four58 is a collaborative group setup in 2009 for a Croydon 48 hour film Project where the film Slump was created by James de Paula Hanika and I. These posts are from the website, I have moved the here to save on hosting costs. four58 went on to do a collaborative project for the World of Depleted and created Forsaken. I have now taken four58 name and used it for my freelance business: four58 Creative Limited
Our latest project is finally open to the world and we hope everyone enjoys the short. As on any film project, a great deal of work has gone into it. We would like to thank all those involved and we ask for constructive comments on the YouTube channel.
You can see the World of Depleted status and full film at: Four58 WoD contributor page
Forsaken, our latest short film, has been submitted to the World of Depleted panel for review. Created specifically for the Depleted franchise, the last few weeks have been long and busy. The film script was started almost a year ago, and the production has taken a touch longer than we originally planned. The 16 minute short follows a lone man who travels back to his former home after the devastating collapse of society and the basis of civilisation around the world.
Now we wait to see if the film is taken up as part of the Depleted franchise and to what degree. More than anything, we hope the film is enjoyed. We put a great deal of effort into it. In the coming week, we hope to put a 15 minute version on our YouTube channel.
We would like to thank all of those involved in the recent filming of the finale fight scene. Forsaken has been an interesting journey. A week ago, after a great deal of trouble finding a location, we shot the major fight scene finale. This included five crew, six actors and 40 bullet holes.
After a lot of pre-coreography ideas, we arrived at the factory about 10:30 on the Sunday morning. We had to dress the set a little for the key sequences that would include four deaths and an exploding oil barrel. All digital, of course.
Before we got on with any of the filming, we walked through the scenes with everyone, so they all knew where we needed to be and at what time in the sequence. This also allowed the actors to understand what their characters would be doing individually before they were systematically killed off. Aarh, the joys of post-apocolyptic movie-making.
Last year , just for fun, we signed up to the StarWarsUncut project. This was a great idea where the whole original film was cut up into over 400, 15 second segments. Anyone could set up a Vimeo account and pick a segment, recreate it, and post it for all to see. Who wouldn’t?!
Well, Ben and Jim couldn’t resist, and they ended up making three segments between them. No budget was allowed, so sets had to be either digital or made from what was about their garages. Plenty of green screen, deleted attempts at hand-held motion control [!] and a lot of fun trying. Needless to say, even in 1977 LucasFilm had a lot more tech than we did. Personally, I’m waiting for The Empire Strikes Back and that asteroid scene!
Here are our scenes:
The important thing is give everything a try, be very creative and learn something each time.
Forsaken is based in the World of Depleted, the result of a collapse of society from a combination of biological terrorist action, financial and economic breakdown and massive population unrest. The premise is open to a whole host of situations, action sequences and really bold story-telling. It was decided to construct our story so we could introduce the audience to the aftermath, and introduced one man to take a journey through a landscape he knew well. All of this would span only one 24 hour period.
A number of key sequences were developed initially that gave the short film a strong start, a middle, and a dramatic and exciting end, with secondary scenes to bind these sequences. We aimed to develop a 10-15 minute short, but were open to allowing it to be a little longer, if needed. There were some interesting problems we would get to, but the initial script developed quickly, with regular meetings throughout April. We also storyboarded the script, which allowed us to plan where the effects shots were going to be and what camera angles would work best. Storyboarding doesn’t have to be very accurate or beautifully drawn, but it made a big difference when we got out to do the filming.
We had written a short car chase into the story, and introduced another character. Technically, a car chase involves a bit of dangerous driving, as you have to break the highway code to make anything remotely exciting. In order to fit these important sequences in, we decided to start our story out of the city and away from the normal populated areas. This fitted in with our idea that the main character had fled the cities after the attacks and violence reached their peak.
In the UK, it is now illegal to use realistic guns and weapons in public. If you paint a toy gun black, it is immediately against the law if you take it out onto the streets. All toy guns are now garish orange or green or transparent. The film and television industry hire Police help to block off roads, hold back on-lookers and to manage the use of replica firearms in the open. This, of course, can cost a small fortune, which is fine if you have a reasonable budget and a full crew. Having contacted the film support unit of the police, they informed us that we would be better to find some private location, not overlooked and out of earshot if any shots were to be fired. The alternative, it would seem, was to have a Police armed unit descend on our crew and maybe even be shot!
With our friends at effectsportal.net, we decided to see how far we could go to create a deserted world of guns and gangs. We were using fairly basic airsoft guns and rifles, but decided early on that no shots were to be fired and that everything from muzzle flash to bullet holes would be either physical or digital and, sometimes, a combination of the two. This ended up as being very creative, and we will be sharing a few of these tricks in later entries.
