Basic Painting

Scenario Paintball Films

DVD $19.97, 5 Chapters

If you’ve been in this game as long as I have, you’ve certainly had a chance to see your share of paintball videos.

From the poor schlub who get’s pelted on Youtube, to the industry’s first full length feature (PUSH by Benini & Company – from back in the stoneage), training videos, DVD releases of tournament paintball on ESPN – the list is endless.

The number of companies producing direct to DVD paintball releases is also pretty extensive – and we love ‘em all:  stores and fields run them on endless loop for background, players pop them in between games and even bring them along to help pass the time during that plane flight to the game.

In fact, paintball DVD’s have become so common that they are virtually interchangeable.  Until now.

Scenario Paintball Films debut DVD – BASIC PAINTING – was produced by a three-way marriage between a television production company, a small group of scenario paintballers and the US Military Academy at West Point.

A couple of times every year the Military Academy’s cadets play host to paintballers at the West Point Combat Classic, and this time around Scenario Paintball Films was there to capture the action.

Aaron Kneppar of the Loaded Crows scenario team hooked up with Jay Alan Lavely of Clarion Pictures and together they decided to take an interesting approach – showcase scenario paintball (at its finest) on an introductory level.

They couldn’t have picked a better facility or a better game for this premiere effort – the West Point Military Academy’s Spring Paintball Classic.

The Spring Classic brings with it several elements not found at the typical paintball game – artillery simulators, medium machine guns firing blank rounds (M240s) and the core of cadets  and their faculty advisors.

Getting West Point and scenario gamers together has been a tradition since “back in the day” (I’ve personally had the honor of playing against the Black Knights cadet team at several events over the years) and they are, to a soldier, some of the best and brightest out there.

The players are no slouches either, with folks like Eric Engler of Engler Custom Paintball Guns on hand (as one of the generals) to help lead the players in showing their appreciation for our military brothers and sisters.

The game itself lets everyone get together in a very welcoming – and unusual – environment.

And Scenario Paintball Films was there to record it all and deliver a very fine presentation of the players, the equipment, the game play and the finer points of one of the fastest growing segments of our industry.

The quality of this DVD is, in a word, STUNNING. Inside info reveals that all of it was done by highly paid, professional cameramen, utilizing state of the art equipment, and it shows.

Director Lavely’s background is in the production of action-based television reality shows, and it is clear that he knows what he needs and how to go about crafting an introductory-level program that is full of action.

Plenty of mass charges, tank battles, fevered planning sessions, close-up individual actions are mixed with short (and interesting) explanatory interviews with key players (an anti-tank gunner, a tank maker/driver, an infantry commander), the different kinds of players are revealed (everything from old men who ought to know better to young, second-generation female players) and state of the art computer graphics that show the terrain, disposition of the forces throughout the game and the tactics being employed on the ground.

Basic Painting thoroughly delivers on its promise of being an “Introduction to Scenario Paintball at West Point’s 2009 Spring Combat Classic” and does so with a level of professionalism that places it at the top of the paintball DVD heap.

You can view a short clip right here on 68Caliber and purchase your own for $19.97 on the Scenario Paintball Films website.

(Retailers, pic up a few for your store and field – they’re perfect for introducing new players to the wonderful world of scenario play)

YOU CAN ALSO WIN A COPY OF THE DVD FOR YOUR TEAM RIGHT HERE ON 68CALIBER.  See our accompanying contest!