Gatekeeper - slides

Here is a bunch of slides and pictures from/about the production of Gatekeeper, the Sci-Fi fan film that is based at Subtopia.

The project is constantly growing and I am soo looking forward to the release of the first trailer...

A swarm of angels

Started reading Charlie Leadbeaters "We-think" where the network-based, opensource, pro-am filmmaking team "A Swarm of angels" is mentioned. They are currently working on two films "Glitch" and "The Unfold". The unfold is a contemporary sci-fi thriller:

The Unfold
A disaffected Musician receives a phone call from his Mother, who everyone believed died a decade ago, triggering a search to rescue her inside ‘The Fold’. He sets off on a journey where he must confront family secrets, a shadowy organisation, Cell Division, and a strange dimensional force that threatens to destroy the world.

The first film trailer called "World’s Will Shatter" sets the scene...


Worlds Will Shatter - The Unfold trailer from Nine Orders on Vimeo.

A swarm of angels are also working on the film "Glitch":

Glitch
A videogame artist recreates his childhood love as an idoru. A voyeuristic cable installer meddles in his customers lives. A neglected housewife finds evidence of an affair on a lost phone. In a world of the wireless, the powerless, and the loveless, it is time they all made a connection.

Crowd sourcing... and more

Just read an article by Lance Weiler in Filmmaker magazine. The article is about crowd sourcing in the filmindustry and is called "WHEN THE AUDIENCE TAKES CONTROL" The article focuses on building an audience and lists 6 good tools for doing just that.

Interesting, yes but I believe there is something much bigger than free web-based communication tools to think about here.

...fan-based productions in the sci-fi genre is generally frowned upon and the people involved are treated badly...

- by the filmindustry (Lucasfilm seem more worried about the copyright infringement than about supporting their fans.)
- by the filmfestivals (as they can't charge an entry fee they won't show fan-productions)
- by the filmschools (who don't even mention them)
- by the critics and media (who rarely mention them)

...well, some of the fan-productions are really crap but, proffessional soccerplayers don't treat amateurs like crap and neither should the pro's in film. Based on the same idea I think the government should start investigating how to support amateur filmmakers. What I am talking about here is of course pro-ams.

Download and read the full report on Pro-ams from Demos: The pro-am revolution - How enthusiasts are changing our economy and society by Charles Leadbeater and Paul Miller.

The-eXperience: Stockholm (Round2)

For a while I've been talking to Jens at Roskilde eSport to bring The eXperience to Stockholm. I had seen pictures from last years' event, this year they had an awesome trailer and the event was a success. Would be soo cool to bring them to Botkyrka.

The question is: Can Scandinavian esport get to where it is in South Korea?

DIY-Vampires

Ok, I admit. I am totally hooked on these films and filmmakers that keep finding alternative ways to finance, produce and distribute their work. Here is the teaser for the swedish film "Vampyrer" by Peter Pontikis that was made without support from the Swedish Film Institute.

Pro-ams & Gatekeeper development

The coverage of Star Wars Revelations on MSNBC Live gives a good idea of what a fan-based project can be today and how it works.

There are many terms used for the growing group of people that in an economic sense are amateurs but pursue something to a professional standard, be it programming, filmmaking or city planing. In the book "The pro-am revolution" published by DEMOS, Charles Leadbeater and Paul Miller describes the term "pro-am":

Pro-Ams - people pursuing amateur activities to professional standards - are an increasingly important part of our society and economy. For Pro-Ams, leisure is not passive consumerism but active and participatory, it involves the deployment of publicly accredited knowledge and skills, often built up over a long career, which has involved sacrifices and frustrations. The 20th century witnessed the rise of professionals in medicine, science, education, and politics. In one field after another, amateurs and their ramshackle organizations were driven out by people who knew what they were doing and had certificates to prove it. The Pro-Am Revolution argues this historic shift is reversing. We're witnessing the flowering of Pro-Am, bottom-up self-organisation and the crude, all or nothing, categories of professional or amateur will need to be rethought. Based on in-depth interviews with a diverse range of Pro-Ams and containing new data about the extent of Pro-Am activity in the UK, this report proposes new policies to support and encourage valuable Pro-Am activity.

The latest partner joining forces in the Scandinavian Sci-Fi mega-project "Gatekeeper" is the crew behind the pro-am production "Star Wars: Threads of Destiny". Thomas Dahl from the 4Fathers has made their new poster.

In "The Making of Star wars: Threads of Destiny" you get a feeling of how the global collaboration works. The clip features many of the 3D-artists who have now agreed to join the Scandinavian Sci-Fi mega-project Gatekeeper - The Nexus.

Star Trek: Phase II (aka "New Voyages"), the biggest Fanbased Star Trek production with a large number of professional actors in supporting roles has agreed to supply the gatekeeperproject with actors.

Iron Sky: Latest News from the production...

The team working with the film Iron Sky has a great way to involve their fans. Every now and then they release a video where they inform the world about the project.

In the second issue of Iron Sky news Mariel, Timo and Samuli gives the latest news:
- Wanted: a production designer
- Casting has started
- Remixpack of the teaser is released (can be downloaded from www.ironsky.net)
- A challenge for fans
...and the field report.



It is absoluteley brilliant how they go to all the events where their fans are - gaming and computer festivals, film festivals and roleplaying events. I am sure it will pay off. They are really connecting with their subculture to create and distribute, this is exactly what books like "The long tail" and "The pro-am revolution" is about.

I really believe in their way of making films and will definently invite them to lecture on alternative production, alternative financing and eventually alternative distribution.

Gatekeepers and Iron Skies

Some Trekkies and Star Wars fans have asked us if they can collaborate with us and shoot the studio scenes of their next 90 minute sci-fi flick at Subtopia. The working title is "Gatekeeper - The Nexus" and I must say it sounds like a great project. It is a pro-am project with amateurs working along side professionals all doing the project in their spare time - including five original cast members from Star Wars and Star Trek.

The group is collaborating and getting tech back-up from the team behind Iron Sky - another pro-am project with great artwork. ...and please note the "snakes on a plane"-style tag line at the end. Brilliant, just brilliant.


The finnish team behind Iron Sky became well known in the trekie universe when they produced Star Wreck. Since then availiable technology and their skills have taken huge steps forward but still... it's Star Trek in finnish. ;)


As they seem to create great results with very small resources... I figure we should do our best to hook them up with some big ass warehouses, volunteers and some circus people to do their stunts.

So, if you are keen to get involved, have questions or just want to say something about it... please click on the comments-link below or send me an e-mail at work... "jonas ät subtopia dot se"

Zombie obsession

This morning I woke up at 6:30. My mind was speeding down zombie-lane. Seriously, it's time to get this project out of my dreams and into my... eh car.

Zombie time!

For your own safety, check out these Zombie-survival instruction videos.





The Zombie walk movement seems to be global. Warsaw had one, Ottowa had, Sydney did too. This is often used as a way to create mass-scenes for Zombie-films and/or to do political protest or fundraising.

In the second largest zombie walk to date, 894 participants gathered at the Monroeville Mall in Pittsburgh, which served as the set of the classic zombie film Dawn of the Dead, on October 29, 2006.[4] In addition to setting a Guinness World Record, the event was a benefit for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. The attendees where all were instructed to bring canned food for a local food drive. In 2007, the people of Pittsburgh broke their record with over 1100 zombies at the same mall, during their all weekend zombie festival.

This is fotage from Pittsburgh.


This is London.

This is Toronto.

Forge @ Subtopia

Forge On the top floor at Subtopia.



(Swedish only, sorry.)

Graduation: Check! --> Norway here I come!

After handing in a not-quite-finnished written presentation after the deadline I was far from sure that I would actually pass.... Sure there were good things about the report... like the cool frontpage logo that Abbas made and some chapters were cool, but I had a strong feeling that it didn't really make sense to some one who knew nothing about the project.

I was tired as shit when I returned to Aarhus and I had to search deep inside to find the last bit of energy that could push me over the finishing line - presenting the project to a three-person panel consisting of Paul Natorp (The teacher who has followed my project and head of studies at the KaosPilots), Nanna (Knows the KaosPilot stuff) and Karen Thomsen (Executive producer at Nordisk Film the biggest production company in Scandinavia)

(Thank you/jo for the picture..)

I found the energy, and I made a great presentation. The prototype of the strategy tool I had developed turned out really nice (the colorful stuff on the right) and I had models and stuff covering the whole wall behind me which worked really well. I presented freely without any written stuff in my hands. And listened carefully to the questions before answering.

Half way through the Q&A-session I started to feel I had done well. The questions showed that they had understood everything and that they were convinced about the quality of my work. So, I started relaxing. Relaxing from a month of really hard preassure. I had worked all the way through the night before the presentation and I suppose my eyes were in need of some lubrication... So when i got a question about what I was proud of... well, I started crying. Sobbing I managed to say: - That I didn't give up. I started laughing at my own crying and my three censors offered me water which I accepted.

After my presentation and the questions I sat down out on the terrace with some of my team mates. Paul, Nanna and Karen seemed to have a lot to discuss because it took them an hour and a half to write the feed-back and decide on a grade. I got a 10 on the wierd Danish 13-scale (where 13 represents "reinventing the field", 12 does not exist and there are five levels of failing). So, ten is good, and considering that I thought I'd flunk only a few weeks earlier it is really great.

After giving me the grade I got a question that really surprised me: - What happened to Chelsea? I told them that she is coming to Stockholm in August. Before leaving Karen Thomsen gave me her card and said: - Have a great summer holiday and call me when you are back at work.

Wednesday I am doing a workshop about Interactivity and Public Journalism at NRK in Oslo.