Strike Zone

I saw Strikezone on the 4th disk of the Extended Edition of Return of the King. A documentary about Cameron Duncan (more a tribute to him by Peter Jackson)had Strikzone and DFK 6** (I forgot the full number) edited into it. The story of Cameron Duncan, who was struck with bone cancer at a young age, brought tears to my eyes, and his 2 short films stroke me. This guy was talented and could have brought some great full length movies if he had the chance.

Strikezone is a stunning short film.The story, about a cancer patient coaching a softball team, is just great because it came from real life experiences from Duncan himself. With this easy story Duncan tells his own story, he transmits his own feeling to the viewer. That's why watching Strikzone is such an emotional experience. But also the camera work and direction is just fantastic, regarding the circumstance's in which it was filmed (The last months of Duncan's life, coming with a lung injury). After all i liked DFK more, because it was more minimalistic and even a bit harder, but Strikezone is the fantastic testament of a young filmmaker who died to young. It even inspired me to take on Director Studies in Brussels next year...

8/10

(Please don't mind the grammatical or spelling mistakes. I am raised in Dutch ;) )

By using the word true I am not referencing a link to the experience of the character in the film, but the emotion evident on my screen when I saw this.

I came across this fantastic piece of work, and indeed some other snippets from the film maker, via the generosity of Peter Jackson in including it as extra content on one of his own releases. Even without the introduction by Mr Jackson, I could clearly see how the young man in question truly loved his hobbies, those being softball and film making. Lending his heart to performing in his own work, in order to convey the message without the sugar coating people normally reserve for when standing in front of a camera. A well thought out view on life as not all of us get to see it as.

It may have been by accident, and I may just be reading into something completely unintended, but I took a very powerful message from this piece of work.

Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose, but whichever you do, always ensure you are doing something you love doing.

I would like to thank Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh for enabling me to bear witness to this wonderful achievement in film making, by a person with an ability many years beyond his own.

"Strikezone" is an incredibly moving short film. I can't watch it without tears coming to my eyes. What Cameron achieved, against all odds, never fails to blow me away. We have lost a truly great young filmmaker. I am deeply inspired by Cameron, and "Strikezone" is my motivation when everything seems too difficult, when my dreams seem to ambitious, I can only think of what I would like to have achieved if it was all taken away tomorrow. Thanks to Cameron's family for releasing his film. It is beautiful and I will treasure it forever. I cried yesterday, listening to the Return of the King song "Into the West" and thinking of Cameron...his inspiration will live on.

If only he got the all clear.

I got the Return of The King DVD last week and only just started watching the documentaries. I checked a documentary out that Peter Jackson pointed out in his introduction that contained by film and another by Cameron.

I have to say i was very impressed by this film, I cried a lot towards the end. The story was inspiring and had an interesting style like a lot of todays big name filmmakers.

The other short film i saw that he made was another interesting film. In a different way i had an idea of what he was talking about. The feeling of being a cage you want to get out of but can't.

Overall this film gave me a feeling like i've never felt before. I've not cried this much watching a film in along time. If you get the ROTK Extened edition it is well worth a look.

R.I.P Cameron

The bracketed part is to be a short poem as the lines r breaking up here

(With tears I bid u farewell for u will not be amongst us, With joy I bid farewell as u will be free of pain u were going through; Merry journey to the West my friend, Where u will await to meet us; Serene beauty may surround thou there; Watch over from there, don't despair; For through His Highness we shall look after what u left behind, Pray for us to the Holy Lord; That we gather the strength u possessed, As a clock named time passes by.)

I just couldn't resist writing this some sort of poem. I beg my pardon to each and every people whose mother tongue is English to dare to write a poem in their mother tongue although I literally know nothing about English language and it's cultural heritage. I haven't even finished the books Lord of The Rings (JRR Tolkien) and Treasure Island (RL Stevenson) because of my slow and stumbled reading. I hope to read more English though. I just don't know why I had to write this short poem or whatever, but that's why I did as I felt it to be the realistic impression of my feelings to this great young film prodigy.