[CAPTAINQUINN]

"In Pursuit of U-603"
Here it is. At long last we have finished our submarine epic. It has truly been a journey. A fun journey.
Quinn (my son) has been an active and engaged trooper throughout the whole process. My poor wife has put up with giant blue and green screens around the house and property, garden hoses in the cellar, aquarium tanks in the kitchen and countless other household disruptions.
We have utilized Ubisoft's unmodified "Silent Hunter" 3, 4 and 5 simulators for our background images and then superimposed the actors into the film. This art form is very time consuming. I did some math one evening and it took us 35 minutes to come up with 1 second of film. Ouch. It is no wonder that it has taken us over a year to create this film.
We worked on it a little here and a little there. If we got bored or frustrated with the project we just walked away from it for a bit.
The finished film is 18 minutes long so I'm sure we have at least a couple hundred hours involved in production. I bet the actual figure is higher than that due to deleted scenes and hours of experimentation with different filming and chroma keying techniques.
In the end its not about the film but about spending quality time with my son and planting a creative seed that I hope will blossom. I often wonder where I would be in life if I had no creative outlet. Jail probably.
Quinn has learned so much about submarines and WW II during this project. I would be willing to bet that not many other seven year old boys know as much about displacement, periscope optics, lead acid batteries, hydrophones, sonar, hydrostatics vs hydrodynamics and torpedo trajectory just to name a few of the many subjects we have studied.
Our budget for the film was zero dollars other than purchasing the video games. If we didn't have something we needed, we built it out of stuff we already had. "Adapt and survive" is our film making motto.
We spent many summer Saturday afternoons in the back yard playing with garden hoses and cameras. Great inexpensive family fun.
Now its time to clean out our hard drive, defrag the computer and plan our next blockbuster hit. Any ideas? I'm thinking something with helicopters.
My only hope is as Quinn grows older he will view this film and remember the process fondly and be reminded of how crazy his father is.

Historical notes about the U-603:
The U-603 (603 is our telephone area code) is not just any submarine. It can instantly change from a type VII to a type VIIB U-boat and back again. It also has the ability to change into an American Gato class sub. Please do not ask how this is done. We are sworn to secrecy.
The size of the U-603 was scaled down due to the smaller stature of its crew.
That's our story and we are sticking to it.
We hope you enjoy watching the film as much as we enjoyed making it.
We would appreciate any feedback you have, pro or con.
Thank you for letting us be a part of your wonderful forum.
"Gods speed and good hunting"
Cheers.
Ian