Hasta La Motion!

Azureus Rising is a proof of concept developed by the San Diego production company Black Sun Entertainment. We know very little about them other than the fact they created a pretty epic piece in hopes of fleshing it out into a feature film trilogy. Independently, I might add.

The basic premise thus far involves a “heroic freedom fighter” pitted against a mecha-scorpion. We aren’t entirely sure about his motivations but he definitely has some impressive talents navigating his way through the hyper futuristic metropolis he inhabits.

Motionographer’s Harm got a little bit more info from the director, David Weinstein, when he asked him about how much story can be crammed into 5 minutes. A note we pulled, as it turns out, from the Q&A from Black Sun Entertainment’s site and not from conversation with the director.

That’s the thing. With 5 minutes—how much story can you really get? I knew I could not get a emotional reaction with only 5 minutes of screen time. There’s no time to set up the characters so you feel like you can relate to them, and then watch how they handle and react to the events that unfold around them. For me story is about showing change. The change in a character—or the changes in the world and the hero’s impact on those transformations. So instead of trying to half ass my story into a 5 minute short film, I opt to make a exciting visual display of the world and the character in action.

The 5 minutes do fly by rather fast, but in a good way. We look forward to seeing more from Black Sun Entertainment and the budding saga of Azureus.

Posted on Motionographer

Say what you will about SyFy’s new name, but the House of Imagination trailer does a fantastic job getting the rebrand off to an epic start. With vfx by the Moving Picture Company and direction by 4Creative’s Brett Foraker, the entire two-minute video is an inviting trip to a place I genuinely wish I could visit.

The companion website for the House of Imagination teases me with just such a wish, but ends up being a collection of mini-games and behind-the-scenes featurettes—and that’s a pretty sweet consolation prize.

It also points to SyFy’s understanding of its core audience. The inclusion of these making-of gems starring the cast members of SyFy’s shows is essentially like putting DVD extras on the web—something that the decidedly cultish fans of SyFy’s programming will respond to. When the name change was announced, I was concerned that SyFy would abandon the geekier clicks of its viewership, but if House of Imagination is any indication of the future, it appears the opposite is true. That’s good for the fans, and that’s good for the brand.

Incidentally, a high-dollar project like House of Imagination underscores something I heard more than once at Promax|BDA this year: commercial projects aren’t coming through the doors of studios and prodcos as often as they used to, and there’s something of a broadcast design renaissance starting to take form. The new broadcast work, however, is deeply tied to the web and is focused more on branded narrative experiences than IDs and show packages.

With viewers watching an increasing amount of programming on the web (and through web-enabled technologies), that makes perfect sense to me. As platforms edge closer together, like tectonic plates of media, it seems only natural that they will collide, forming new landscapes and, hopefully, new reasons to take creative risks.

For more on the SyFy rebrand, check out Proud Creative’s portfolio, which encompasses the entire new branding scheme.

Credits
Director: Brett Foraker
Creative director: Tom Tagholm
Executive Producer: Shananne Lane
Business Director: Olivia Browne
Producer: Roberts Jones
Production Designer : Tino Schaedler
Director of Photography: Larry Fong
Editor: Adam Rudd
Sound design and composer: Rich Martin

From MPC:

Jay Lichtman – Executive Producer
Paula Da Costa – Producer
Marcus Wood – VFX Supervisor (2D Lead)
Steve Moncur – VFX Supervisor (3D Lead)

Posted on Motionographer

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The Sci Fi Channel in Australia launched a new set of on air idents last week. Being the thematic channel that they are, these idents are very much “on message”, reflecting the channels programming, but also through the use of the CCTV concept, creating a strong and unified image for the channels brand.

Speaking of the channels brand, the Australian off shoot of Sci Fi are yet to commit to adopting the recently announced Syfy rebrand, which although heavily criticised, I personally think is one of the more elegant and creative name changes of late.