheep are, but even if the lamb wasn't trained, the shot would still be rigged so that the animal was never remotely in any danger. Remember, most of what you see in any movie, even the mundane stuff you take for granted, is completely fake. It's like stage magic: everything you can't explicitly see in a given frame (and these days with all the digital tools, even the stuff you can see) is a place to hide all the clunky bits that make the an illusion work.

Some of that stuff, particularly the wolf getting thrown into the air by a bullet hit, is physically impossible in real life, and can't be put to film without faking it.

I agree with the reviewer's agenda, insomuch of it as I can see in that review, but I kinda have to question his intelligence if his outrage isn't making him want to dig deeper, as opposed to just twitch out allegations and leave them where they fall.

I mean, it's a movie. The whole point is to make it look like it was done for real. Expecting fakery to be reliably detectable to the point where you get suspicious when it isn't is bad logic. A good lie is by definition indistinguishable from truth at face value. You can sometimes be certain someone is lying, but without verification you can never be certain they aren't.

[Connectamabob]

Tried looking up the hunt scene on youtube. Kinda difficult: all I could find were fan music videos, so I only saw a few snippets, but I didn't see anything that wasn't pretty obvious in how it was done. Looked like ordinary stuff: trained animals, squibs, etc.