During lock-down I put my heart and soul into creating a new and exciting sci-fi world - As I had just released my second movie, Invasion Planet Earth and was really enjoying my 5 minutes of fame, I felt that if I was to make another sci-fi movie, it would have to be something very different and special.
At the time, I was hoping someone would spot my talent and write me a cheque big enough to go and make the movie I wanted. I had seen what had happened to Gareth Edwards (another film maker from the town I live in). Gareth had made the film, Monsters, then got snapped up by Hollywood and went on to direct Godzilla, Then,Star Wars Rouge One, and recently, The Creator.
Could lightning strike in the same spot?
Could the director of Invasion Planet Earth go on to direct another Star Wars spin of...?
Well, the answer to date has been NO, although I did get that one call from Hollywood’s Legendary Pictures - but sadly, it led to nothing...
I set about the new movie as I did with Invasion Planet Earth, with no big hopes of million-dollar cheques. Instead, I decided to write a script that was much bigger than Invasion. I wanted magical futuristic worlds, great characters, and a fascinating and exciting story-line. I wanted BIG spaceships - and robots, LOTS of robots!
Now writing this stuff is one thing, but executing it is quite different – especially as I didn’t have any money and expecting that it would be made using existing technologies (which are rather brilliant by the way!)
I'd been getting a serious amount of stick on IMDB from people complaining about the low budget-ness of Invasion and why on earth anyone in their sane minds would even attempt to do anything ambitious without a big fat juicy Hollywood budget. (God forbid sticking your neck out in case you get seen eh!)
If you've been following this project, you will have seen that we’ve had real spaceship models made by a professional (and rather fantastic) model maker, called Richard Dixon. We took these models, scanned them into 3d and are now able to fly them in the movie using, Unreal Engine.
This has been a massive learning curve for me, and I can’t wait to show you the results – they look amazing!
So, let me get onto the Robots I mentioned above. In my naivete, I originally planned to build one or two robot costumes and then duplicate the actors within the frame. However, I knew in my heart of hearts that this would probably look a bit naff and add fuel to those wonderful film critics on IMDB, so this was a bit of a dilemma for me.
Then I had a chance meeting with a rather cool Coventry based computers games company called, Hollywood Gaming. They introduced me to the world of motion capture and the possibility of having our robot characters created within the 3d environment. I wasn’t sure at first - until I saw it in action.
Then realised, that this could look very very impressive.
Working closely with their very talented team (big up to Malcolm, Mark, Lexi and Shom) who worked very hard to conceive and build a 3d robot that would work for the film.
The brief for them was that these characters are like your local bobby (policeman), but they had to be androgynous, and although initially good, they had a dark side so that they could (and possibly may) turn bad at some point.
As they cracked on with the design, one of the team strapped on the motion capture suit and we shot every conceivable movement expected from the characters.
The team then attached the movement information we’d shot to the robot, and then – we were off!
I received a bunch of files, imported them into Unreal Engine and for the last few weeks have been creating some absolutely fantastic shots.
We haven’t finished every shot the robots appear in yet, but one of the things we will be able to do is bled the actual robots within the live action shots - which I am fairly certain will look rather good.
I can’t begin to tell you just how wonderful these characters elevate the movie. It’s starting to look and feel VERY different.
So, watch this space folks, and remember – the robots are coming…!
As ever, I'm raising money to keep the film afloat. If you would like to help by buying a mug or anything from our SHOP, every penny we make will go directly into finishing the movie. We've already sold well over 500 mugs and we would only need to sell another 5,500 to fund the entire movie - so please do help, every mug we sell really makes a difference!
CLICK HERE TO BUY A MUG OR TO TOP UP YOUR MUG SUPPLY. Don’t forget, anyone who buys a mug before May 31st 2024, will also get a credit on the end of the movie.
Thanks again and keep dreaming.
Simon
Writer and director, Of Infinite Worlds