FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CASIMIR EFFECT A BOLD STEP FOR STUDENTS

International Film School Wales students embark on an ambitious graduation film

Mostly degree students aim to make films that are ground breaking and unique, yet still remain firmly in the field of student films. Casimir Productions is a group of talented and ambitious students who are aiming to break free of the stereotype of “student films” to create a high quality Sci Fi drama, by applying the techniques of the Hollywood sci-fi film industry with a minimal budget.

Synopsis & Story:

Casimir Effect is a story of unrequited love set on a backdrop of temporal paradox. Dr. Alice Sharpe has a choice to make, stay with her true love and risk the collapse of the space time Continuum, or take more drastic measures to ensure all of creation isn’t erased.

The story takes on elements of Romeo and Juliet’s love story, and plays them out in a future reality where they have to make hard choices in order to stop the universe from collapsing in on itself.

Casimir Effects writers, Gabriel strange & Lydia Wood, are developing the screen story and exploring the characters and the world they inhabit. The screen story will be made into a Novella, which will generate funding for insurance and un-avoidable costs.

Technology:

Employing CGI, and state of the art 4D Camera technology Casimir Productions aims to showcase the talent of all those involved. Drawing on current students, graduates, and professionals in Cardiff, Wales, they aim to bring a professional and highly polished quality to Casimir Effect.

Casimir Productions is working with sample footage from Cardiff Universities 4D , testing open source rendering systems with a view to create professional looking CGI They are scouting locations and seeing just how much is possible with minimal budget and a crew of volunteers.

The film will also be boosted by a professionally composed score and soundtrack, which they will make available to download and bring funds to help market the film and get it shown in film festivals around the world.

Marketing and Publicity:

The aim of Casimir Effect is to create a film that is above and beyond what is expected from a student film. Ambition and creativity drive the team, who aim to show the film at some of the world’s top festivals such as Cannes, Toronto and Sundance.

The team is adoption a viral marketing strategy, using social networking sites, word of mouth and buzz generated through press releases and interviews.

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Press Release No.1 (73.09KB) Added: 26/10/2009 Downloads: 264 CASIMIR EFFECT A BOLD STEP FOR STUDENTS: International Film School Wales students embark on an ambitious film

I have spent most of the morning looking in to video codec’s and encoding, though I would love to film edit and work in 4:4:4 samples, I feel that 4:2:2 might be the limits of my editing system. Though I am getting a 6 terabyte raid array for doing this film on so dependant of the data throughput I might be able to push 4:4:4. I have also been looking at colour depth; 8-bit is good but for that highly polished look 10-bit is the only way to go.  Though this means more bandwidth considerations, if I can work in 10-bit I’ll do it. Well I know I can work in 32-bit colour on my editing system, but the final output I’ll be looking at 10-bit 4:4:4 1920×1080 progressive. At the moment I’m testing a series of codec’s for storage of the original footage and CG work, though I may just request the CG as still images then it makes it easier for everyone.

At the moment my PC is rendering out a number of HD samples to test codec’s here are some results:

Black Magic: 10-bit colour depth 4:4:4 samples, no compression.
Huff YUV: 8-bit colour depth 4:4:4 samples, lossless compression.
AVI uncompressed: 8-bit colour depth, 4:2:2 samples, no compression.
Quicktime uncompressed: 10-bit colour depth, 4:2:2 samples, no compression.

On the face of it Black Magic wins, however in tests it eats hard drive bandwidth, so unless the 6tb array can keep up then it’s probably only going to be a final transport codec. Huff YUV I have used before but only for SD video, and it halved the file size, which is great when you cost limited. However in preliminary tests Huff YUV struggled to work properly, however if I can get it to work, it might do for storage of original files and CG layers, then in rendering output to Black Magic, to maximise the colour depth when they layers are flattened. AVI uncompressed is okay, but by far the worst, so unless I’m really stuck for a stable fast codec I’m not going to consider it. The Quicktime codec is interesting, and this might be an option depending on the camera we use and its output, 4:2:2 is acceptable if the original footage is in the same sample ratios. All if this is dependant of the max throughput of the raid array, but first choice is Black Magic, second Huff YUV and finally Quicktime uncompressed. Redcode is probably out of the question as we need to get an uncompressed output from the camera, and the Red One can’t do that yet. Though the Scarlet 2k might be an option.

In other news we have gotten a lot of feedback on the screen story and have implemented as much as makes sense. The first part of act 2 has had a major sub plot added and the slow scenes removed. Act one is pretty much sorted, Act two has more action and reflects better the hopelessness of the characters situation, and brings in the consequences of a change in a Significant Event in time. One more read through then it’s on to working out the characterisation getting the dialogue tight and on track. Hopefully by Monday the story will be off to our editor, and when we get it back it’s over to Ian Watson (Screen story: A.I. Artificial Intelligence).

One last thing, this is a bit of a gripe at women on film and TV especially in Sci-Fi and action roles. Most women are written as men with boobs they act like men talk like men and react like men. There is no subtlety to them or their actions. Alice our main character is written as a woman and developed by a woman. She is a strong female role-model, but not by being a man with boobs, by being a woman and succeeding in her actions in a positive manner.

It’s been a busy week, so not much time to spend on Casimir Effect, but things have by no means stalled. We’re starting to get feedback through on the Novella, hopefully next week I’ll be working on the first draft script, and getting the editors on the Novella.

After our production meeting we have a new Concept and Storyboard Artist, William Charles, he has come on board to help out in the art department where he can.

We’re also looking at other actors for the film, we have a number of viable contacts for high profile actors, and we feel obliged to give them a chance to say no. Who knows things might go really well, anyway nothing ventured nothing gained.

Another thing on our list is to get the Lyrics written in the next month, so once we have implemented the feedback on the Novella it’s off to our lyricist. Then on to finding a singer to perform the song, so time to tap all our contacts again. The person I have in mind can bring heart and soul to the song, which I think is better to have than a sound.

We have also started to look for locations around Cardiff. As we don’t want to have to move a whole unit more than 20 mins drive this does limit our options. We have a number of smaller scenes which can be filmed with a minimal crew, but the main locations have to be local, to save time and any costs we have to cover.

Also thanks Dale for getting a placement logo for the film to us despite your hectic schedule, and good luck on ‘Crash.’

Well after a lot of work over the last few weeks, the screen story / short novella is complete. We hit about 17.5k words, so just comes in the novella category. This is now out to our crews to get feedback and to see what they think. Let’s hope they don’t run and hide in the corner.

Looking for sponsorship is going well; a few places are interested, so let’s hope it goes to the next stage. If not we have at least gotten an awareness of the film out to these places. If you are interested in helping a hand full of ambitious students, become better film makers and one day great film makers, were no opposed to finding ways we can help each other out.

On the PR front we have had a meeting with our PR advisor and been told where we should be looking at this early stage. So over the next week it’s finding more places we can send our Press release to. Must remember all publicity is good.

Also we have had some very positive feedback from one of our producer friends; they like the idea, and will tuck into the novella over the next week. So fingers crossed we can pull something out of the hat, that isn’t a rabbit.

Well back to the grind.

Were well on the way with the third draft of the screen story, should have that finished by the end of tomorrow. Then it’s back over to me to work on the forth draft.

I have started out accounts spread sheet, and after one hiccup that wiped out a workbook I managed to get to something serviceable as an accounts sheet.

The main thrust of the day has been writing a stock letter to send out to companies for sponsorship and product placement. The hope is that we can get most of our props and wardrobe this way and if we’re lucky there might be some form of funding. If you are reading this and have some spare cash about and want to help ambitious students create a film you might like then get in touch.