Turn To The Crowd - Live from Subtopia

New Experimental Film: Artificial paradise Inc

Artificial Paradise, Inc is an experimental film anticipating a future where a major corporation has developed an unique software, based on organic virtual reality (?), which holds all the lost memories of humankind.

Sounds strange, looks cool though.

ARTIFICIAL PARADISE,INC. from Jp Frenay on Vimeo.

100 years of Special Effects

A few days ago Jay Vasquez showed me the site Video Copilot. Video Copilot is a company offering a bunch of cool stuff in the video and visual effects field, but the coolest thing is that they post tutorial videos teaching you to do all the cool visual effects you can dream of. Just go to the site to get inspired or watch the clip below. It's a cool montage of some of the most iconic visual effects from the last 100 years.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Threads of Destiny - Behind the Scenes

Here is a short "Behind the Scenes" about Threads of Destiny that are one of the partners behind Gatekeeper, the Multi Talent Cooperation that is based at Subtopia.

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it)

More Star Wars stuff... this is really funny.

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Spaceinvation of Skansen

Every year the Swedish Clowns Without Borders do their big event and fundraiser Clownnäsans Dag (Red Nose Day). This year the event was hosted by Skansen, the huge outdoor museum in Stockholm established to create and manifest our Swedish national identity... When Subtopia was invited to join forces with the clowns we decided to bring some of our new friends...

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...

Release: Star Trek & Star Wreck

Star Wreck, the funny finish fan-made Star Trek tribute was released on DVD yesterday along with their new uk website.



...this is of course in sync with the release of the new official Star Trek film that is due Thursday.



I watch the slow development of the gigantic Holywood filmindustry. They seem to slowly develop their marketing strategies to a world where the border between fans, users and producers are being blured.

Jackie Chan... wtf!

Ok,I've seen like one or two Jackie Chan flicks but some how I didn't realize... This man is absoluteley crazy. I'm so proud to know Martin Zetterlund who actually have been working on his team. In total Martin has made eight(8!)films in Hong-Kong in addition to all the Swedish stuff. Next year he will join the Gatekeeper project - a fan-based Sci-Fi flick that Thomas Dahl is producing.

ok, enough about Martin and Subtopia and just check out the guru...

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.

www.thefinalcollective.com

Just found this futuristic appocalyptic marketing campaign for... eh?

Someone, please tell me what this is.

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"