Lone Survivor

This is an adaptation of chapters 7 and 8 of Marcus Luttrell's New York Times Best-selling true story "Lone Survivor"

Credits
Directed and Edited by A.J. Smith
Film Colors applied and supplied by Alan Sardana
Parker McKibbon as Marcus Luttrell
Alan Sardana as Micheal Murphy
Connor Mabbott as Matthew Axleson
Kevin Ahlin as Danny Dietz
Aaron Newglowski as Nancy Axleson
Joel Thakkar as Goat Farmer/ Taliban Soldier
Dylan Sloan as Taliban Soldier
Garnet Mason as Taliban Soldier
With amazing gratitude to Alan Sardana for some how getting the audio
Music -"Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel - "My Brother" from Topic Thunder
Shot using a Cannon Vixia HF 100
Used Final cut express and imovie 08 to edit

The Lone Survivor trailer is a small depiction of chapters 7 and 8 in Marcus Luttrells novel Lone Survivor. The main song that occurs throughout the majority of the film is the song The Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel. Toward the beginning of the song where the song states hello darkness my old friend refers to the most dark part of Marcus life where his old friend is his dead best friend Matthew Axleson. Ive come to talk with you again. Simply refers to the visiting of his friend for what the audience believes that he is just visiting, up until the lyric: and the vision softly creeping is when the audience finally realizes that his dead friend is only a memory from a dark past. As his friend leans in to hug him he suddenly disappears to reveal Cindy, the lonely widow of Matthew Axleson.
Simon and Garfunkels original intention for their wildly popular song the The Sounds of Silence was meant to refer to the inability of people to communicate with each other particularly internationally and emotionally, which eventually creates people who can no longer love each other. With this idea I used it to explain the effects of war and the destruction that it causes. Where people can no longer love each other creates arguments and hate which eventually leads to war. The title of the song also explains the effects of silence and the effects it has when people decide to not communicate. I also believe the idea of a battle scene where there should be loud and exaggerated noises is replaced by a very soft song that is easy to listen to creates a larger and heavier impact on the audience.
The Taliban play a large role in the film and yet they are rarely seen. I decided to do this because of the line in the naked light I saw ten thousand people maybe more helped describe the Taliban as an unseen yet very large enemy force therefore making them more menacing to the audience because it is only natural that people are afraid of something they cannot see. The line I turned my collar to the cold and damned also describes the hatred Navy SEALS have towards the Taliban.
Overall I am extremely proud of this video. I feel that it effectively captured the moods I felt whilst reading the two chapters where the trailer takes place. I also feel that the music in the trailer immensely helped amplify and convey the different emotions I tried to portray in my shots. Although the film to me was not my best cinematic performance I do feel proud of several shots and hope to continue with films like this in the future.
-A.J. Smith

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Lone
• Survivor
• Marcus
• Luttrell
• sounds
• silence
• simon
• garfunkel
• operation
• redwing
• red
• wing
• matthew
• axleson
• danny
• deitz
• micheal
• murphy
• nancy
• AJ
• Smith
• Alan
• Sardana
• Connor
• Mabbott
• Parker
• McKibbon
• Kevin
• Ahlin
• aFilmsProduction
• aFilms
• Production
• AlanAJ
• AJAlan
• English
• ISU
• Movie
• Trailer
• HD
• Digital
• Short
• Film
• Sad
• Amazing
• movie
• trailer
• honor
• valor
• medal
• of
• iraq
• Afghanistan
• afghanistan
• giant
• mound
• hill
• planet
• laser
• taliban
• navy
• seals
• suh
• Suh
• patton
• Patton

[superherobyday]

Well it's about time we got an opinion from a subject matter expert! Clear the way folks!!! We gotta FUTURE NAVY SEAL comin through! BUD/S? No problem! CQT? Piece of cake!! Hell week? Don't make him laugh, sound the trumpets!!! Take a knee!!! Honor this man!!

Have some respect kid, don't be throwin that title around like you're gonna be a Veterinarian. You have no idea. I know I know, you've watched class 234 and done all the workouts on the internet, trust me, you have no idea.

[ctgraymond]

I love the incredible attention to detail from the book. Particularly the parts where the SEALs were wearing Canadian BDUs and Nikes, carrying shotguns, and vehicles were driving about 50m behind them blocking their retreat. Stick to playing Call of Duty and remove this disrespectful video.

[GrizNews]

how is this in any way disgraceful? It is a school project and for a school project it was pretty well done. Good job. Very good filming. People on the internet need to chill out.

[cathy5245]

Marcus' brother Morgan, was best friends with Matt Axelson. And as you can tell, the three post it took me to type this out is because Im so aggravated. This is someones life and other peoples deaths you're acting out and posting for the world to view. Their are families of these fallen that may see this. This isn't a story of fiction and shouldn't be addressed as some source of entertainment or an afternoon film project. Really sit down and think about what you're doing...........!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cathy5245]

Marcus wasn't best friends with Matt Axelson, he was best friends with Michael Murphy. Maruc

[cathy5245]

I didn't watch the video because I couldn't get past the description. Before you go get proud of yourself for how well you did, you should of did your fact checking before you ever started. Marcus was not best friends with Matt A

[Winstomatic]

if marcus luttrell saw this he would be mad . take it off

[berry2mint]

These kids are just trying to pay homage to a significant event that got their attention. Seals are thoughtful, intelligent individuals. Maybe someday some of these boys will answer the call.

[hemigod2]

Kidds Y'all DONT WANNA BE SEALS , TRUST ME. IF YOU MAKE IT THROUGH BUDS YOUR LIVES MISSORY WILL BE YOUR JOB UNTIL YOU DIE AND IF YOU DONT MAKE IT THROUGH BUDS well same thing. you kids don't understand what suck factor really means do you? and do you really think its fun killing people ? learn how to box if you wanna beat up your old bullies

[hemigod2]

@Manhattanimage Most respect Back to you My friend, I used to be one of those Kids back in the woods playing war games. we took it so serious that we had people out there from age 12 to 25 some even enlisted military off duty. we wore olive drab and used paint ball and cool aid guns, and occasional bb. reenacting vietnam. I meant no disrespect to my Father, all I wanted to do was be like him. these guys may have internet but they will never have what we had which was multitudes of others in

[persianjade]

Its great seeing.ppl inspired.