It's been an interesting six months for me. On top of a move from Texas back to my home state of California, I've been finishing up my first feature film The Quantum Terror as well as working on pre-production for my next projects with Mesmer Films. The most exciting part of this is that I've decided to do something unprecedented. As you can see below I am now live streaming most of the post-production work for my film as well as some of my other filmmaking projects. This first video is an overview.
Oh, by the way, there will be mild spoilers. Why would I want to do this when traditionally film studios have always kept their productions under wraps until release? My friends, we live in a time where this method of production is nowhere near practical for the independent filmmaker and tradition is out the window. Now, anyone can be a filmmaker and the process is just as interesting as the finished product.
That's why I'm inviting you to come along with me as I finish up my film. Not just through these YouTube videos but LIVE on Twitch via this link: www.twitch.tv/christophermoonlight
Please, subscribe to my channel and let's make some films together. Of course, be sure to also like these video and subscribe to me on YouTube. www.youtube.com/user/moonlightartmagazine
You'll notice in these videos that there is a live chat box to the side. This is Christopher Moonlight film school and I'm inviting you to sit in, listen to the lectures, watch the demonstrations, and ask questions while I work.
Of course, I'll be posting these to my YouTube channel afterward, if you miss my live streams, but keep in mind that there is a benefit to being able to interact with me as I edit and create VFX for my films and other projects.
What will I be going over? Well, as of now we're doing film editing and visual effects for The Quantum Terror BUT I'm also going to be creating practical effects builds and even bringing you on set during future video shoots. You can keep up with me and learn on this blog.
If you enjoy these tutorials and find them useful, please consider supporting me on Patreon by CLICKING HERE.
...or if you'd rather support me through PayPal you can do so by CLICKING HERE.
Thanks, everyone. We're going to have fun and accomplish some lifelong goals here. Now, let's get to work.
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.
Oh, and I almost forgot. Check the shout out we got on this weeks Fright Hype, on Crypt TV.
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN TRAILER!! That and the best Mortal Kombot YouTube reimaging ever on this week's horror news show FRIGHT HYPE!
Posted by Crypt TV on Friday, August 21, 2015
So far 2015 has been one of the busiest and more exciting years of my life. As you can see from the above video, I'm in the middle of crowdfunding and producing an independent horror movie called The Quantum Terror. I've also become the host of a new podcast show on Leglesscorpse.com, dedicated to raising awareness of practical effects, which are the in-camera makeups, animatronics, and puppets that bring so much magic to cinema. I call it The Practical People, based on a documentary that I've been working on over the past few years, by the same title. I've also been doing a lot of writing around the internet for Legless Corpse, Movie Pilot, The Austin Film Meet, and of course, my own Moonlight Art Magazine.
The Quantum Terror is going really well. Unlike many crowdfunded films, we're not waiting until the end of our campaign to launch production. We're already drafting our script, building monsters, and casting. If you'd like to follow along with our progress, you can follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogspot, and of course by getting our updates when you pledge to our campaign, which you can do by CLICKING HERE. Check out the newest WIP video, which shows our undressed tentacle puppets.
My writing has been coming along, and I'm pleased to be featured in more and more places on the web. Click on MoviePilot.com and Leglesscorpse.us to see the articles I've written for them, which I'm very proud of, and also check out my first article for Austin Film Meet called 6 Tips For Creating An EPK For Your Film. That was a fun one to write, and I look forward to creating more content for them in the near future.
Is that all. NO! Oh my gosh, no. Within the next few days, I should have information on publicity stunts for The Quantum Terror, which if you're in Austin TX, you can come out and see. I'll also have info on a fundraising event for the film, at the beginning of next month, in Downtown Austin. I'll also be included in some of Out Of Step Books art anthologies, and have been asked to help put together an art book for someone else. I can't say anything more about that one yet. All in good time, and one step at a time. As anyone knows, you can't do all these things at once. In fact, I have a feeling that all of these things will see me strait through, to 2016. Stick with me. It's going to be a hell of a year. Thanks.
A twin sister lost. An underground maze. A nameless insanity from outside of time and space awaits.
It's no secret that I'm very passionate about what I do. Film making has always appealed to me, because it allows me to engage my creativity through writing, drawing, building, and working with other creative minds, as a team. In my quest to pursue projects on micro budgets I have been humbled, but my commitment to finishing them have only strengthened my creativity and problem solving abilities. There for I am happy to announce that my four projects, the all green screen sci-fi short Girl In The Window, my documentary The Practical People, short film My Little Zombie (which I will talk about more, in future posts) and my first feature length horror film as a producer, The Quantum Terror will all see completion of their productions in 2015.
What Is The Quantum Terror?
When I came to Austin, TX in 2012, I was fortunate enough to make some wonderful friends, including director Frank 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:
Wonderful. So, as soon as I finish fighting off this cold, I'll be back to work on my film projects, which I actually have a fair few of. After having to recover from the theft of one of my computers and some sound equipment, I am now ready to resume the task of completing my short documentary When Hollywood Green-Lit Comic Con, which is about the impact that major movie studios have had on the comic book industry and its conventions. It will be available on You Tube as soon as it's done. I actually shot most of my footage for it in 2012, so I'll be happy to wrap that up.
I'm also glad to be starting work in earnest on another feature length documentary about the artists who bring you many of movies "in camera" special effects, called The Practical People, so stay tuned for more on that, soon.
Last (not really) but not least, I must confess that I'm still very heavily entrenched in the post production work on my all green screen, sci-fi, short film, Girl In The Window. It keeps taking a back seat to paying work, and I'm pretty much handling all aspects of this phase of the film by my self, much in the same was Ray Harryhause did, using miniature models, puppets, stop motion, and photo matte paintings, to create an entire futuristic world. Below, is a concept design peace, that I recently did, to better help me grasp how I'm going to handle the robotic aspects of the story. Special thanks to my daughter, who modeled for the pic. We had fun. Click the image if you'd like to buy a print...
Keep checking back, for more news on these projects and more, in 2014. Please, feel free to contact me at this link, if you'd like to hire me to add some magic to your project, too.
I am happy to announce that Christopher Moonlight Productions has decided to stand behind Amalgamated Dynamics Inc. (ADI) to help promote the Kickstarter for their movie, Harbinger Down. It will be directed by ADI's own Alec Gillis and produced by Tom Woodruff Jr. It will star the amazing Lance Henriksen.
This is a project of passion for everyone and that's why we've thrown our support behind it. The money will go towards creating the same caliber of practical effects that won Gills and Woodruff the Academy Award for Death Becomes Her and also got them nominated for and Oscar for Alien 3. They are asking for $350,000.00 which must be raise by June 7th, 2013. This may sound like a lot of money, but in a world where movies cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make, it's really nothing. I'll post the press release below, but I want to say that on a personal level, I really care about this project. It means a great deal to me that there are creators like Alec and Tom, who are not in this for the money but for the joy of realizing their art. They need it. We need it. Why? Because work like this is not a means to an end. It exists for its own sake. Like all art, it is meant to fill our lives and bring us together, like a tribe gathering around a fire to hear the elder tell tales in the dark, and not put money in the pockets of investors, who don't care what the final product is, as long as they get theirs. So, if you are the kind of person who believes that the meaning of life is to make it as full and happy for all, as you can, please do so by joining us in pledging to this project.
...and now, a small sample of the incredible amount of work that has already gone into this project:
...and my own contributions to the cause:
...and here's how we did it:
Academy Award-Winning Team Attempts to Resurrect Lost Art of Classic Horror Film Through Launching Kickstarter Campaign
In the spirit of classic films such as Alien and The Thing, Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. aspire to bring “Harbinger Down” to the silver screen with the help of fan support for their independent project
LOS ANGELES, CA – Academy Award-winning Visual Effects artists Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., co-founders of Studio ADI (Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc.) have launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring their science fiction/horror film celebrating animatronics and makeup FX, “Harbinger Down,” to the silver screen. Gillis and Woodruff hope fans are excited to help not only make a new horror classic, but also to uplift an art form. The filmmakers’ goal is to raise $350,000 from fan support via the Kickstarter campaign by June 7, 2013 to get the project off the ground.
Harbinger Down, set to star notable sci-fi and horror film actor Lance Henriksen, depicts a group of grad students have booked passage on the fishing trawler Harbinger to study the effects of global warming on a pod of Orcas in the Bering Sea. When the ship's crew dredges up a recently thawed piece of old Soviet space wreckage, things quickly become deadly. It seems that the Russians experimented with tardigrades, tiny resilient animals able to withstand the extremes of space radiation. The creatures survived, but not without mutation. Now the crew is exposed to aggressively mutating organisms. After being locked in ice for 3 decades, the creatures aren't about to give up the warmth of human companionship.
“Animatronics and Makeup FX have been utilized less frequently in recent films, but this is not because of audience disinterest,” announced Gillis, who will write and direct the film. “In the spirit of sci-fi/horror classics, Alien and The Thing, Harbinger Down is a tense, claustrophobic full-length creature film that will feature only practical Animatronics and Makeup Effects. Fans of the art of Animatronics and Makeup FX know this technique is currently overlooked by the big studios; I'm hoping the fans will help us remedy that by supporting this labor of love.”
“Our company, Amalgamated Dynamics, will create the kind of Oscar caliber Creature Effects for which we are known,” commented Woodruff, who will produce, along with Studio ADI’s Jennifer Tung. “Traditional techniques still have a place in modern genre films. We didn’t give up painting, when cameras were invented.”
Gillis and Woodruff have over 60 years of experience between them and have worked with many top filmmakers, including James Cameron, David Fincher, Paul Verhoeven, Ridley Scott, Neill Blomkamp, Robert Zemeckis, Joe Johnston, Nora Ephron and Mike Nichols just to name a few. The filmmakers are utilizing Kickstarter to ask supporters of “old-school” visual effects to give them the opportunity to show it.
Contributors to the Harbinger Down Kickstarter Campaign will receive unique, amazing, thrilling, one-of-a-kind incentives for supporting the project. More details about the project can be found on the Harbinger Down Kickstarter website: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1117671683/harbinger-down-a-practical-creature-fx-film
About Studio ADI (Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc.)
Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. was founded by Academy Award winning creators of special characters and character effects artists Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. Calling upon a diverse range of talents and techniques, Studio ADI creates prosthetic make-ups, animatronic puppets, actor duplicates and replica animals. With over twenty years of professional experience, we bring “real” character effects to the set to interact with the actors, lighting and practical atmosphere. We pride ourselves on working with the industry’s leading Computer-generated imagery (CGI) companies to find the right balance of digital and practical effects. For more information and a resume of work on past productions, visit the Studio ADI website: http://www.studioadi.com/ or, the Studio ADI YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/studioADI
For Live Forever: The Ray Bradbury Odyssey (liveforeverthemovie.com/) I had to show Ray's childhood monster, The Groon, which
he used to imagine seeing at the top of the stairs, late at night. The
solution was to build a rod puppet, which was then shot against a green
screen, and added to footage of a staircase, shot by Scott Smith (lighthousevideoservices.com) under the direction of Micheal O'Kelly. O'Kelly and smith were also responsible for videoing child actor Zachary Meade (imdb.com/name/nm5282501/)
against a green screen for me to composite with the other footage for
the final moment in the film.
Watch until the end for a special comment
from Malcolm McDowell.
Music by Bartok, Roumanian Dance No. 1 musopen.org/
If you have trouble viewing this video CLICK HERE for the You Tube version.
