History Buffs - Especially WW1 Era...

[jluetjen]

Hello. For the last few years I have been researching my family members' involvement in WWI as part of investigating my general family history. It started with a couple of mystery pictures and developed into many books and lots of data. I figured that the best way to preserve what I've learned and present it to other family members would be to make a documentary focusing on each member, his respective unit and it's experiences in the war. I figure that these may be of interest to others, so I'm planning on publicly posting them onto Youtube. Rather than just having me drone on in my bland Connecticut valley accent, I'd like to recruit some people to act as voice actors for the documentaries, to read the memoirs of the different people who were with or around my relative and their unit.

My initial video will be about a relative who was in the German Seebatallion in Flanders and the Somme. I'm estimating that I've got enough material for over an hour of video, so about 5 different 15 minute segments. Here's a brief trailer that I made up to try-out the video editing software and see how things might go together.



The actual finished video will be centered on the voice-overs of the different people, with video and stills aligned with what each person is describing. I've also got sound clips of actual Mausers, Lee-Enfields, etc. as well as artillery (both outgoing and incoming) that I'll add to provide color. Future videos will cover relatives of mine who were in the Gastruppen and the German Cavalry.

For the first video I've got parts for the following accents:
- 5 German accented readers (various ages)
- 2 Canadian accented readers
- 1 French accented reader

If you are interested, please PM me and we'll work it out from there.

Disclaimer: This is strictly an educational exercise. No one (including me) is being compensated for this project.

[tabs]

How did the movie end? Did the Untersee Officer survive the war or was he buried unter Flanders Fields?

Hmm what is annoying is when one mixes footage of the Deutsch Troopen wearing their Pickhaubs get mixed up with the footage of them wearing Stahlheims...If you are depicting the 1914 stage of der Krieg then it is the Picklhaubs that are accurate, the Stahlheims came later...

[vracer]

Come on, for those of us who won't be here for the end, did he make it?

[svandamme]

If you need any current day footage or pictures of certain sites in either Flanders or North of France, let me know, don't have a video cameran but I'm sure I can borrow one if needed.

[jluetjen]

Originally Posted by tabs

Hmm what is annoying is when one mixes footage of the Deutsch Troopen wearing their Pickhaubs get mixed up with the footage of them wearing Stahlheims...If you are depicting the 1914 stage of der Krieg then it is the Picklhaubs that are accurate, the Stahlheims came later...

Touche' and good point. I just pulled that little trailer together one evening as I said to see how things would work. It's my intention not to make that sort of error on the real thing. I've got my video footage sorted by country, arm (artillery, infantry, etc), general subject and time period (Early/Mid/Late) with the intention of avoiding the error that you posted. I hate to see that sort of thing on TV documentaries.

An interesting point which I never considered until I got into this is that the average film clip in a documentary is only about 5 seconds long. So over the course of a 75 minute documentary, that is about 900 video clips or stills that I'll need to put together.

As far as your specific point of Pickelhaube versus Stahlhelm, the correct answer in the case of the Seebatallion is "C" - they generally wore the Jaeger's Shako (or the popular mutz). You can see the shakos in the first couple of clips (see for example 1:23). Unfortunately WWI video of German Jaegers appears to be almost non-existent. You can see about half of what I've got in that short piece. The Seebatallion wore the Shako's for the first 1.5 years, and were only issued the Stahlhelm when on their way to the Somme.

As far as the ending, I won't say, but of the 3 relatives who I researched who served in WWI (all on the German side by the way), only 1 survived the war. I had another uncle who also served in the German Army in WW1, and survived to live to be over 100. But we never discussed it and I don't know how I'd find anything about him since he's been dead for over a decade now. August by the way was an Unteroffizier, or non-com in the German equivalent of the US Marines. This shouldn't be confused with an Untersee Offizier (underwater officer). He didn't serve on a U-Boat.

PS: Thanks for the offer Stijn. I may take you up on that for some stills. I had another relative who service in the Ypres sector which I think is close to you.

[on2wheels52]

Quite a project you're undertaking. I expect your family will greatly appreciate your efforts. What a brutal war it was.
Jim

[jluetjen]

Jim, I'm not really expecting accolades for making this. I just figure that somewhere down the road someone will come across the pictures of the guys (like I did) and say to themselves - Whoah! Who's this? I wonder what happened to them? I wonder what they went through?

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by jluetjen

PS: Thanks for the offer Stijn. I may take you up on that for some stills. I had another relative who service in the Ypres sector which I think is close to you.

Born and Raised.. in the city centre... Now i live 3 miles outside, in Boesinghe.
You might also want to contact the In Flanders Museum if you are missing bits and pieces of information...

flandersfields@ieper.be feel free to mention i referred you (one of the researchers is my neece's ex hubby, worked on their website about 10 years ago)

Throughout the museum visitors get a card they can swipe at the different presentation computers. So at each stage they will see a stage of a person's life during the War. If you have good info, story on your relatives, and you are ok with it, they sometimes incorporate the info as one person on a visitor card.

[Bill Douglas]

Well done John. We look forward to developments on your project.

[wdfifteen]

Your voice is great. Are the people with accents going to be quoting a character? That could work I guess, but I like it very much as is so far.

[jluetjen]

Thanks wdfifteen. Yes, the people with accents will be reading the memoirs of the different characters who appear. I don't have anything against my accent, but to listen to just me droning on for the whole time would be boring. I've got one Canadian volunteer so far.

[notfarnow]

Canadians don't have an accent!!

j/k... I'm in. I've done voice acting and radio, this is right up my alley. Lemme know how I can help

[jluetjen]

Alright! 2 Canadians in -- eh!

Jake, if you could PM your email address to me, I'll be sending you some information in the near future.

Anyone with a French accent (at least that could be described as such by an American) or German accent interested in helping?

[jluetjen]

Bump.

I'm returning to this project after about a year being distracted by changing day-jobs and normal day-to-day life. My 911 on the other hand ran the whole season flawlessly!

Anyhow, I really (REALLY - REALLY) need a native French speaker who can read the memoirs of French Marine in English. It's a key part to the story and unfortunately I can't progress without it. Do any of you know someone who might be interested? If so, please point them in my direction. A lot of people (some from this BBS) have helped me out, and I'd hate to have their contributions be for naught.

I'd appreciate any help that you can offer!