Night Fighters is a new series of short films produced by TNVC, and directed by SilentR Productions. In their own words, Warfighters and Armed Professionals discuss the role of low-light / no-light operations on today’s and future battlefields as well as the importance of leading the fight and staying ahead of the opposition as technology evolves.
Episode1: Tyler Grey
Mr. Grey is currently in very high demand as a Military and Law enforcement tactical trainer as well as a consultant for various gear and weapon manufacturers. Since being medically retired Mr. Grey has continued to expand his knowledge in night fighting and develop new product designs, tactics, and training techniques to improve the US Military as well as Law Enforcements ability to operate in that environment. Lastly and most importantly he is also extremely active in aiding veterans, advocating for many Veterans causes as well as participating in the documentary “That Which I Love Destroys Me” (available on iTunes and on YouTube) which is about helping Veterans open up about the mental health issues that affect so many of not just todays veterans but all veterans past present and even future.
Tags: TNVC, Tyler Grey
I love the TNVC product lines and the informative videos that Chip Lasky has been doing for a long while. He is obviously a SME on all things night vision… and I appreciate that. I’ve been saving my shekels for a minute so I can purchase an ATPIAL-C and PVS-14 at the same time.
This new Tyler Grey stuff, on the other hand, is really chapping my ass. I appreciate people with tactical experience and think it’s great to bring him into the fold, but you’ve got a video with them silhouetting on a ridge line at dusk? You have a photo on the TNVC night fighters Tyler Grey page with a guy (C12 tagged) employing his nods in the middle of the day to look through a magnified Aimpoint T-2 … that is covered? And a small nit, but why use windowed PMAGS if you’re going to “tactically” paint over them?
Long story short. There are tons of very experienced men (and women) in the industry that came from the military. Thank you all for your service. I wish these damn companies would stop hiring Tier 1 operators to operate operationally with high speed operational gear in videos and would instead use the money to hire more SMEs like Chip.
You realize this series isn’t about proper TTPs and such, right? It is promotional and educational?
Are you asking if it’s promotional and educational? I think I’m Ron Burgundying your second sentence?
Often when shooting footage, much of what is shot is out of the SME’s hands. Freelance SME’s like Tyler et al, are hired first and foremost so they don’t look like an actor with zero experience. They know how to handle firearms, wear the kit and move and behave like someone who’s BTDT, which these guys genuinely have. SME’s will often be asked by the director/producer to do actions, poses etc that they would not normally do, all in the name of getting a cool shot for the production. If something is totally out of line, the SMEs will often voice a concern and suggest an alternative solution, or decline to do it if it’s *that* bad. It’s also not unheard of for producers to ask them to put on NOD’s in daylight with assurances that video will be post processed afterwards to look like NOD footage, only for the editor to later say: hey this is a cool shot as is. Like I said, a lot of what is shot is often out of the SME’s hands. End of the day, it’s a promotional video to encourage the average joe wannabe Delta Ranger Seal to invest in these pricey products. 99% of the keyboard commandos wouldn’t know any better, and the 1% that do, generally understands that this is a promotional video and has a degree of creative license executed by the production company.
when you become the director, you can show us how it’s done.
Interested about your review on star wars.
Tyler will star in anything you pay him to be in. Failed video game consultant, movie star, etc.
He has a tremendous story but it’s videos like this that are cringeworthy. They could have used countless of Vets who can “hold a gun properly”. Come on
Taking a jab at Tyler’s combat injury. Low blow.
Which video do you find “cringeworthy”???
I’m not following why you’re disparaging Tyler. That’s like 9th grade girl BS, Kerbert.
If you don’t like the videos, then don’t watch them. But don’t deliberately run down the guy. And if you have a personal beef with him, then take it up with him like a real man would.
Kerbert, You know it’s funny how you work really hard and try and help people and yet you still get people like yourself who seem to get on a keyboard and make negative comments which in your case are person in nature directed at me.
Ironically I won’t be “in anything you pay me to be in”. I actually quit the MOH video game when they included a level where you played a terrorist and in doing so walked away from a lot of money.
At the end of the day I don’t know who you are but the next time you want to make comments about me and my integrity make them to my face. You name the time and place and I’ll be there. I work pretty hard at doing the right thing and I am betting money that you have never met me.
Tyler, you are one of the best guys I know.
Will, I am quite flattered by your comments. I really appreciate them. I just want to shed a little light on some of the concerns you bring up. The silhouetting shots were done for dramatic effect (think: iconic Saving Private Ryan shots). They looked cool, that was it. In real life, none of us would silhouette on a ridge line if possible.
The photo of the guy with his NODs during the day is slightly out of context. We had our NODs because just off camera to the right, was a cave that we were about to enter. C12 was had point and had just pulled his goggles down. Once he was set, Tyler and I pulled ours down (yes, I am the guy between Tyler and C12 in the background), then the guys behind us pulled theirs down, and we entered the cave. I admit, the shot is a bit misleading because you can’t see the cave, but I wanted to provide some context.
As for the mags: MAGPUL was one of the sponsors of this video. The clips you see on our site were part of our promo footage. A bunch of companies got together, pulled resources and funded this week-long video shoot for future promotional materials (BCM, Aimpoint, TNVC, Surefire, etc.). MAGPUL was one of the sponsors and they provided a ton of gear – including PMAGs… with windows. These are great, except it allows you to see rounds in the mag. Even though all of the “actors” were former this/that professionals, we still needed to keep the camera crew comfortable – meaning we were not going to have loaded guns pointed at them. So, rather than show clearly empty mags, we “tactically painted” them in hopes nobody would notice (haha).
Does the LE speech not scare anyone else? I’m not a tinfoil hat type dude, but I don’t think it’s the best idea that LE has capabilities that are not readily available (affordable) to the public. This gear was developed to deceive and dominate the enemy, not citizens.
Yeah, it’s right there in the Constitution! “The right to bear arms shall not be infringed by lack of personal capital!”
Night Vision products are not protected by the 2nd Amendment.
SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED, does not apply.
Also, complaining about affordability is not very capitalist.
Riiiiight. Because there can’t be any such thing as enemy citizens…
And all LE is trust worthy? Lots of cops these days getting caught doing very bad things w/o this capability. LE was designed to serve and protect, the protect arm is looking like it continues to get stronger and the serve arm is skipping the gym. Available is more appropriately put than affordability. LE should not be able to utilize any firearm/device that the American public cannot readily access. They are not the military, even though they are trying to become like it.
Dude, the same NVG’s cops can buy are also available to civilians. Tyler was talking about our first responders being able to afford NVG’s that they couldn’t afford years ago because pricing is starting to come down. Departments don’t have nearly as much money to throw at gear as some people think. They aren’t buying NVG’s to dominate citizens.
Look at San Bernardino. Terrorism is coming to our shores and we will see more attacks like that in the future. Who is going to respond? Cops. SWAT. God forbid some camel jockeys hit a school or a mall. I pray that whatever department/agency has jurisdiction is able to equip its officers with the best tactical military-style equipment they can. What if it’s your kids’ school? Delta Force ain’t getting the call. It’ll be cops that have to take the bad guys down. I hope that department has night vision and lasers to give them the edge over the bad guys.
I sell night vision to cops every day. A lot of them are buying it out of their own pockets. Any idea what a cop’s salary is – especially small town? These are men and women who are paying out of their own small pocket to acquire gear their departments can’t afford so they can better be prepared to protect your community.
If you want to buy the same night vision that cops buy, I can and will sell it to you. Hell, I’ll even sell you stuff that’s better than what most departments buy if you can afford it and are a US Citizen. You can email me directly:
clasky@tnvc.com
I’m going to say Tetsuo hit the nail pretty hard on the head. The only thing I’ll add is that this is the first in the series, basically it’s the preview, the hype man, if you will…
That said, you think they’re looking to accrue your dollars (they are a company after all) with a guy lecturing off PowerPoint? Or are they gonna get turnt up off of sweeping Michael Bay-esque panning shots and tingly Zimmerman scores? Hell yeah better be door #2!
That said, I’m excited for this series. Night fighting has been an area we’ve taken for granted the past decade. We’ve gotten lazy in some respects and the rest of the world IS catching up! Hoping to see a lot come from this series.
Wow. Y’all are a ball of fun, aren’t you?
You see a guy silhouetted, and I see a guy needing to get down a ridgeline, and a cameraman that had to crawl down a valley to get a cool shot.
You see a guy wearing his nods in the day? I see a guy checking his equipment before going out on a mission (just like I do).
Geez. It’s a promo video.
Some here are probably the same ones who saw the Badger M134 video and called homeland because that’s not how they did it in your favorite Bourne movie.
o noz!
Geez.
This’ll be a good series. But it’s a commercial. I don’t even need night vision to be able to see that clearly.
I know Tyler and it’s disheartening that someone would use this video (which is ultimately an advertisement) as a medium to run Tyler down.
Tyler worked incredibly hard and sacrificed YEARS to reach the pinnacle of the CT world only to have it taken away from him far too early on target in Iraq. He’s one hell of a guy and I’m proud to call him a friend.
Tyler would be banished from his former unit if he demonstrated actual TTP’s.
This isn’t “Saving Private Ryan” or “American Sniper” after all. It’s an ad for NVG’s, so creatively figuring out ways to SHOW NVG’S IN USE is the whole goal of an ad like this. Whether it be in the daytime, or at night.
Will, you’re entitled to your opinion. Sometimes being a real man is knowing when to shut the fuck up because you don’t know what you’re talking about. This would be one of those times.
This is certainly a pretty video, but man is it dull. It could have been cut down to a third of its running time. I checked my watch a few times. But this video falls in line with a trend of other videos out there for the industry, absolute style over substance. Not much was said, if at all, in 4.5 minutes of time. You can do a total company overview in less time than that.
Again I had no problem with the content, but being bored by the subject matter is a bummer.
Agreed.
Amazing footage and overall production value – huge props. The script was well written and cut too. BUT, it might be just a bit too long considering the low concentration of orated content.
To clarify, I wouldn’t mind if the video was 25 min long, as long as there is sustainable content. But this video could have been cut down to 1:45 and maintained the same information.
Actually, I prefer the lack of TTP’s being shown. I would rather have the video game promo cool guy video then guys doing it for real. If it was real, you wouldn’t have a video because ideally you wouldn’t see anything but a dark screen and then your head split open like a canoe.
I hate to use a forum like this for shit talking but to Will, I’d hate go see a movie with you. You’d be “that guy” that has to talk crap about how technically wrong the movie is. It’s a video, not combat footage and thus isn’t intended to be real. Just because it’s not Combat Camera (not always legit anyways) doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining or make the keyboard commandos feel like they can be “operators” too, which is the point. And to go and talk shit on Tyler is beyond reasoning. I don’t know the guy but I know our wounded warriors should be treasured and respected. My brothers deserve respect and people that use the tool that they sacrificed for you have just to voice their opinion for the sake of being heard. That regardless of who you think you are or how much you think know is enough to dismiss your opinion. You sir lost your credibility in the first negative comment you made. Don’t subscribe to the school of thought that if it’s on the internet, it must be true (…bonjour). Chip and Vic on the other hand are still awesome and I appreciate their knowledge and approachability. TNVC is a stand up bunch of guys and I will always defer to them for all things NV. I can’t believe you got me going. Man, I must be getting senile or that damn tbi is getting to me. Don’t tell the VA. Rant off.
-V out.