Talent to Watch Program Proposal Last Men Standing
Synopsis Last Men Standing is a documentary feature about the last remaining World War II veterans. All in their 90 s or 100 s, these men and women now have the perspective of great age. The film takes a look at what these survivors remember, and what new insight and wisdom they have in their old age. This is not a historical account of the war. Last Men Standing explores the veterans memories of the World War II through their personal stories, anecdotes, and personal photographs. The film is about capturing, in their own words, what they experienced as young men and women in a time of war. Their body language - now - and then; the everyday laughter, the nostalgia, the fear of being killed, and the sadness over friends that were. This is the human, intimately personal side of the WWII story. It's a story that has never been told from the Canadian perspective. The film is framed through my own experience interviewing these men. I am the same age now as many of these men were in WWII. What advice and knowledge does a WWII veteran have for a millennial living in today s society? Background Over 70 years ago World War II shaped the world into what it is today. Every three minutes a memory of this event disappears, as another veteran dies. While these men and women survived the horrors of war, old age doesn t spare any victims. The remaining veterans of World War 2 are passing away quickly - approximately 555 a day. Of the 1.1 million Canadians who served, the number who are still alive is unknown. It is predicted that by 2036 there will be no living people left to recount their World War II experiences. My grandfather, Clifford Brunt, was 21 years old when he enlisted to serve for Canada in 1939. When war was declared, his friends were scattered around the country in military training camps. Many he would never see again. He became a Wireless Air Gunner for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Luckily for me, he survived the war. He was 95 years old when he passed away in the summer of 2013. My Grandfather's stories from the War, echoed a totally different time in history, and it occurred to me his perspective was radically different from my own. This had a significant impact on me as a teenager. When I enrolled in a Documentary Production course in 2015 at UBC, I immediately decided that my student documentary was going to be focused on surviving war veterans like my Grandfather. This was the original seed of my film Last Men Standing.
Since then I have tracked down and interviewed 17 veterans in Vancouver and Victoria. This has been a passion project of mine and I ve turned to Telefilm in hopes of widening its scope. Rationale Everyone could learn something from this film - especially people from my generation. It is almost impossible to imagine my friends and I in our grandfathers situation: stepping up to save our country from an enemy that lived thousands of kilometres away. Walking into battle with an excellent chance of being killed. This is bravery and self sacrifice beyond comprehension. Just leaving the comfort of a cellphone charger seems like a hard enough task for us. Strip us of the lives we had started to build and hand us guns. Shake the hand of a friend you may never see again. Watch the smile of a girl who might not wait for your return. I want it to try and help my generation understand what these people went through, and the wisdom they have for us today. To teach us of both the past and our future. Nothing like this has been done before. There have been documentaries about Canadian s involvement during World War II. But there s never been the every day, personal stories told directly from the veterans themselves. Their distinction is that they ve outlived everyone else they served with. You aren t going to hear from the generals or the war heroes who already have books written about them. These men and women s stories and sacrifices have never been told - until now. It is culturally important for Canada to document this before these veterans and their stories are gone. To make this film is a race against time. As memories slip away, Telefilm may never have a similar opportunity to fund a project with this content. Two of my interview subjects have already passed away since filming them. I treasure the footage I captured of my Grandfather and wish I had done more. To have these stories forever preserved on film is invaluable to any Canadian. We enjoy our Canadian lifestyle and freedom because of this generation s sacrifices. Treatment I will interview a number of veterans across Canada who are willing to share their experiences. The emphasis of these will be to hear their stories. Not necessarily historical events that they witnessed, but little snippets that they have hung on to for decades. What memories are saved from time, locked away in a 90 year old brain? A simple story from a forgotten era, that they can recall as if it was yesterday, can tell a great deal about the person.
These stories will be framed by my own experiences. I will open the film briefly with my own Grandfather, using home footage that my family has. My relationship with my grandfather will be told through photographs of us together, photographs of him as a young man, and video of him as an old man. I will describe how he opened my eyes to his generation and how this film is my own journey to find out more about the veterans that survived time and to preserve their stories. The film will show my team preparing for the project. Zoe, my DOP, and I will leave Victoria in my Ford Transit Connect, which has been converted to store camera gear and sleeps two. As we drive across Canada in search of the last remaining stories from the War, our own voices will be heard and we will be present in B-Roll. The excitement of finding someone new to interview or any challenges we encounter on the road will be captured. At times our own reflections after an interview will be recorded. During the actual interview process we will never be shown on camera, although my voice will be heard if necessary to help the viewer understand the subject s answer. Each subject will be introduced by their name, where they are from, and where they are living now. I will film their current environment extensively, whether it is a home they live in alone or a nursing home. Old photographs and memorabilia will be used as B-roll, helping the audience fill in the blanks as to who these men really are. It is particularly striking to see the veteran who is being interviewed and then see what they looked like as a young adult in uniform. The interviews will feature a variety of men and women that served during the Second World War. There will be men that fought overseas and men that protected our country s coastlines. Women who worked in factories, on airfields, in farms, took care of fatherless families or were in Europe as nurses will also share their experiences. People of all ethnicities will be featured. Quebec interviews will feature subtitles when the subjects speak French. Zoe is fluent in French and will assist in these interviews. It is important that every story of what was happening in Canada is told, to give the viewer a comprehensive experience of being alive in this time. The film will weave through different stories and veterans, connecting them through similar subjects, phrases emotions, or location. There will be a careful mix between different kinds of emotions elicited by the interview subject, allowing for humorous moments and more reflective, sad ones. Then at the climax of the film, all the interviews will be cut together to deliver final advice about life and war. Closing comments will be made from the film s crew as they finish their Canadian journey. The last image will be footage of my Grandpa, bookmarking the film.
The soundtrack will consist of popular music from when the veterans were my age. If copyright permissions are to hard to obtain from songs from the 1940 s then I will use music from before 1922, which is all in the public domain. Music will be used wisely and there will be a strong emphasis on silence in certain sections. A score will also be composed by Sam Tudor, a Canadian artist frequently cited as one of Vancouver's most "exciting new media composers" (VIFF). Visually I will capture Canada from the 1940 s and before. Old barns, general stores, and railway stations are some of the places I plan to film. Through these visuals and the veterans being interviewed, I will show what is left from that era. I want everyone to remember that these people still exist. That their sacrifices are why we have the lives we do. Project Support I have been in contact with a number of Royal Canadian Legion Branches across Canada and they have expressed enthusiastic support for the project. They have provided me with numerous living WWII veterans to contact and ask if they'd be willing to share their perspectives and experiences in WWII. Historica Canada, the country's largest organization dedicated to enhancing awareness of Canadian history and citizenship, has also shown great interest in the project. They have offered to put me in contact with veterans across the country, and provide free unrestricted access to the vast WWII related archival footage they own the rights to. The proof of concept video has gained the interest and support of my network in Vancouver and Victoria. Informal focus group viewings have been conducted, and the response is consistently extremely positive. Team Bio s Eric Brunt Director/Writer I m fourth generation Canadian living in Vancouver, BC., and have been carrying around a video camera since the sixth grade, making movies constantly. I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Production from UBC in 2016. My short films have screened at numerous festivals across North America, with my thesis film being nominated for a prestigious Leo Award. Since 2013, I ve worked with Capture the Moment Media as lead cinematographer and editor. This year I started my own company - Eric Brunt Media - filming, editing and producing political campaign
videos, commercials, wedding films, music videos, and narrative films. My primary interest remains documentary film making. Andy Alvarez Producer Andy Alvarez, the film s producer, graduated from the UBC Film Production Program in 2017. Films she has produced and directed have screened at Vancouver International Film Festival, Whistler Film Festival, and many others. Most recently she won the Outstanding Female Filmmaker Award at the FOLCS International Short Film Festival in New York City. Zoe Arthur Cinematographer Zoe Arthur, the film s cinematographer, graduated from the UBC Film Production Program in 2016. While in the program she was the recipient of the Women in Film and Television Award, and the films she DP d screened at numerous festivals. Since graduating she has been working as a 1st AC on film sets and a Camera Prep Technician at Sim. Sharon Lin Editor Sharon Lin, the film s editor, graduated from the UBC Film Production Program in 2016. She is currently working on a documentary about an abandoned cowboy-themed amusement park in the rural outskirts of Nikko, Japan. Zachary Starko Publicist Zachary Starko, the film s publicist, graduated from the UBC Film Production Program in 2017. He is the Video Marketing Manager for myzone Media Inc., where he created and executes content marketing strategy and video production. Audience Last Men Standing will have enormous audience appeal. The target audience is anyone with an interest in the unique perspective of our few remaining WWII veterans. Experience has proven that Canadians are extremely interested in this page of our history. Our interest is all the more acute since these remaining veterans are rapidly dying, and their stories are about to be lost for-
ever. Dunkirk, which was released last year, grossed nearly 675 million Canadian dollars and won several Academy Awards. This shows the huge audience appeal stories from World War 2 still have. In my informal focus group discussions on the project, all age groups genders have shown very high levels of interest. Baby boomers whose parents fought in the war, will be interested to hear what stories are similar to their own family. Millennials will relate to Zoe and I as we imagine ourselves in a time of war. Any advice the veterans have for us will be especially pertinent for our generation as we live in our own era of uncertainty. Marketing Plan Promotion Social media will play a fundamental role in my marketing plan. Specifically, I will engage people through dedicated Facebook and Instagram pages. Through these channels I will frequently post content through all stages of production. Already I have 1500 Friends on Facebook and 600+ Instagram followers. I am confident that social media alone will create widespread interest in my film. Each veteran that I interview will be featured on my social media pages, along with a powerful quote from them - in the Humans of New York style. There will also be a 30 second to 1 minute video of each veteran, to be posted every week or two once we have started postproduction. We will call on our followers to like, share and comment their friends names on any posts that resonate with them. This will encourage engagement with the posts, and lead to more and more people finding the accounts. Distribution Since the film would be completed near the end of 2019, I would love to have this film showcased as part of Canada s 75th anniversary celebrations of WWII. The content would be especially relevant during the November 11th 2020 festivities. This is the date when the film would be released online on our website. News stations like CBC would be contacted in advance to generate some news coverage for the online release. Local newspapers from the towns and cities where our interview subjects lived would also be contacted. Each newspaper s article would include the url of our website and the film s trailer. With this vast exposure, the goal would be to make our trailer go viral and lead people to our website.
Before November 11th 2020, we would target film festivals to debut the film in their 2020 season. Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, the largest documentary festival in North America, will be our primary goal for festival submissions. We will also submit to any Canadian film festival that has a documentary section. Vancouver International Film Festival, Victoria Film Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, Edmonton International Film Festival, Atlantic International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and Montreal World Film Festival will be some of our country s festivals that we d submit to. We would target film festivals based in the countries where these men fought or were stationed, specifically any festivals in France, the UK, and the Netherlands. If our film proved to be successful at these festivals then we would look at applying to festivals in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. In terms of online distribution, Netflix Canada is constantly looking for high quality Canadian content. Last Men Standing is a perfect fit for them, with its broad public appeal and corresponding commercial potential. I will specifically target Netflix, to directly promote my film. Amazon Prime in Canada is also an excellent potential market for similar reasons as Netflix. They too are looking for original Canadian content with broad public appeal. I intend to market my film to the CBC, as they purchase/ distribute high quality original content as well. The History Canada channel is another television network that might be interested in either broadcasting our film or releasing it online. Canada s History and Historica Canada both are huge websites dedicated to Canadian content that would be ideal places to target for marketing or distributing the film s trailer.