Future Tense in production limbo

Hi! I just wanted to point out, in case you haven't noticed, that Future Tense has been put on hold until we can get enough funding to complete its production.

Brant and I are still hopeful that one day we'll be able to complete it - its not only worth it, but everyone involved put in a lot of hours in making it this far, so quitting is out of the question! :)

Currently, Greg Landucci is pursuing his acting career in Toronto and Linda Kee is still hard at work here in Vancouver. Brendan Uegama just got back from Toronto and is shooting (Directing and DOP!) a new short film in October. (I will be his Art Director! woot!)

When the time comes we will contact the whole team and get Future Tense finished, once and for all! :) Fingers crossed.

Thanks!

Javier

Some concept art

As the time approaches to shoot the "flying car" sequence of the movie - a one minute scene of crazy proportions, where Kelly flies a panicked Neil through the future city of Exxon Mobil to the setting of their yearly date - we have ramped up its crucial pre-production.


With numerous visual artists volunteering their spare hours and submitting concept art to us through the internet from their home locations (some from as far as San Francisco and Chicago!) we have accumulated a large library of visual ideas to give Future Tense's world an original look.

Future Tense to be shot on a Red One!

We received the awesome news that Future Tense's ninja DP Brendan Mk Uegama (www.blacktreepictures.com) has purchased an incredible RED ONE camera! (www.red.com)



Check it out! This modular, ultra high def (4K) digital camera is every digital indie filmmaker's wet dream. All of us are incredibly excited about the possibilities it will bring to the production of Future Tense. Jason and the Digital VFX crew are spinning in their chairs! It certainly is a step up in quality from our previous camera - a Sony XDCam HD - not to mention that Brendan is also saving Brant and myself from paying any more commercial leases! Hurray!

More still shots

Two more screen shots straight from our footage! Both images are from our opening and closing scenes.

Actors acting!

During the past couple months, while Brant and I worked on the final adjustments to the planning of the "Flying Car" sequence, Future Tense lead actors Greg and Linda have been working overtime producing/directing/writing plays they *also* act in! Talk about busy people!

Linda co-produced/directed and acted with a group of friends an adaptation of the awesome short comedy by Alan Ball "Five Women Wearing the Same Dress". It was one of the funniest, liveliest, rudest short plays Ive ever been offended by or had the pleasure of laughing to. The five girls did an amazing job and they performed passionately in front of sold out crowds for a few nights in a row!

We also went to see Greg's short play "Dishpig" a few days ago at the Fringe Festival, which he co-wrote/directed with a friend. Greg's one-man-show is a rollercoaster ride of laughs and coming-of-age poignancy. For one full hour the audience held their breaths and rooted for their favorite character - Greg played them all himself. The standing ovation at the end of the play spoke for itself!

So its a dream come true, our two favorite actors in the whole world are also starring in our film! :D

Production Part 1

We officially began production of Future Tense around April 2007 after about nine months of late-night storyboarding, scheduling and other preproduction. We then began searching for crew. Fortunately, Vancouver is filmmaker's heaven, so finding an excellent, professional and enthusiastic crew was not too hard. The screenplay played a major part in getting top talent interested!

Some storyboard samples (after scanning the scraps of paper), from the hundreds we've been making!

We rented an amazing camera, a Sony XD Cam HD, from our local TV friends, and borrowed some awesome lighting gear from our friends' friends at William. F. White.

We began shooting all the parts of the movie that took place in the present time, since they required fewer CGI elements. All the scenes with Neil and Kelly in their Manhattan flat were shot at The Lions condominiums in Coal Harbor, downtown Vancouver.













A frame grab from the actual footage. The pink one is straight from the camera, the blue one was toyed around a bit by the postproduction team, to get a feel for what can be done.

After finally shooting all the present scenes (not without problems, but I'll leave that to another day) we began prepping up for the future scenes. Since we needed to use green screen extensively, we became members of the local filmmakers' society, Cineworks, and rented their studio room.

Two pictures of the apartment after we finished shooting the present scenes and moved to the studio.

Two more pictures of us on set at the studio shooting the beginning of the flying car sequence.

Left: Jon Affolter, our top-notch 1st AD, prepares a scene for our Director of Photography extraordinaire, Brendan Mk Uegama. Tom Affolter rigs the set. Right: Greg takes five as the VFX team jump into action. The smiling big guy setting up the tennis balls is our awesome Visual Effects Supervisor, Jason Hancox.

Co-Writer/Co-Director Brant Hughes wonders how we got into this mess, while Greg makes sure his belongings havent been stolen. 1st AD Jon Affolter and partner-in-crime Steph Faye (our ubercool documentary filmmaker) discuss where to hide Greg's sox.


Left: Ninja D.P. Brendan Mk Uegama and 1st AD Jon Affolter stare happily and unsuspectingly at my camera. Documentarian Steph Faye knows better and looks away.

Right: Our crack team of HD-savvy, airbrush wielding, makeup artists work on our two holographic newscasters. The boy playing with tennis balls is Ben Miller, one of our wizards in post-production artistry.

Its been a test of skills and patience to everyone involved. But we have savoured every moment of it through and through, and there's no turning back now!

As I write, the new storyboards and tight animatic for the flying car sequence are nearing completion. In the next few days we'll get together with Jason and finish off any pending details, and we'll be ready to get the Visual Effects team to start working on the 3D Animated elements of the future and the actors ready for their parts. We still have a long way to go. But every thousand mile journey begins with a step, someone clever once said!

Lead Cast

Brant and I are fortunate to be working with some of the film industry's baddest ninjas and mercenaries. It proves that an original, solid script can attract awesome people who later become your friends. And you cant make a movie without the help from your friends.

After a long casting process, we gravitated towards two fantastic actors: Linda Kee and Greg Landucci. Both are incredibly talented thespians, experienced performers and absolutely stellar personalities. They bring to life our lead characters Kelly and Neil.






Linda Kee, diva extraordinaire.

Greg Landucci, natural born killer.