The beautiful skyline of Hong Kong at night! Come with us through the brightly lit, and empty of people, Business District and then over the river to Kowloon Bay to look back. The buildings all come to life with colours and lights embedded in their structure that forms a fantastic light show. Finally we visit the vibrant and busy center of town and see some of the amazing flashing neon screens and lights around the streets thronged with people.

Hong Kong is one of the cities that inspired the look of the film Blade Runner and so I have set the film to the score- hope you like it!

The Basho Special Editions are high definition re-renders of my prior work using some of the techniques and knowledge I have learned since first making them. This film is the last of that collection and the next will be a new slice of China.

Changes to the original:
Stablised some shots
Rotated some of the shots to true
Recoloured correctly using professional filters
Sound cleanup
1080p Render in YT friendly wmv (mp4 juddered)

Things I couldn’t fix:
I couldn’t get the slow mo to become any smoother without losing tons of detail.
There is a lot of noise due to the fog that night. My camera is a basic job and does its best to compensate, but lots remains.

Kind regards,

Basho

Before 2011 I had not played much milsim, now… well I recently laid in a puddle from 1am, freezing cold and surrounded by poisonous mushrooms, for 8 hours to spring an ambush!

I fell asleep and started snoring.

Moments later I was awoken by a wet weight crashing down on my back. Team commander Trip had thrown a log at me, missed, hit a tree and it had collapsed a rotten limb across my sprawled form. Had the opposition walked past at that particular moment then they would have heard the rest of the concealed team completely failing to stop laughing.

At 6 am a stag deer came into the forest, only yards from me. It nibbled the leaves and then it sensed something was wrong. It couldn’t see us, but it could now smell us. Then someone moved and I saw its face as it realised that it was standing amongst 15 humans disguised as forest floor, buried under leaves and mud. With two hurried bounds it was gone.

Milsim is great fun, I recommend it. If you are worried if you can “hack” it, don’t be. You can, physically – it’s mentally you have to be ready for. After 24 hours in game (with 12 to go) you will be tired, frayed, frazzled and still in combat.

And it will be raining.

It’s at this point you will be ready to curse everyone around you. Your teammate with the better kit, your team leader sending YOU out on stag, the world for putting you in this place and especially the opposition who WILL attack you during the night… sometime during the night. So no sleeping without your eye protection on and a firearm to hand.

Photo’s taken during milsim show tough men turning to jelly. That is your challenge, can you stay mentally strong? Enough to work as a team? After all team play means sacrifice…

So why do it? Because, the harder the game and the more realistic the mission then all the more rewards are there to enjoy. Sure, the lows in milsim can be tough, but the highs… the highs are simply the best airsoft in the world.

It was our side who attacked the enemy camp in the dark. Unleashing a battle of epic proportions as we had surprise but, like cornered rats, the enemy had nowhere to go and so turned and fought. This was followed the next day with a counter ambush on our troops that led to a 2.5 hour long contact.

2.5 hours of unrelenting, balls-deep airsoft action.

So much can be done with 2 hours, tactics… hell, strategy as the teams probe each other. flank, flank back, rush, fall back and lay up. It’s incredible. Players acting together as a team in ways never seen in airsoft, all commanded smoothly and everyone gets their oats. Eventually one side withdraws after running out of troops, this was my side and the opposition followed us only to walk straight into our IED’s laid behind us by our pyro expert (an army EOD).

Milsim is worth the cold, the wet and the mentally brutal. It’s one of the best ways to release stress and tension I know. It is also the best way to meet new and interesting people (and shoot them) that I can imagine.

You will look back at your weekend, you will see your moment of glory in a film (of mine perhaps?) and you will smile as you remember the feeling of achievement that only comes from playing at this level.

We call it Tier 1. It’s the way I play airsoft.

Happy Christmas,

Basho

Tier 1 – Year 1 from Basho Matsuo on Vimeo.

I have put this together at the request of a friend, this isn’t the official film — I am doing an “end of year special” — this is just to wet your appetites!

Rolling Thunder was a 36 hour combat mission created and run by Tier One Military Simulations. They are the cutting edge of airsoft in the UK and for two select teams on the US side this included a dawn assault from the air!

Their objective? To capture the Taliban leader known as “Panther” hiding in an Afghan village.

Did they succeed?

You will have to wait to find out!

Comments welcome!

Regards,

Basho

Here is the YouTube description for the film:

At TIER 1 we are totally and entirely dedicated to providing you the player with a 100% “as real as it gets outside the military” experience.
There follows a declassified film about our SUB OPERATION – BLADERUNNER.

EVENT OUTLINE:
These events encompass the highest level of Military Simulation and Attendees were tested to a level unprecedented in airsoft, sustaining — hardship, duress, a lack of sleep and a lack of food for 36hours.
Attendees received initial orders prior to the operation and were required to begin the event outside of an airsoft environment. Tasks included professional training in surveillance, followed by going to a designated place and identifying a group of Targets. Surveillance of those Targets then commenced using covert communication equipment and vehicles, following on foot when required.

But then something they didn’t expect happened!

Late at night the Target’s turned the tables and captured two of the Attendees in a well-planned road stop. They were taken to the Target’s compound and tested for resistance to interrogation. Upon the discovery of this the Attendees then planned, practiced and executed a rescue operation in the early hours of the morning calling on all they had learned in the training and previous day’s play. Could they rescue their teammates alive and capture the Target leader?

ABOUT US:
TIER 1 MILITARY SIMULATION Ltd is a military simulation training company owned and managed by former-Royal Marine Commando Non-Commissioned Officers and a former UKSF 22 SAS Regiment Operator with over 57 years regular service between them.

ABOUT THE FILM:
Tier 1 partnered with the well known airsoft filmmaker and blogger, Basho (www.outsidecontext.com), in making this film. Basho followed the day’s events as a silent observer capturing the main events of the event on camera.

When Ed from Tier 1 asked me to attend the event as a filmmaker I was not ready for what I was about to witness. Tier 1 is about as far from a normal airsoft skirmish that you could get and the “Sub Operations” take this even further. The entire event had a story through which the clients were playing. The idea was that a “terrorist” cell had been discovered and that their leader was coming in to Heathrow. The clients mission was to follow these targets and intercept them in the morning. However, unknown to them Ed had other ideas and one of the squads vehicles was stopped and the clients captured, which involved me hiding in a bush with a load of masked gunmen waiting for the right car to pass! There followed a couple of hours of interrogation followed by a rescue by the other, remaining, players.

It all felt so real, so very real. Nothing was forgotten, nothing was not part of the story unfolding.

It was very clever.

It did have challenges for the filmmaker however. I was not “in” on the story so I was forced to film everything and ended up with 60Gb of footage! I had to improvise filming ideas at short notice and tag along with the teams as they played out their different missions. I also had to go without much sleep for 36 hours! the tired faces you see in the film are really tired. It was incredible how everyone was able to keep going through the event at all.

After the filming the long process began of making the film. I had the idea of a voice over “interview” with Ed as a sort of debrief, which we would use to pull the sections of the film together. eventually the film went up to the limit (on YouTube) of 15 minutes and I realised we had no chance of fitting this in. So I replaced that idea with a “text” over”. Building this so it looked typed was quite a challenge. I achieved it in the following way:

1. Have one 3 second clip of a Green Bar on the far left side of the screen.
2. Use the “Push” transition to move the green line from left to right.
3. This reveals the text clip next in line.
4. Use a “digital typing” noise to make it sound like it is being typed.

All in all the film has the following effects:

• Split screen: vertically, horizontally and “3 screen”.

• Digital matting.
• Pixilation of certain faces.
• Digital stabilisation.
• Slow motion.
• Professional Colour balancing software applied (which almost killed my computer!)

And the following special effect shots:

• The “wake them up” scene where I had to build the idea that the GCHQ was searching out and waking up the players via text message.

• The “matching” shot where the “terrorist” was “face mapped” and identified (during the briefing).

• The Flashbang, which didn’t go off so I had to create it.

Taking number 3, this one I was very happy with. I doubled the scene layer and matted out a grenade  exploding. I then filled that layer with an explosion and set the transition to be a “Sony Flash”. In order to make it sound convincing I went and found a sound of a real US Military Grenade going off and a sound of “ringing in the ears” to simulate the tinnitus one gets when around explosions.

That leads us to sound and music.

For sounds I raided Freesound.org for suitable sounds and ended up using something like 20 in places such as the tires screeching during “The Grab” scene (they did screech but my camera mike didn’t make enough of it) and “clanking” noises during “The Question” interrogation scene. I can’t recommend this site enough. Good sound effects makes a huge difference. For music I went to my friends at Audionetwork.com. They are truly fantastic, enabling the small filmmaker to use music created by seriously high-end orchestra for a mere pittance. Wonderful.

It has been a very long road to get this film finished, but it feels great to have been involved with the Tier 1 team who are all consummate professionals. Their product is a little different from what people may be used to, but it is excellently run and great fun to watch.

Here is the film:

**WARNING** This film is rated 15 and NOT SAFE FOR WORK due to swearing and violence

If you are on an iPad or iPhone try the Vimeo version:

Tier 1 Military Simulation – Operation BladeRunner from Basho Matsuo on Vimeo.

Regards,

Basho

I have often remarked that the challenge of making an airsoft film – when you are also playing in the game – is that you can only edit what you film. In other words: all the events and action is “live” and you cannot simply stop filming, back everyone up, and take a different angle! I have tried many approaches to defeating this problem such as using multiple camera’s, being an extra slice of awesome and filming everything that happens.

However, milsim proved a stronger challenge.

How can I make a film about a shooting event where for the first 10 hours I fired not more than a handful of BBs? In fact only one burst! I decided to focus on the story and one particular incident that happened to me on the Sunday morning when on sentry duty. Unfortunately, my part in the large battle that followed (see the awesome comment above) was entirely too dark to use as was the tunnels section at the end of the day. So, what we have is my filming as a dead player. I think the guys in the footage played very well indeed and were excellently commanded by Ed (the guy with the beard).

I am working hard at ways of defeating low light issues for the next film, but for now – here is Operation Snakebite.

Regards,

Basho

It was when I was sitting in the steam room at Virgin Active with 20 sweaty men all dressed in the same set of bright beach shorts, and making jokes about their penises, that something struck me as odd,

“This has to be,” I announced into the cloud of steam, which was being jetted into the room at an alarming rate and temperature, “the most surreal Ground Zero Weekender I have ever been to.”

The member of team Delta Alpha to my right leant in and said,

“Do you feel better now, though?” He asked.

I considered the question.

The Ground Zero Weekender is a large airsoft event in the latter part of the year in the deepest parts of the New Forest. My team, Delta Alpha known as the “DAs”, had been attending it for 5 years or so and we had come to the conclusion that attendance was mandatory for a team member to retain his number and only top excuses were allowed. Such excuses as “my wife is in labour” (the baby kind – not the political affiliation) or “It’s Ramadan, and I can’t come,” are the level of acceptable. “I don’t feel like it” wasn’t good enough for the DA committee (of which I am happy to be a member). The thing is, as much as the event is a “must attend” (and I’ll give you an example: TA Events offered me a free ticket to their event the weekend after and the chance to be the official cameraman and I turned them down) it is not that we take the airsoft too seriously or even seriously at all.

The DAs are an odd bunch of airsofters with wide ranging experience. Some DAs still only play the urban based, Electrowerkz style, of CQB for which the team is justly infamous – although our home is now “The Mall” in Reading. Other DAs only play high end Stirling Airsoft 3 day Mill Sim events where being captured can actually lead to being REALLY water boarded. One thing we have all decided is that, as good a ground as GZ is, the sheer numbers of players means that serious airsoft is almost impossible. That is for us. I am sure that for other teams it is different. Some definitely take it too seriously, as we shall see.

No, for us GZ is all about the camping, hanging out with our friends and the “Posse” of London teams that attend. In fact, it is nice to be anonymous amongst the great crowd of players. We drove down on the Friday morning to find that some DAs had wormed special permission to arrive Thursday night and had setup “The Moonbase Alpha”. A giant collection of popup tents all linked together to create a space bigger than some airsoft grounds. It had rooms, chambers, cavernous corridors. It was complex, you could almost get lost in it.

“Wow!” I exclaimed to Charlie.

He laughed, “Next year we plan to have enough to create a complete loop with a space for the party in the middle.”

I don’t doubt it. All the DAs are working men and GZ is a chance to show off new kit. At GZ people bring out their new guns and those secret projects that they have been working on all year. At GZ, they try out new tactics and silly toys for the first time. Here people swap roles with our normally SAW pumping commanders taking a breather and all “going sniper” for a few days. In fact the command structure we work so hard on the rest of the year is totally dropped at GZ. It affects me too: I have found myself leading a group who want to go out and move about, whereas normally I am known as a bit of a lone wolf on the field.

So, Friday night we had the traditional DA party, and there is very little I can repeat here as my wife is reading this! Suffice to say, this was a “boys weekend” away (our wives are probably glad we can get it all out of our system). There were a few announcements: a new expectant father, someone was getting baptised soon, someone else was changing jobs – that sort of thing. Each was greeted with the normal DA rousing cheer and many a raised pint pot.

Saturday, we woke early and I broke out the coffee grinder and hob boiler to make some real coffee. Then we ate, tooled up and went into game.

Sure enough, the normal field commanders were having none of it on this event and so we wandered around until we got into contact. Not being natural woodland players, the DAs struggle a little to beat local players and after half a dozen lives lost we came back for lunch and then split into two teams, going at different paces, to suit taste.

It was about only 10 minutes into that when it all went horribly wrong.

The way I see it is that anyone who plays woodland must be prepared to take a few hits at once. Woodland is often at range and people are only shooting at what they can see. Bits of arms and legs; whatever is visible between the trees and bushes. When I get hit at GZ, I am almost always hit by multiple rounds and often clipped a few more times as I walk out of play. Shit happens as far as I am concerned. I don’t let it get to me, as I am sure it is not on purpose.

Some people see it differently.

My small unit, of 8 or so, were making their way through the bush when a target presented itself. We were spread out along a ridge, fighting up a steep hill. Vince and I saw the target and both fired a small burst. I heard a “hit”. The player then stood where they were. I could only see the legs of the player, but I quickly realised that it was an “Intel holder”. That is a player who has been given an Intel Card to present when shot as a capture objective. They have to stand where they are and wait capture, rescue or a timeout. Of all the players who are going to get shot too many times, this is that role as, by not moving away, other players will naturally consider you still alive.

One of the team (not Vince or I, but further down the ridge) took another shot.

Then all hell broke loose.

The Intel Holder turned out to be a feisty red headed girl from a well known team based on a British Island. And she was not happy. With a scream is rage she pulled up her gun and on full auto ran into the bush firing at us. My shout of, “Dead players don’t move or shoot!” was drowned out by a 6 gun barrage of returning fire from the DAs down the ridge – all of which had no idea that this was the Intel Holder. After a few seconds of Vince and I shouting to cease fire, they did. The damage had already been done. The Intel Holder was now livid and out of control. She was screaming at us that being shot was wrong and that she was angry about it. At first I wondered why her being angry was anything to do with us, I wondered if something else was going to be in her argument, but no that was it “I’m angry and so I am having a self serving fit” was all she wrote.

On the other hand, my team were of the opinion that, while we were very sorry about the overkill, it happens and could we all just calm down please.

After 3 minutes of this, I suggested that perhaps she should just forget it and return to her dead zone. I was going to continue to say that she could raise this with a marshal if she liked, and we could deal with it through him. The DAs have no issue with authority. Many of us used to marshal atElectrowerkz, a site that REALLY had a problem with overkill, and are quite used to talking it out rationally. I myself was a senior marshal there for 3 years.

I didn’t get to say anything after the words “you’re a dead player”.

With a scream the girl launched herself at me and started attempting to beat me up. I say attempting as I was in full body armour and helmet so I could not feel anything. I turned away and hunched my shoulder and made no attempt to defend myself. Suddenly two arms grabbed me from behind. Soon she was dragged off me and our friends separated us. At the time, I wondered why my team was holding me back as I was absolutely fine. She was still desperately trying to claw her way through her friends towards me. There was one of those large group tussles as all sorts of people on both sides tried to get between us. The volume increased as everyone started shouting at each other. Eventually the girl was restrained enough to be dragged away.

As quick as that it was over. The groups split up and went their own way. The DAs stopped and replayed the situation in our heads.

“What the fuck just happened?” I asked.

The general opinion was that she had gone mental and was a danger to players.

“Are you going to report this Bash?” I was asked.

I thought for a second. “I should. She might hurt someone, she was bloody mental.”

“Or she may start on someone else who might smack her head in next time,” offered a DA.

“We were all worried you would fight back and kick them all in. Especially the guy who shouted at you,” said another.

I get this all the time, once people find out about my black belt in taekwondo and European tournament win.

Sam patted me on the back, “We acted the right way brov’, don’t worry.”

Then suddenly something occurred to me; the head camera!

“I have the entire thing on tape!” I exclaimed.

The general feeling was that this was awesome news. About ten minutes later we all got shot and so walked out. I went up to the nearest marshal and spoke to him. It turned out that the other group had already made a complaint about me. We all agreed to go speak to the organisers regarding it.

Back at the command tent, the site owner “H” took me to one side.

“Tell what you say happened,” he said. I felt that he clearly suspected me in this. I told him, leaving nothing out, but he didn’t look particularly convinced.

“…and,” I said, “I probably have the entire thing recorded on head camera.”

“Right,” he said, “let’s see it.”

Soon we were viewing the footage. It was very high quality.

It showed everything. It showed the DAs calling for calm before the attack, DAs saying we will walk away (this is a team rule), basically: the DAs trying their best to do the right thing and clearly saying they were sorry for the overkill. It also showed that this simply made the girl more mental until she attacked me in a rage.

It was the most convincing piece of footage I had ever recorded; I was totally cleared by it.

“Right, she is in trouble!” H said in anger and stomped out of the room, presumably to deal with her.

I went to rejoin my fellows standing by the entrance to the safe zone. Soon Lex and Trip (the other team leaders) arrived and after we had watched the footage again, we went to talk to H about what he was going to do.

This conversation had four points of view:

1. H wanted me to decide what should happen.

2. Lex offered to arrest her if I said so (many DAs are policemen).

3. Trip wanted to have her ejected as well as the guy with her.

4. However, I thought that it’s not for me, a player, to enforce the rules of a site.

I am not taking responsibility for the appropriate punishment a player should get for assault. When I was a marshal, I took little notice of the victim’s wishes as violence has no place in the game AT ALL. If a victim said to “leave it”, then that was nice, but the marshals decide if someone is to be ejected. It is for the marshals to enforce this at GZ, not I!

Also, my religious beliefs are founded on being compassionate (seriously), so I decided to drop it and go and have a beer.

H offered that perhaps a hand shake would suffice. Frankly, I found that ridiculous. This wasn’t a punch up or half my fault, this was an unprovoked attack. You don’t ask someone who has been mugged to shake hands with the muggers do you? I told H that a handshake wouldn’t work for me and I would not want shake the hand of someone like that ever. Hate filled, self obsessed, stupid, psychotic people are not friends of mine.

So we walked away. As we do.

However, I did agree not to post the footage on the net, I said nothing about stills.

Back at the camp, we were having real troubles letting the event go. The entire DAs were up in arms about it and all sort of rubbish was being offered. Some were saying I should have hit her back, others that I should post the entire thing to the net, others still that I should insist she be ejected and her name blackened all around every site we know. Some just wanted to go and have it out with them now. Some even saw it my way (mainly the ex marshal crowd). After about an hour of discussing it I wanted a break. It was then that Vince had a brain wave:

“You know,” he said to the group, “I am a member of Virgin Active and this weekend all their branches are free to use.”

The team considered this in silence.

“That is bloody brilliant,” I said. “But we will need shorts right?”

“Let stop off at Tesco and buy some,” suggested Trip.

Suddenly we had something fun to do and a mission. Laughing, we jumped in our cars and went. It was great fun running around Tesco trying to find shorts and then zooming to the closest Virgin Active. Sure enough it was free, but the staff was shocked to have us all turn up at once. The place was basically empty and we swam, played volleyball in the pool, sauna and enjoyed the steam room. It was there that Vince said,

“Do you feel better now, though?” He asked.

“Oh yes. Thanks mate.”

And after that we forgot about it and after a very one sided vote we drove off to Nando’s for dinner.

The next day’s airsoft was fun and the chaotic kind we all know and love at GZ. I did see the girl again – so she hadn’t been banned – but we didn’t acknowledge each other.

On the way home I thought of the promise I had made about the footage. Sure, I agreed not to post the footage, it shows a crime after all, but I have kept it just in case I need to make a complaint to the police regarding this event in the future. I did however decide to do something in my film of the Weekender – a subtle revenge – you will have to watch it to find out what.

So, yes, it was a surreal airsofting event. I have never actually seen someone properly attack another at an airsoft event – not in three years of marshalling at EW or in 10 years of playing – and I hope to never see it again, let alone be the victim of that attack. Airsoft is thought to be violent, but it actually isn’t. From the outside, we may look like we are serious people, but in general we are not. Sure, I have had my anger flare up before, but I have always walked away. Any serious complaint I have taken to a marshal. I think that people who can’t walk, who are so up themselves that they must “have a go” or –worse still – actually attack someone, should never get to step foot on an airsoft field again. I would be interested to hear your viewpoint.

However, as usual, it was the brilliant group of team mates – my friends – who made the event for me. The Ground Zero Weekender and airsoft in general is about making new friends and not counting your kills.

Regards,

Basho

The film:

Vimeo HD version:

The DA Team – Ground Zero 2010 from Basho Matsuo on Vimeo.

You Tube version:

To those of you who play computer games, the country of Chernarus may ring a few bells. As anyone who loves the Arma series of games from Bohemia Interactive will tell you Chernarus, or Black Russia, is a fictional post-USSR country somewhere in the East that is used as the main game location. TA Events have licensed the entire storyline from Bohemia meaning that players at the event could sign up to the various factions found in the series. When someone says that you should get out from behind the keyboard and get some exercise, these events enable you to re live the brilliant, in-depth storyline for (almost) real. A detailed account of the factions and background to the event can be found here and it has a very professional depth to it not usually available to airsofters.

.The real-life location was no less impressive. The Army FIBUA site of Sennybridge in Wales is a complete “fake” English village in which generations of UK warriors have trained in FIBUA (Fighting In Built Up Areas). The level of detail in the village is very impressive. Not only is the village replete with gardens, walls and buildings, but it also has a church with gravestones! Even more than this, the houses have built-in speakers hooked up to a centralised system that can be used to deliver synchronised sounds to the player. So, when the Marines call in an airstrike the sound of the helicopters can be heard in all the houses surrounding the target. This turns up the immersion to the max.

Another attempt to keep the realism high was the game rules themselves. BattleSim is a strange beast. Not quite as ultra-real as the Milsim games at Stirling Airsoft, but definitely miles more involved than normal skirmishes. The teams were all structured with roles and responsibilities. There was designated snipers and support gunners and normal riflemen could only carry 600 rounds into combat. What weapons you could use was also mandated. Not here will you find some of the more “speedball” over the top M4 Patriots with dual box mags, and even secondary weapons had to be in keeping with the role. For example, a sniper had a pistol backup, not an AEG.

A complex medical system was in place that meant that when a player got hit he had to refer to a randomly drawn medic card and read the instructions therein. It was a great idea in principle, but it did have a few drawbacks.

For example, a player could (card permitting) be “medic’ed” by anyone. Thus in the film where I took out 8 out of 9 players in a house, I had effectively achieved nothing. That last player, medic’ed the “injured” players and the house was back up to operational. It is an unfortunate fact that mechanics that appear a good idea in theory and on paper, rarely work in the heat of combat. Similarly, players naturally find way around complex rules. In my  opinion, and as a creator of more than a few airsoft games myself at the late Electrowerkz, rules in airsoft should be like water flowing down hill. A golden rule to ask oneself when devising game is, “is it easier to follow this rule than not?” If not, then don’t be surprised to find that people will not follow them clearly. I certainly saw quite a few people not playing the medic rule correctly, but this was mainly due to them not understanding it as we only had a very short briefing on it.

For us DAs: we followed the rules as best we could, but when we found a player of ours who’s card mandated a medical evacuation that would have exposed the position to being overrun, well… we just shot him and saved the call. The chaos of battle was all around us all day. Something that many players were not used to and reacted against, but this was their problem, not the event’s. TA did have a few hiccups with the collecting of deaths as they had not provided a large number of players with “tags” and so their deaths were never logged and the marshal in our command tent had no idea of our objectives, but all in all the event was quite well run. I saw only one player not taking his hits all event and that is to be applauded.

Part of Team Delta Alpha marshalled overnight in exchange for a free game and I was part of a small band selected to role-play the part of “NAPA” villagers for the first hour or so. We had a lot of fun dressing up as moustached locals, with Keith really getting into the spirit with a brilliant costume resplendent with comedy beard; you can see him in the film dancing to Trip’s Russian ringtone. Also the team leaders of Delta Alpha were invited to become “Commanders” and run the US Marine team. The commanders had a lot of fun with this, doing impressions of R. Lee Ermey (the drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket) crossed with General Patton. The night before I helped DA1 write his speech to the troops using Patton’s famous address to the third army and the beginning of Arma II. Under the commanders we setup out the traditional two units of DAs, led by a Section Leader and Deputy (should the leader be killed). This structure worked quite well in play, but we may change things around a little next time.

USMC deployment in Chernarus consists of 27th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), which is supposed to overturn the balance in the civil war in the favour of Chernarussian government. Marines are skilled in asymmetrical warfare and are backed up by superior weapons and technology.

The DA faction: the US Marines

The game niggles, together with the ugly weather on Saturday, meant that the fighting spirit flagged in the latter part of the first day.

This was good.

Good?

Sure, Milsim is milsim. In real life, do you think that the troops are pumped all the time? No. They learn to pace themselves or they suffer tiredness and moral lapses too. This wasn’t a quick shunt around Electrowerkz before having a beer, this was fighting all day with no relenting. Even having lunch meant setting up a perimeter and eating with eye protection on. On this day all the DAs were made to Man-Up and fight on. Personally, when I found events confusing, I relied on something I once read in a Flashman novel,

“When you are tired and unsure whether to walk or run, look to your officers and march to the sound of the guns.”

Thus I let others worry about the storyline and I charged when told, held when commanded and slotted anyone dressed in green. One of the problems in house to house fighting is that people tend to not want to assault and you end up with with people in windows just plinking at each other all day. The DAs were having none of this and would always ask for permission to assault forwards. A few times this led to all of us being hit and killed, but for the times it worked – it really worked. For example, on Sunday morning, we assaulted a key house, slotted all 6 defenders, and consequently dominated the entire village for the second day of play.

I, personally, loved this event. I enjoyed the challenge and I hope this comes across in the film. I salute TA for attempting such a complex event and I could tell that they worked very hard. I think there is still some way to go with the rules and a print out of the objectives wouldn’t go amiss (after all we paid over £80 for the event.)

Was it worth it?

Yes definitely, I am sure the problems will be smoothed out through constructive feedback and TA Events listening to their client base.

About the film

For a while now I have been trying to find a way to add “context” to the filming of airsoft play. It is often very hard to tell what is going on, who was shooting who and where the enemy are on the screen. I have been trying to think of an answer to this for weeks. Finally I hit on the idea of us being “spied” on by a US Satellite who could act on behalf of the viewer and provide an overlay to bring the “tactical view” into the film.

I hope it worked.

Airsoft is not scripted. Everything you see is as it is. Often situations don’t pan out how you would like (as a filmmaker), and you cant cut what you didn’t film. My answer, at the moment, is to saturate the event with cameras and hope to catch some gold nuggets. On this event I got one shot I absolutely love, that of DA1 firing his Support Gun over my head. I love that shot, not least because he was shooting at someone who had just slotted me! The BB’s streaming out of the barrel look great. I hope to capture many more like that in the future.

Anyway, here is my film of the event. I have had fun making it, although it was a lot of work to cut the 20GB(!) of footage down– a one moment it was over 24 minutes long! – In order to upload it I have had to split the YouTube version into two. Of course the Vimeo version is full length (I love those guys).

Please leave any comments at the bottom here.

Regards,

Basho.

Vimeo Version:

Sennybridge, a Basho film about “The Chernarus Conflict” from Basho Matsuo on Vimeo.

YouTube Part 1:

YouTube Part 2:

I have been reading a book recently, called “The World Without Us ,” in it the author, Alan Weisman, writes of how nature – that pervasive force – would take over after we are gone. Concrete would fall down, buildings would crumble under vines and the remains of humanity would disappear; and quicker than you would imagine. Of course, for us Daoists we don’t see the human and so called “natural” worlds as different at all. They are all parts of the same thing; and it is only human arrogance that distinguishes us and our achievements. When we see metal and we think that it is not a “natural” substance, we forget that we stand upon a 50 trillion ton ball of the same stuff. Given the size of the Universe, our small scratches on that metal ball amount to a glint of light in a million years of sunshine, but we don’t see it that way. We still think we are in control. As Weisman shows in his book – that is the ultimate illusion.

And so it is with the UCS garden, losing control leads to organic growth and non-human cycles of birth and decay taking back the ground. Returning to the rhythm all of its own. It wont be rushed, it is like the blowing playful wind, and as gardeners we might conduct this orchestra briefly, but we hardly could claim control of it.

We work with it.

So, I looked upon Cesca’s and friends’ work and read its title and I considered what it meant. I think it means that we may stop listening to the song of nature when we build our concrete pillars and throw away our rubbish, but that song is only just out of earshot; and awaiting to erupt upon our works when we turn our backs from it. Even the most ugly structures return to beauty. A fence, a bucket, a sign, a pool of water – given time – are visited and reseeded. We just need to lose “control” and release our nature; our natural ability to live in harmony with this planet. That is what I think attracts many out into the gardens of this world, and what makes some gardens great, that one word; harmony. It suggests a tune, a gentle tune carried on the breeze, whistled by Gia herself upon the wind and waiting for you to hear it.

Making this garden was backbreaking work for a lot of people and I salute them all here. I watched for the final week of the preparations, seeing what was a simple patch of grass become the garden. There were many risks: the planting could have looked “planted”. The whole effect of such a work required the highest knowledge of nature, how the seeds would catch and how the plants might spread. Such risk was then doubled by the redoubtable students with their choice of a 360 degree view on the final piece. That is, you could walk all around it and it left nowhere for any mistakes to hide. That took courage and demonstrated confidence and the RHS noted the skill and spirit in the garden and upped the marks accordingly.

Some visitors didn’t understand. For they: a garden is an expression of man’s supposed dominance over nature. But they can be safely ignored as ignorant of the truths this garden exposed; man lives IN nature, as a part of it. And lo – look what beauty we can create together! As partners, not master and slave.

The film: My rather poor footage (I really need a tripod for this sort of work) and the fact that my camera was struggling to focus through its armour (ready for airsoft use it the field) meant that I could only capture some of the wonder to be seen here. I also decided to capture footage with nobody in it, for while I could have made a film about “the story of the garden being built”, I decided that the story in the garden was more important and that is what I aimed for. The cutting was back in Sony Vegas (version 9 now), my brief dalliance with Adobe being well and truly over; at least for the time being; due to its incomprehensibility.

I hope you enjoy the results, please leave a comment below or feel free to ask a question.

Vimeo version:

Malvern 2010 Show Garden – Losing Control, Releasing Nature from Basho Matsuo on Vimeo.

Regards,

Basho

During this time, the Mongol led precursors to the Ming had collapsed and China was about to enter its most fascinating historical age. It was an age of intellectual flowering, towering social and political achievements and immense scientific progress. During all of this, Chinese Daoism was again forming into something new. The almost shamanistic practices of external alchemy were giving ground to a new practice of internal alchemy. Internal alchemy was the search for ”immortality” through the development of magic powers inside oneself. This is a syncretic idea heavily influenced by both Confucianism and indeed the movements of Buddhism, which after all is all about internal realisations, forming ideas that are readily recognisable for their influence on the west.

I am talking about internal kung fu.

One of the leading thinkers of Daoism at the time was the legendary Chang San-Feng, who wandered up Mount Wudang and made it the base of his Daoist sect. Legend has it that, in one of the temples up the mountain, he formed his magical exercises into Tai Chi after watching a snake and bird fighting. After the Yongle Emperor decreed Wudang to be “The Grand Mountain” its place in history was assured. Fast foward in time and the monasteries and buildings were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The palaces and temples in Wudang contain Taoist art and icons from as early as the 7th century. It represents the highest standards of Chinese art and architecture over a period of nearly 1,000 years.

Of course, the true nature of Daoist history is as slippery as the core texts. I will have more to say about the veracity of this “history” later.

So what is it like to visit? Walking the 20,000 steps (!) up the mountain is one of the most spiritual things I have ever done, but not perhaps in the way that you might imagine. We came to Wudang half way through our journey in China and before our journey into Japan. Since we were basically on a spiritual journey around the world in general, and Buddhist journey in particular, the effect of Wudang took a long time to settle into my bones. However, my muscles ached like hell the very next day! Also, this was still China in 2009 and Daoism is a very strange and illusive beast to get a grasp on. So what the hell happened? This is something I will have to go into far more depth about at a later time, but essentially the contrast between this strange and very foreign way of life gave me the space to consider my own thrown into sharp relief. When you meet people and visit places that are so different to your experiences and your life, then you have two choices. You scoff. Or you stop and think. Mount Wudang is one of the best places I have ever visited for making time to stop and think. To, in fact, go beyond thinking and be able to sublime the nature of your existence. It is a fair thing to say that I walked down Wudang a different person than when I walked up, but that I didn’t realise it until much later.

So, here is the (small) film about that day. I hope that I managed to, at least a little, capture some of the feeling of the place and time.

NEW You Tube version:

Vimeo version:

Wudang Mountain, the Heart of China from Basho Matsuo on Vimeo.

The idea has a lot of merit if you think about it. Firstly, games often ebb and flow randomly. One side may gain the upper hand in an attack, but they loose too many men to reinforce the position and soon are driven back and it is the other team who are then on the offensive. Similar to a game of football. However, sometimes a team simply hammers all opposition to such an extent that the suffering team cannot fulfil their objectives at all. Sometimes they cannot get out of their safe zone. The game suddenly becomes unbalanced, tempers raise, cries of cheating go up and no fun is had at all.

Well, at least none by the team getting a kicking.

Contrast this with a scripted game. In a scripted game one team has knowledge of the layout, defences and shooting power of the other, but instead of using this knowledge to annihilate the opposition and ruin the game for all, they design a set of tactics that challenge but fall short of victory by a very small amount.

At least for a while.

Frankly, given the reputation of team Delta Alpha for “pushing shite back in” I was surprised that the organisers came to us to fulfil this role. Surprised but pleased. You see, the DA’s have wanted to show their ability to restrain themselves, to play the game with knowledge of the inside and yet willingly walk into night ambushes, heavily defended strategic points and overlapping arcs of fire without getting angry or upset. We wanted the challenge to see if we could do that, and so we did.

Milsim is not CQB, indeed the reality of this hit me the moment I arrived at Zulu. We were billeted in a lofty building full of dust, only one small light and we were sleeping on the hard concrete floor. We had it easy, the OPFOR were camped out in the forest areas with only what they could carry and rain had been forecast! Our roll mats came out and sleeping bags were deployed, one smart ass even put up a tent (wish I had thought of that!). This was our safe zone and the one place in the whole camp we could relax in true DA style.

Our brief was to operate out of this building under central command of a member of staff who would feed us attack and withdrawal orders as well as supply vehicles for us to “airdrop” with. On assault, we were to push the enemy, but not break them. We used our normal team structure of commander “Sockdog” (so called because he is tenacious like trying to get a dog to let go of a sock) to direct two fireteams that can split into 5 man sub-units under a 2IC.  This then gives us Sergeant, lieutenant and commander roles. Every tropper was under command and no-one went lone wolf, not even me. This worked really well in keeping our options flexible and enabling us to withdraw pressure from the field in bite size chunks, or turn it up by attacking a flank.

The idea was that we would be ordered to withdraw after a certain time, even if that meant we had to abandon that assault’s objectives. We had to regroup and launch multiple pronged attacks all over the Opfor controlled area and try and take hostages of a few “CIA” agents hidden amongst their number.

As the night drew in, we were to act out the role of Insurgents buying arms from gunrunners (Team Gray Fox) by performing “drops” at various sites around the base. These drops were to be defended, but in a haphazard manner to allow the Opfor to observe them and generate the next set of their objectives.  We also had to attack their base during the night and walk right into a three line ambush, getting cut to pieces in the process. When we died, we were to act wounded and cry out in pain, shout “man down!”, panic, etc. Anything we could do to increase the realism for the other team was to be attempted.

I hope that you all can see how much more fun this was for both sides! I loved it, being that I come from a role player MMO background. Anyway, at this juncture I will say no more; this was the first time we have done this for an organisation, but hopefully it will not be the last!

The film.

This was also the first time that I have made a film with my new Bashocam. This new model is a VIO POV 1 and is much higher quality than the previous camera. Video is saved as high definition files and then converted to be used in my editing program: Sony’s Vegas. My old camera is now tied on the front of my Magpul PTS and will be generating guncam footage for those Multikill moments. In this film I have outlined the basic storyline of the game, and then put down the best footage I took. It was a bit of learning process and I will be using a zoom camera as well next time to capture the many Opfor I shot.

I hope that you all enjoy it!

High Quality Version on Vimeo:

Operation Zulu from Basho Matsuo on Vimeo.

YouTube version:

Outside Context has been through a major overhaul and now all the airsoft articles are collected into a series for easy reach by the readership. I have migrated to a new, much more powerful, server that can handle the sort of traffic I get these days. I invite you all to come have a look!

Regards,

Basho