Okay everyone, sorry for all of these rough video updates but things will be back on track once I've finished this big move.
By the way, here is the Neville Page interview I was talking about. I'll also include my interview with Odd Studio, who did the effects for Alien: Covenant, below that. Enjoy.
I hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween. Ours got off to a great start with our local paper The Hays Free Press doing their second story on our production, which you can read by clicking HERE.
However,
things did get a bit hairy soon after that, with severe flooding in our
city, where we're shooting. Everyone is okay and we soon got thing
straitened out, but check out what our tunnel looked like in this
aftermath video.
We've had some weather here, which is going to set us back a little, but never fear, here's a sleep deprived Christopher Moonlight to explain. #QuantumTerror #elnino #texasstorm #Lovecraftian #floods #PracticalEffects #practicalfx #ChristopherMoonlight
Posted by The Quantum Terror on Friday, October 30, 2015
Still we managed to enjoy our Halloween, and I even took time out to make a tutorial on my costume, which you can watch here.
Yes,
that's a DIY Alien chestburster puppet made using household materials.
No, I don't consider it movie quality. All movie quality materials are
of course dedicated to bringing The Quantum Terror to life.
You can get the full scoop on building baby aliens on Moviepilot.com where I go into more detail about the inspiration. Click HERE to read it.
Back to work! Tomorrow,
I meet with my miniature set builder as we continue to move ahead with
production, but as usual, we're counting on you to help let people know
that our Indiegogo is still open and accepting contributions.
One
of the most difficult parts of crowdfunding is providing contributors
with great pledge rewards. You may of noticed that some of our earlier
rewards are now gone. Sadly, the company that was providing them had to
close their doors. Fortunately nobody had yet to claimed those levels
and we've managed to seek out and bring even better ones to the table.
From here on out we're bringing you some awesome stuff, including:
Framed Art Prints
Shirts (available in Men's & Women's scoop & V-necks, as well as tanks)
Coffee Mugs
...and other clothing and accessories.
Even
though we are now shooting, we still need to raise more funds to get
everything done. Remember, if our Indiegogo reaches 6K, everyone who has
pledged will get a free download of The Art Of The Quantum Terror,
which includes an in depth look out our creature designs and behind the
scenes photos. Tell your friends and fellow horror lovers.
First, watch the trailer and then I'll tell you about what we've been up to.
Here's the short link to the Indiegogo: http://igg.me/at/quantumterror
Did you like it? We're pretty pleased with it. There are issues what we're working to improve right now, such as improving our sound, but over all I think you'd be hard pressed to find anything else of this quality on our budget. I'd say that I'd bet my reputation that we'll probably finish with a better all around film than most bigger budget indies, but the fact is that anytime a director/producer makes a movie, that's exactly what they are doing. Fortunately, I've got a great cast and crew who are bringing a level of quality to this film that would otherwise be out of my reach. However, we still need your help. If you've already pledged, please share our campaign. Now what we've made our goal, Indiegogo is letting us keep raising money, so we can make this movie be the best it can be.
The Story
Samantha Carroll's twin sister Silvia has
gone missing, without a trace. The only clues that Sam has to go on are
notebooks filled with strange quantum physics
equations combined with scribblings about the occult, that have been left
behind. Silvia's ex-boyfriend and fellow college classmate claims he has
seen her going into the nearby drainage tunnels that run under the town
he lives in, however he himself is a suspect in her disappearance.
Accompanied
by Samantha's concerned ex-lover Lucy, who has brought a new boyfriend in tow, the now
group of four go down into the tunnels where strange alien creatures and
alterations of reality, will confront them with their deepest desires
and darkest inner truths. Now, the question isn't just whether they will
find Silvia or not, but if it's even possible for them to ever get out
again.
As I say in the video, story and characters count. Executive
producer James Hudnall is
known for his work as co-creator of the Ultraverse for Malibu Comics as
well as Harsh Realms for Chris Carter, and is a writing genius in my book. His revisions of the script are invaluable. We continue to talk on the phone about directors we love (David Lynch and Sergio Leone are names that kept coming up) and tweaks that should be made to the script as footage is shot. We're both very visual storytellers and we want to make sure that ours unfolds through mood, body language, the looks in people's eyes and actions, as much as through what is said.
Building Scary Worlds & Monsters
Let's talk about building underground tunnels and the creatures that inhabit them, on a micro
budget. My passion for a long time has been working with a hybrid style of miniatures, trick
photography, practical effects, puppets, and green screen composite work, both
for the screen and design. I've helped bring to life the visions of some
amazing creators, on projects like Passport To Explore, Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey, and Harbinger Down, but I'm the director, so I had to bring in someone who I could trust to do even better at that stuff than the standards I hold myself to. That's why I made Jenna Green my head of special effects. You'll probably know her best for her time on SyFy Channel'sFace Off (season 4) but she also wowed audiences with work on Army of Frankensteins.
We're not having a go at the FX alone, though. Studio 1881 actually has no internet presence, so you'll just have to take my word for it when I say that the main creature that is being sculpted there is beyond amazing. The fact that Oscar winning FX company studioADI is contributing animatronic tentacles to our film is just mind blowing. Having the support of people with that level of achievement (the Aliens franchise, Tremors, Starship Troopers, Harbinger Down) makes us believe we must be doing something right.
The Look & Sound
Cinematographer
Anthony Gutierrez is one of our latest additions to the team. This has been an amazing development for us, because even though I had confidence in my own camera skills and artistic eye, there's nothing like having a specialist at the helm, that can look at everything that is going on in a production, and capture it in a way that transcends your average B-movie. Composer Derek Hunt is a relative newcomer to film scoring, but as you can tell from the trailer, he's come up with some haunting melodies that will put the fear, in atmosphere. (It works better when you say it out load.)
...and there's so much more we're doing right now, that we either can't talk about just yet, or would just make this post twice as long as it already is. (Shout out to David Paul, who is doing our titles & the band Frankenstein who have a track in the film.) I just want everyone to see that the stars are right. We've attracted more top notch talent than I could have ever dreamed. We've got a film with amazing visuals, themes like love, LGBT issues, freedom of choice, life, death, spirituality, science, and the passion to make it all happen. Come be a part of it.
Wow, it has been too long since our last update. I'm pulling triple duty on The Quantum Terror as we simultaneously work on our pre production, crowdfunding, and media. It's no small thing, but it's worth it, because this movie has taken on a life of its own and is becoming more amazing than I ever dreamed possible. Our biggest news this week, is our Quantum Terror Fundraiser Party at Joe's CrabShack in Townlake, which is in Austin TX. CLICK HERE for full details on the event. Be sure to tell your friends.
If you can't make it out, there are still 9 days left to get your pledge
in, to our IndieGoGo campaign, with plenty of great rewards. We're 46%
to our goal, which is only $2,500 so it's still completely possible to
make get there.
As many of you know, this isn't a movie we're going to make. This is a move we ARE making, right now. The script, storyboards, production art, and special effects are all already in progress, as well as casting. Just take a look for yourself.
Remember to follow us on all of our social media, and sign up for mailing updates, all of which you can find just to your right, on the side bar. Join us, in our quest to produce the very best in indie sci-fi horror, and in celebrating practical effects. Thank you.
A twin sister lost. An underground maze. A nameless insanity from outside of time and space awaits.
When I came to Austin, TX in 2012, I was fortunate enough to make some wonderful friends, including directorFrank Papa III, special effects artist Jenna Green, and film composer Lauren Morris, and before long I convinced them that they should work with me to produce a work of indie horror, the likes of which no one has ever seen, or dreamed possible on such a micro budget. We tried to run a Kickstarter in the month of December, which was really the wrong time...
...but it was a great way to A) learn that Kickstarter isn't the right platform for us, no matter how near or far from Christmas we try to raise our funds, and B) gain a tremendous amount of enthusiastic and supportive followers who want to see a movie like this made. And why wouldn't they?! We love movies full of strange alien shapes, tentacles, and mind blowing scientific ideas of interdenominational beings so incomprehensible to the human mind, that one would go crazy, just from seeing one. (takes deep breath) It's easy to see that other people love them, too. We also love seeing awesome practical effects, like the ones in John Carpenter's The Thing or James Cameron's Aliens, so when we started doing test videos for our own effects, we and everyone else could see that it could be awesome.
By the way, those creepy sounds were provided by the before mentioned Lauren Morris, who's passion and deep understanding of her craft make it obvious that she's going to be a huge asset in making this movie as spine chilling as it can be.
Of course, these are just some of my own humble effects tests. As a producer, my job is to bring in people who know better than I, and I think I've scored a pretty amazing talent in makeup and creature effects artist Jenna Green, who is responsible for the more impressive effects on the film Army Of Frankensteins. You may also remember her as a contestant on season 4 or the SyFy monster makeup competition show Face Off. Here she is talking about one of the higher end rewards we came up with for our crowdfunding.
We're also courting some amazing actors. I won't mention all of them here, because their availability is going to depend on when we raise enough funds to shoot, but they include the likes of Mike Gassaway (Magic Mike XXL, Dallis, Bad Kids Go To Hell) and Paula Marcenaro Solinger (Blood Sombrero, Salem, Flashes) who was also kind enough to record this video about why she wants to be a part of our movie.
So, what's this film about?
Our story follows a young woman in her early 20's named Sam, who is struggling with all the expectations that she believes she needs to fulfill within the chaos of modern society, and the confusion she feels after having an unexpected romantic relationship with another woman. Things continue to break down, when her twin sister goes missing, and the search for her leads Sam and her former lover into a dark underground labyrinth where a malevolent entity from beyond time and space, dwells.
Wow, right? I could go on, but I've got to get back to work on producing this film. As you can see, we're really passionate about creating something meaningful and unique. We believe that there's plenty of room in life for diversity, and really can't understand why people continue to chase after the same horror movie tropes until they evolve into meta, and the meta burns out. Let's take our love of creatures, practical effects, great acting, and solid storytelling, and show that the spirit of independent film making can bring new and original material to the screen.
We're coming to IndieGoGo, very soon. Lets do this thing! Follow us on:
Well, the response to
our Kickstarter has been enormous, and would be lying if we said that we
weren't thrilled and honored by all the messages, social media
comments, and of course, generous pledges that we've received so far.
I
know many of you have been wondering: "Just what kind of creatures can
be created on such a low budget, and will they look cool?" Well, to
answer that, I offer you this video, which highlights the creation of a
Cthulhu like creature for a past comic book project calledNegative.
Just to be clear, this particular creature will not be featured in
the film, but we have plans for at least three puppets that will top
him.
Special thanks go to MoviePilot.comfor posting the link to our article entitled"Zombies Are Out, Tentacles Are The New Meta" which has made some major waves in the comments of their horror Facebook page.
(In response to one question: No, this is NOT a tentacle porn. Sorry to
disappoint.) We're over the moon at how many views it's gotten.
Thank you to Darkest Jack of Darkest Radio
for dedicating a segment of his last podcast to The Quantum Terror. If
you missed it, you can still listen to the recording by clicking HERE.
In our next update, we will have a message from former contestant from SyFy's Face Off & makeup artist behind Army of Frankensteins, Jenna Green.
Jenna is our lead FX artist on The Quantum Terror and there will be
exclusive interview footage of her for our backers, as well.
We have 25 days left to go on our Kickstarter, and making progress in bringing you our Lovecraftian style story of tentacles and madness to film.
If I do say so myself, I wrote a great little article about why movies like this one are exciting, called Zombies Are Over, Tentacles Are The New Meta. Don't worry. I don't bash The Walking Dead. It was fun to write, and to pick out animated gif images and You Tube trailers, to go along with it. Click HERE to read it.
We were also glad to be the topic of conversation during THIS EPISODE OF DARKEST RADIO. www.darkestjack.com is a weekly goth/horror podcast that's actually a really good time, so we were honored.
We'll have more news on the way very soon, including cast announcements, and video with our makeup guru and former contestant from the SyFy series Face Off, Jenna Green.
