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.

 

Quiet Revolution [Review: Robot And Frank]

Frank Langella plays Frank, an elderly man in the very near future starting to struggle to look after himself. His hard working but distant son buys him a robot butler to help him around the house and to look after him, but Frank is a retired cat-burglar and discovers that the robot is perfectly capable of helping him re-start his career.

Robot and Frank is a gentle and funny film about our relationships with each other and with technology. One of Frank's favourite haunts is the library where he goes to flirt with the chief librarian (Susan Sarandon), but things are changing: books are becoming obsolete, the librarian is now accompanied by her own robot helper who she has named "Mr. Darcy" and the library has been bought by a young entrepreneur who wants to turn it into an "experience."

There are some excellent performances particularly from Langella and Sarandon, and this is a touching film, particularly as you gradually realise just how much Frank's memory has been affected. Also despite the fact that the robot in this film is portrayed as non-sentient, it's still very clear that one could become emotionally attached to it and consider it a friend.

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.

Work In Progress: Ba Boomerang Rang

 Warning: do not use in an enclosed space.

 These dot patterns are harder than they look.

Can you see what it is yet?

[produced in Blender 2.68 and Paint.net]

ROXË15 Kicktraq

A Kicktraq tracker for the ROXË15 campaign. I should also pledge to do more for diversity in my own films although at least Last Zombie Standing and We Can Get You Some Really Cheap Gear feature green and yellow protagonists...

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.