Strike Zone

I watched this movie on the Return of the King special Extended DVD and was immediately struck. Of course the DVD contains the story around Cameron Duncan and that makes you feel even more bound to this film. But the film itself also had great elements: the way he compared war and the playing of softball. About his last wish, about himself mostly.

He expresses his deepest feelings in movies and that shows in this picture. It is terrible this guy doesn't live to grow his talent, for he could have made it.

The way he uses camera and players to express the deepest need of the filmmaker to build a great softball-team, is simply astonishing. Especially worth saying is how he managed to add humor into this film about a dying boy.

He must have had great courage to make such a biopic...

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

Cameron Duncan's talent was unfairly wasted by his premature death and I would have loved to have seen more of his work. His work on Strike Zone is a combination of brilliant directorial skill and acting ability. One of the few films to bring tears to my eyes, Strike Zone has a very powerful short film, which brings emphasis to the difficulties of dealing with the time left in which you have to live. This hugely emotional feature brings life to a new breed of film making and will no doubt make you see handicaps in an entirely different view. This inspirational masterpiece should encourage people to take all the opportunities presented to them in order to make the most of their lives. Thanks Cameron.

"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.

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.