Dust and Bones [Bad Peter and Hyperlight]

Two more short-film gems from the Dust YouTube channel to watch while you're waiting for the next episode of Automata...

Hyperlight (16 minutes) is an atmospheric thriller with hints of Moon, Solaris or The Cloverfield Paradox. Two astronauts on an experimental faster-than-light mission wake from cryosleep to discover their cryopods have been ejected from the spaceship and are drifting towards a planet. It's a dramatic opening. Having rescued her crewmate and returned to the ship, Newton (Jeananne Goossen) discovers something strange has happened.

Bad Peter (9 minutes, some adult language) is a black comedy. Rachel (Frankie Shaw) is pregnant and has got herself an Alexa-style Personal Digital Assistant to advise her on health and preparation for motherhood. However this PDA has decided it knows best, and it's equipped with a smug male voice and the latest Behaviour Modification hardware so it can "nudge" Rachel if she tries to skip its' recommendations. It's not clear why Rachel has signed up to the programme, or why she is unable to remove the device, although it's hinted that some kind of child protection agency has been involved in the past. The end result is funny and sinister.

"Broken Bird" Screening: Kino London

My music video for "Broken Bird" will be spreading its wings for a screening on Wednesday 20th January, at Kino London - London's open-mic short film night at Electrowerks club in Angel. Doors are at 7.30. Advance tickets on the website or buy on the door. Facebook event details here.

"Broken Bird" is a song by Ariel Undine - listen to more of Ariel's music here.

The Sci-Fi Gene Music Video Playlist

I present The Sci-Fi Gene music video playlist: a carefully curated museum of music videos that have caught my attention, inspired or amused me, plus a few of my own productions thrown in for good measure. The list will be updated from time to time whenever I come across new music videos that make the grade.

Gallery Update [Reply To All]

While post-production continues on comedy short Reply To All, taking on board some very helpful suggestions from our producer's trip to Cannes, you can check out the film's website here - including lots of new photos from the production weekend. It's been a long journey from the Kickstarter campaign to here, and there's still a lot of hard work to come, but based on the most recent cut, I can confirm that thanks to some excellent editing, the final film will be around 10 minutes long, and it will be awesome.

"Reply To All" Post Production

Work continues on "Reply To All" - following the live shoot we've had two voiceover recording sessions and I've been working with our editor Oliver Cross on the rough cut. Watch out for more detailed updates on the Caramie Films website and facebook page very soon.

Crowdsourcing Part II: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go

Some more thoughts about crowdsourcing, based on my experience as part of the “Reply To All” campaign team, my first experience of Kickstarter fundraising. This is part II - you can read part I of this article here.

Get All The Money

Fourth lesson: remember that you will not get all the money to spend on your project. Even if successful, a percentage is paid to the crowdsourcing website, and another large bite will be needed to pay for the rewards.

You Are A Filmmaker, Damn It!

Fifth lesson: Use your talents for the campaign. You are a filmmaker, damn it! (unless you are something else) and I’m fairly sure a Kickstarter campaign video is a kind of film. So produce it like a film – write a script, use locations wisely, rehearse, shoot in decent quality with good lighting and sound, and pay attention to editing and post-production. We had lots of lovely feedback about our campaign video in particular.

If you are not a filmmaker but, say, a graphic artist or musician – the same applies, make sure you incorporate your own artwork or music into your campaign, and give it the best production value you can.

Dive Straight In

Final lesson: before you dive straight in, I would recommend studying successful campaigns, particularly for similar projects. Follow or back one or two interesting-looking projects yourself so you get a feel for the process, and watch plenty of videos before making yours. We learnt a lot, particularly about choices of reward, and the importance of keeping the updates flowing, from other short film campaigns.

Thanks to our backers, we’ve already been able to shoot “Reply To All” at a standard that wouldn’t otherwise have been possible, and I can't wait to see the final result once the edit is complete. As director I found that the involvement of backers was a great motivator when we were under pressure, I felt I wanted to  keep going and create something worthy of all the support.

Crowdfunding is definitely an option for funding an artistic project provided you have the stamina and organization. There’s very little to lose and everything to gain. However at time of writing the Kickstarter success rate is about 43% (up to date figure here) so a Plan B is a good idea – despite all the hard work we put into achieving our result I know luck also played a part.

You can find out about “Reply To All” on the Caramie Productions website or Facebook page.

Crowdsourcing Part I: Get Your Kicks On Route 66

Some reflections on raising money through crowdsourcing, following the successful “Reply To All” Kickstarter campaign. I've been asked several times how we did it and I have to say I'm no expert, this is my first campaign, and these are just my thoughts and opinions. You can also find out more about “Reply To All” on the Caramie Productions website and Facebook page and I will continue to post updates on the production here.

Free Money From Strangers

First lesson: Kickstarter is not a way to get free money from strangers. Unless you already have a global brand or are lucky enough to go viral, you will be raising money by approaching people and asking them to give you stuff, just like any other form of fundraising: mostly this will be friends, family and colleagues and you will need to campaign hard through all your online or offline social networks.

And by hard I mean hard. I thought I was working hard until I saw the dedication some of my team-mates were putting in. Being part of a team will work in your favour – you will have more social contacts, and you will be able to push each other to succeed. We finished with 103 backers most of whom are known to at least one team member.

Watch The Money Roll In

Second lesson: you can’t just post your video then sit back and watch the money roll in. The aim is to engage with your backers and keep them up to date with your progress. We posted updates (text, written, photo or video) every few days. The campaign was planned in advance although we also updated on some events, such as the casting process, as they happened.

Hundreds Or Thousands Of Pounds

Third lesson: most backers will not sign up for rewards costing hundreds or thousands of pounds. Our high end rewards such as signed art materials, VIP screening tickets, being included in the film as an animation, and producer credits were of interest to a few backers - it's certainly worth offering these premium rewards, but it’s probably best to assume you will do most of your fundraising through lower level rewards. Most backers do want some level of access to your finished project, in our case digital download or DVD, and we had good take-up on coffee mugs. Everyone seems to like coffee mugs.

To be continued…

Reply To All Production Weekend - Update 3

Job done! (for now...) We wrapped the Reply To All shoot on Sunday evening after two full-on days in a hotel suite in Richmond. The biggest challenges were the time pressure - we had a lot of material to get through and it was a constant battle to get everything done while there was still enough daylight, and the continuity issues: our heroine Becki accumulates damage of sorts throughout the film so her appearance had to be right for each scene.

Actress Tracey Pickup prepares for a tricky POV shot

High points of the weekend were several difficult shots we managed to pull off, some in the original plan, others improvised on the day. A low point was on day two where, running out of time to complete the shot list I found myself demanding that Nick, the scriptwriter, come up with a shorter re-write of one scene on the fly. He came through - we completed the shoot and the rest will soon be cinematic history. Having the writer stay on as an integral member of the production crew is worthwhile even if it's not the Hollywood way...

DOP Oliver Cross sets up for a dolly shot. The Indie Dolly system seen here is far superior to my own homemade version (description here and here, tracking demo here). 

I'll post more thoughts and pictures from this shoot soon, and watch for more news on the Caramie website too. Meanwhile production continues - the next step is the voice-over recording session, then animation and editing will be taking place over the next few weeks and months. Thanks again to all the backers who made this production possible.

Reply To All Production Weekend - Update 2

On my way home from first day of shooting. It's been a challenge, we've achieved a lot today and I'm particularly happy with some of the shots we've had to improvise. However there's still a lot to do and we will have to pick up the pace on day 2 if we're going to complete the shot list. I'm exhausted right now but will post more tomorrow.

Reply To All Production Weekend - Update 1

With thanks to all our lovely Kickstarter backers, Reply To All goes into full production this weekend - our hotel-room shoot starts early tomorrow morning. We're as ready as we can be - we held a productive rehearsal earlier this week, and since then I've been busy finalising the shot list. Really looking forward to directing with an extremely talented cast and crew. I'll post more updates as we go. In the meantime there's more about this film, and others in the pipeline, over at the Caramie Productions website.

Message from Becki our bride-to-be [Reply To All]

A video message from Tracey Pickup, the actress who will be playing Becki, the lead role and only non-animated character in our short film "Reply To All." To find out more about Tracey, our film and the rewards you can get by backing us, come join us over at Kickstarter

http://kck.st/1aX5EL0

and help us make this film awesome!

Coming Soon To Your Inbox [Reply To All]

Coming soon: "Reply To All" - a short comedy written by Nick Boocock and produced by Sophie Caramigeas / Caramie Productions. I will be directing, and working with artist Jeremy Hay to produce the animated sequences. There's a main shoot in January 2014 and the film should be complete March 2014. There's more info on the Caramie website here: no poster yet but watch this space.

There will be a Kickstarter campaign for this film. I directed a campaign video a couple of weeks ago with the production team and it's with the editor now for some final touches - we're planning to go live in the next couple of weeks. So you'll be spoiled for choice - you can follow progress on this film here at the Sci-Fi Gene, on the Caramie website, on Twitter and on Kickstarter.

We've been auditioning for the main part as well - somehow we managed to get the original 450+ applications down to just the 6 we met with yesterday. I'm impressed by all of our final 6, it will be difficult to choose. Meanwhile I'm also working with our artist to develop the animated supporting cast.

More updates on this project soon.

Now In Pre-Production

I'm at the start of two exciting film projects. Both are still in pre-production stages so this update is necessarily a bit vague. The first will be a comedy short made in collaboration with a small but professional production team and supported by a crowdfunding campaign, which will combine live action and animation in quite a unique way. Casting and other pre-production work is already underway, and I'm really looking forward to sharing more about this project very soon.

The second project is my own and will be produced along DV Rebel lines, that is with opportunistic shoots, a lot of improvised or self-made gear and a negligible budget. It will be made in stages and could take a few weeks or several months, and at this stage the result might be a short film, a webseries or both. Again I'm not quite ready to reveal the details, although I will post updates along the way. This project will rely on the Blender motion tracker for screen replacement effects: so for now here's an effects test using a toy phone and some green card.

 

Roxë15 Version 2.0

For those of you following the Roxë15 campaign, despite a late surge the team didn't make their Kickstarter target. They haven't given up and a new campaign is starting on indiegogo. If you were supporting Roxë15 on Kickstarter, remember your donation will not have been donated, so please consider switching it over to indiegogo.

9921 & Alien Masters Of The Web

(C) Johnny Edward 2013

The future of the internet? A short film written and directed by Johnny Edward. Most of the visual effects work also by Johnny Edward, my involvement was with CGI elements in a couple of shots.

You can see more of Johnny Edward's videos here.

Roxë15 Kickstarter

I'm posting this Kickstarter video link for a filmmaker friend who is making this film because she wants to see more diverse casting in the movies - in this case more black African-American faces, without resorting to the stereotypical supporting roles they often play, and who is (like me) very much in love with the concepts of science fiction. Roxë15 is a short cyberpunk film about a computer programmer battling a virus. The raw footage is already in the can and hopefully you'll agree after watching the kickstarter that it's already looking stylish and intriguing. The campaign is to fund postproduction and get this film audience-ready.

I think that the point about lack of diversity in mainstream cinema is well made. You can find out more about what this film is trying to achieve over at Kickstarter or on the Roxë15 Facebook page here.

Written Off

Written Off, a short comedy directed by Sophie Caramigeas. My contribution to this film is small - just the titles and credits animation. Expect to see some exciting things from the producers, Caramie and Tiger Dreams, over the coming year.

A Cat In St Albans

Film festivals are not the same - each has its own character. St. Albans Film Festival is a new event on the film calendar and it will be interesting seeing what makes it stand out. My short film (trailer here) will be playing in the category for over 18s, however it is clear from the programme that St. Albans will be an especially child-friendly festival.
 

Events on the programme include childrens’ stop-motion and live filmmaking workshops, feature screenings of A Cat In Paris and The Prince’s Quest, a short family film category, a talk by Barry Purves on the use of puppets in cinema, and the Mini Student Film Award for the best film made by a 5-15 year old.

It’s good to see a programme reflecting the fact that some of the greatest films of modern times are children’s films, and, hopefully, one that will inspire some future talented filmmakers. The full programme is on the festival website here.

We Can Get You Some Really Cheap Gear [Trailer]

Trailer for my animated short film "We Can Get You Some Really Cheap Gear." I've taken the full version offline (temporarily) so this will have to be your Lego fix for the moment. More news about this film soon...

We Can Get You Some Really Cheap Gear [Poster]