Freekstorm VFX Blog

The QuestFest winners have been announced at last. Kudos to all those who made the finals (alas, not us) and congrats to all those who won. We watched the livecast first thing this morning (it was still Saturday night in L.A. of course.)

A very well deserved first place went to Nightlight by Solomon Chase.
Second place went to the moving Chasing Kangaroos by Noel Evans and third place went to Diner for Two (a clever little musical by Anthony Misiano.)

So that's the end of our first film festival. In the end we came 22/36 - not as high as we would have liked but not bad at all for a first movie attempt. Hopefully we will improve next time around....

Speaking of which...we're now on to the next fest: MONSTER FEST!!!

Hurrah! We get to make a gruesome Halloweeny Monster Flick!

Needless to say, Freeky brainstorming has already started…stay tuned!

Labels: Fests

Hurrah, we can now show you our film!

I have uploaded it to OpenFilm so you can view it in HD.

View Dick Ikon and the Petulant Princess

Please rate it 5 stars, you know you want to!

Labels: DIAPP

Well, the movie has been uploaded to the DVX QuestFest for just over a week now and the preliminary round of voting is complete. Unfortunately we still can’t link to the movie from this blog until the winners have been announced (in a couple of weeks I suspect) but we can share what others have said about the film.

As this was our first movie, we were expecting to be totally panned as the movie is a) our first attempt and b) most definitely aimed at kids. However we need not have worried, and in fact we have been positively overwhelmed by the nice things viewers have said:

- I thought it was clever. It was cute. I enjoyed it.

- Be proud of yourself for getting it done. It must have been a lot of work.

- I bet your kids got a real thrill watching this.

- I could relate to two quests in this. First the obvious quest within the story and also as a father of two young girls, the quest to want to thrill them with adventure. I applaud you. Can’t wait to show this to my eldest daughter tomorrow.

- I have to agree (also being the father of two daughters) this is a great little family adventure! Very enjoyable. Cute story concept. You did a great job with the VFX too.I'm sure your kids will love this one for years to come. Great job.

- There's so much heart on the screen/the motivations in making it are so clear, that the film can't help but be enjoyable.

- Very enjoyable film, fantastic idea with much fantasy….. I love the title - it sounds like a ironic fairytale.

- What a fun ride! Kind of reminds me of the exaggerated effects style of Robert Rodriguez's "Spy Kids" movies. I'll definitely show this one to my kids. Though, they may get ideas for a CGI heavy film that I can't quite pull off. I might try sets, but those trolls were awesome, and out of my league.

- Considering what the budget must've been, you did a great job. As an homage to adventure movies, it certainly does the job. Fun.

- I've just looked back through your thread and also had a look at your site - blimey, you're a complete family production!!! And it's your first film over a minute!!! Really well done and you must have had a great time making it.

- Awesome job! The trolls looked great, glad you gave ‘em some facial expressions too. looks like a ton of work there. The dad has a terrific voice for reading a story, the ending was cool. it was a neat story.

- Congratulations! What an effort for a first work. Considering that EVERYTHING is done by you and your family (us four and no more) then it becomes even more amazing. I see a lot of promise for future productions from family Bang.

- Very cute film. Funny stuff. Nice family film. Congrats man. Your kids must be having a blast.

- Wow. this was pretty neat.

- For your first film, you certainly decided to go BIG, didn't you?! A great first film!

- I enjoyed it and was impressed by how much work was put into it.

And our favourite comment:

- I really enjoyed this a lot. It had a great tone and feel to it. I even showed it to my 11 year old daughter who liked it as well. This must of been a blast to make. It makes me want to go out and shoot some green screen. Well done.

Wow! Thanks guys! Much appreciated! We’re glad we made you smile a little.

Most of the comments were from fellow directors and filmmakers. I wonder if the general public will be quite as forgiving?!

Labels: DIAPP, reviews

It’s done.

Rich put the finishing touches to the movie last week and uploaded it to the DVXuser site. It’s been approved and viewing opens on or around 6^th July, although unfortunately we're not allowed to publish links to it until a couple of weeks after that.

Still, it’s a humongous relief now that everything is finished, although we’re all experiencing a weird kind of “let-down” now that the frantic polishing and checking stage is over. We can't start promoting our little short until next week, so this weekend is a dead time. There’s nothing to do now other than await our fate, which sounds rather dramatic but when it’s your first movie and you’re anticipating…umm…well God only knows what reaction we’re expecting (stunned silence, probably), then I think we can be excused a few pre-release nerves.

We’re very busy with the kids’ end of school term and the endless Hogwarty stuff which that entails (bringing half the school home by the looks of it) and we’re also wondering what on earth we’re going to do with the boys for nine (very long and torturous) weeks. We don't have summer camp here in the U.K. so they will be at home the whole time. Gulp. What on earth shall we do with them? Hmm....methinks they need a nice little movie project to keep them busy….

And so begins the planning for the next fest…

Labels: DIAPP