Category: Science fiction

Ev, along with her husband, Harold, and their lawyer friend Martin, are swimming while on vacation in Puerto Rico. When they resurface, they gradually conclude that an unexplained, temporary interruption of oxygen has killed everyone on the island… maybe even the world!

Back in 1960, with the Cold War at its hottest, the end of the world seemed less like a vaguely disturbing distraction about a possible distant future than like a very real possibility – something that could happen tomorrow. That anxiety fuels THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, an odd-ball effort from producer-director Roger Corman, about the last three people left alive after the rest of Earth’s population mysteriously disappears, leading to the ultimate love triangle as the two men vie for the affections of the sole remaining woman. Filmed on a shoe-string, the film offers a low-budget apocalypse, too slowly paced to qualify as a good cult film, let alone a classic, and yet a certain aura of existential dread infuses the situation, offering some small redeeming value. – CineFantastique

Director: Roger Corman
Stars: Betsy Jones-Moreland, Antony Carbone, Robert Towne

In California, an old man (Bela Lugosi) grieves the loss of his wife (Vampira) and on the next day he also dies. However, the space soldier Eros and her mate Tanna use an electric device to resurrect them both and the strong Inspector Clay (Tor Johnson) that was murdered by the couple. Their intention is not to conquer Earth but to stop mankind from developing the powerful bomb “Solobonite” that would threaten the universe. When the population of Hollywood and Washington DC sees flying saucers on the sky, a colonel, a police lieutenant, a commercial pilot, his wife and a policeman try to stop the aliens. Aliens resurrect dead humans as zombies and vampires to stop humanity from creating the Solaranite (a sort of sun-driven bomb).

A movie that have done more for “so bad it’s good” cinema, a breathless, nearly budgetless tale in which Wood throws together aliens, zombies, looming nuclear annihilation, and Bela Lugosi. Well, he almost throws in Bela Lugosi: as depicted in Tim Burton’s 1994 biopic Ed Wood, he characteristically spliced in existing footage of the by-then deceased icon of horror film, cast his wife’s chiropractor (instructed to hold a cape over his face) as a double, billed Lugosi as the star, and hoped for the best.

Directed by Edward D. Wood Jr.
Starring Gregory Walcott, Tom Keene, Mona McKinnon, Duke Moore.

Shortly after a major disaster aboard the space station, astronaut finds himself trapped in the airlock/escape pod, with a torn space suit, and the room rapidly decompressing. With his attempts to force the airlock’s door open failing, and only minutes left, Alan must make the choice of living to see his family again or sacrificing himself to save the lives of his stranded crew.

Press:
“[Vacuity is] worth the very meager amount of time it asks of you…It’s pretty killer that a sparse 13-minute film with an ‘$80’ set can tell 10 times the story of the Transformers movies.” – cracked.com

“Without a Hollywood budget to go on, the film is enough to keep the interest levels high and Matzur clearly has the film making minerals to deliver such a simple and effective story.” – reelgood.co.uk

“A simple dilemma…given a breathtaking sci-fi makeover–impressive considering the whole short takes place in one small airlock. A-” – themoviemaestro.com

“A great snapshot of what it means to be human.” – josephbustillos.com

Awards:
Winner – Tracy Awards 2011
Winner – Celtx Seeds 2012
Official – Minicon 48 2013
Official – Synesthesia 2014
Official – Portland Sci-Fi 2014
Daily Short – FilmShortage.com 2014
Winner – TCIF3 2014

Directed by Michael Matzur. Starring: Michael Steppe, Chellie Newman, Troy William Dunn

Extreme mutations and junk DNA with the special military forces of the future!

A recent group of extreme mutations leading to death has triggered a parliamentary enquiry which is looking back on the 3 notable cases, their handling and ways to prevent this in the future.

Filming, editing, FX, acting, all top-notch. The idea for the tank suits that the soldiers wear, came from news reports that troops in Afghanistan were inadequately equipped to do their job properly. The Gate is set a few years in the future and suggests that in this time certain specialist troops been given appropriate body protection to deal with IED’s, mortar attacks and bomb disposal. Atmosphere is established and maintained tremendously effectively… this is essentially a series of vignettes connected by “what’s really going on”. The reference to ‘redundant gene sequences’ is based on real genetic science and is often called ‘junk DNA’. This is the term used to describe the 95% of human DNA that appears to perform no particular function. The realism really sells us on what’s going on – we accept the handful of sci-fi aspects(all of them quite credible) in this readily, because it’s clearly the real world.

Wayfare Entertainment has acquired the rights to produce and finance a feature-length version of the short thriller The Gate from its director Matt Westrup and producer Spencer Friend.

Directed by Matt Westrup. Starring: John Mawson, Robert Rowe, Jonathan Andrews

A member of an alien species is being interrogated and tortured by a machine. The alien comments rudely, and the machine says this response is “inappropriate”. It electrocutes the alien a few times, and mentions a “rendezvous”. The alien’s backstory is revealed, showing that his race was at war with the machines they created. He, along with his fleet, protected his people, but he was captured. Later on, the machine explains that they wish to gain independence through the extermination of the alien’s race. The alien soon breaks free, tearing the machine’s head off. He took his chance, and escaped on his ship. Meanwhile, the machine turns itself back on, and starts tracking the alien back to his home world.

If you haven’t seen this yet, you can expect nothing short of the most mind-blowing short film of your life. “R’ha” seems to have gained conceptual influence from the two video games series: Starcraft and Half Life 2. Therefore, expect a plot pertaining to apocalyptic sci-fi. Lot of details give credibility to 3D with great compositing! It’s intense. It’s thrilling. It’s epic. “R’ha” has exceptional visuals and animation. The sound effects were also phenomenal — constantly resonating heart-shaking, intense sounds which complement and supplement the film. This short CGI film resonates a truly dark atmosphere and could be classified as a horror film.

‘Star Wars’ Producer Rick McCallum will adapt Sci-Fi Short Film ‘R’Ha’ into a full feature!

Directed by Kaleb Lechowski. Starring: David Masterson

Amazing Sci-Fi Film Mis-drop (2013)

300 years in the future, a forensic accountant reviews the video stream from one mercenary’s drop-pod which has been damaged during the initial stages of a colonial invasion. The biggest joys of short films is to see things that we would never see in feature length films. Whether it be the type of story or the way it was told, from filming technique to acting methods. In Ferand Peek’s Sci-fi thriller ‘Mis-Drop’ we get a unique view with a one shot from a mercenary’s drop-pod.

What do you do if you want to tell an epic sci-fi story set 300 years in the future but know from the outset that vast CG vistas and epic space battles are well out of your budgetary reach? Well if you’re New Zealand director Ferand Peek, you combine your knowledge of the genre with a spot of lateral thinking to literally reframe the problem into a compelling, claustrophobic tale of a rookie mercenary’s first disastrous combat mission. Peek joins us to share how he shepherded Mis-drop from concept to screen, teaching himself compositing along the way.

So when I started planning the project I hadn’t really done any visual effects before. I had worked on-set for years and felt that I could capture anything but I needed to do a little research to make sure that by the end of the shoot we had all the correct ingredients for the composite. Initially I wanted to do the visual effects before we shot the film and actually project them onto a real piece of glass in the helmet and then hang the pod off the ceiling so that we could have some really realistic movement acting upon the main character when the parachute opens. We did some testing and it was only abandoned in favour of a more simple approach a week or so before we were going to shoot. – Ferand Peek

Directed by Ferand Peek.
Starring: Elliot Travers, Maria Walker, Larry Rew

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