NeuroSys

We’re going to put together a series of posts for our readers; these will details of the origins of the story, world and characters. We will introduce you to some of the complexities within the back story and give insight into the world without giving the plot away.

NeuroSys was the origin of the original story so it’s only fair to start there, and go more into the world of 2101 and how we came up with this world. NeuroSys was the original idea of our director; many years ago we were sat on a train to Stafford discussing ideas for writing companion books for role playing games. The original concept was a style guide to one of the sub cultures that inhabit the cities of the world. This covered a number of concepts of how society will develop, some of the people in one of the biggest cities, and many of the best shopping and night spots. Needless  to say that style guide was never finished; it was left for a while.

A few months later we decided that there was a large amount of stories that could be told in the world that was created. So we started expanding sections, creating new sections and generally playing around in the world seeing how society was constructed and worked together. As we started to build up a model of society, we looked at how the world worked, the companies and political organisation involved and we created Iolanthus and Iolanthe as the new generation of cities designed to protect the important people who work for the Hyper Corporations, the biggest being run by Cromwell Jackson.

Studying the latest scientific developments and keeping a massive folder full of research and information, we started to apply futurist principles to see how the society we created would evolve along with the emerging technology. Simple things like the death of the TV, mobile phones and how the internet morphs into the next generation with quantum computing. We even looked at small things gadgets and gizmos, up to the next generation of personal body armour and defence.

The core concept was that the governments of the world slowly failed, selling off departments and the military saving money where they can. These department were brought out by companies and privately run military took over the old jobs, they were more efficient and better equipped. The inevitable might happen and the Corporations started hostile takeovers and buy outs, leaving a handful of Hyper Corporations and puppet governments. Society back-lashed and formed the World Council a governing body setup to protect the rights of the people and make laws.

The principle components were setup, to start building the small parts that function or dysfunction within this setting. We started creating the people that populate the city of Iolanthus, and numerous other aspects of the world from other AI controlled cities to a lunar base program.

Now we have a file with reams of information on the setting and characters. These were an excellent source for developing the story for Casimir Effect.

Casimir Effect Origins Part II >>

After a rather short meeting with our university we came to the conclusion that our aims and ambitions are far greater than theirs. We mutually agreed to take a year out to develop and make Casimir Effect, then come back next year to finish the degree as this would save a lot of headaches in the long run, and open up a lot more doors for us.

Now we are an indie production company, we will retain 100% of the rights to Casimir Effect. We can also apply to official film agencies and government bodies for additional funding. Our main aim is to get matched funding, so we need to make sure we hit or come very close to our fundraising goal, if we can do this we should be able to apply to get the same again from the film agency. This would double our budget from £10k to £20k and the more we get the more they will give us. We will be asking a number of industry bodies for funding, to add to our initial funding plus any donations and money raised through auctions. So essentially for every £1 you donate we will get £2. So keep an eye on our targets and current funding, then when it comes close to deadline if we need it we hope you can help out. Keeping to our targets is more important than getting a rush of funding at the end.

We also now have full control of the film, and our aim to turn Casimir Effect into a TV series becomes more plausible as we won’t need to fight to get the rights back from the university. So we can start looking into each characters storyline for an eight part television series.

The loss of support from the university is no real problem for us as we have a number of industry professionals, the equipment will still be accessible through Skillset and many of our HoDs have their own kit. The university won’t cover equipment for 3rd parties, so we would have to get our own insurance anyway. Were meeting with our sound guy this Sunday and getting wardrobe sorted in the next few days. It’s all go from now on.

The current batch of eBay auctions are doing well, there will probably be some bidding wars towards their end time.

Well now I have had time to recover from the Hub 3 and had a good night’s sleep in my own bed, I can gather my thoughts for the weekend and the tasks at hand. I’m still on the tail end of that throat infection I had at the Hub, not swine flu thankfully, but the coughing is a pain.

Anyway a good time was had by all evening if at times things were a bit none stop. My posts were vague because of the limited time I had in my hotel room and not getting much sleep. Most of the parties nights were good, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and even though I didn’t go to most of them the report I got back were good ones, plus the bleary eyes in the morning gave things away. The costumes were very impressive, I’m used the bigger US conventions and what I saw was some very well made costumes and props. I think there should be a costumer’s award presented and judged by the stars. The talks were fun, the buzz from the green room was that the old guard was training up the newbie’s and telling them what to expect. In many ways I wish I didn’t have the throat infection as it was a bit of a damp squib for me not feeling 100% so I couldn’t bounce around talking.

I have been negotiating with a cinematographer and the chap we wanted is very interested and we should be having a weekend together to go through the script and get contracts sorted. I’m also approaching a number of the other HoDs we have been after this week to get final confirmation off them. Were still on the case with locations and hope to have most of them confirmed before Christmas. Then the big parts over and done with and we’re into a stage of procurement for the film.

We have a number of eBay auctions going up over the next months to go into the funding pot, I have some cash coming to me I’m going to pop in there to. Also I have news from the US, one of my friends that has been looking for funding over that end has ask me for in depth marketing and financial info as he has a number of business contact that might be interested in sponsoring us. We also have the donate buttons at the bottom of each post, for any of you who aren’t the hording type or have some money spare any donations welcome.

Well that’s it for now.

Well were back home now, Gareth has gone off to film The Bill then off to the USA for the conventions he is doing over there.

The last day was good, since Kai arrived the stage became a more interesting place, as he and Gareth worked it. Thanks to Kerry for the donation of a few items to eBay, these will be going up in the next few days.  We never made it to the party so I hope those who were there enjoyed it; I heard about some of it and wished I wasn’t so knackered. Maybe at the SFX con.

Well now back to business, I’ve just got the accounts up-to-date; I have a few tweaks to make as it seems if your Java isn’t up-to-date. I’ll create an alternate menu system for people who are in this situation, so the site may be a bit odd over the next day or so.

Also a thanks to Banana’s and co for making sure every breathing person was given a flyer.

Well the Saturday was fun, Lydia and I finally got our VIP passes and were able to do stuff unhindered. We caught a few of the talks, most of which went down the usual angle of talks at the hub other than Gareth refusing to talk about John Barrowman. The green room was good better than most I have been to at conventions, at least they catered for all tastes and made as healthy as possible, the green room people should pat themselves on the back. We got talking to a few people about the film and will be receiving a few donations from con-goers to auction off for the film. So keep your eyes on our eBay page over the coming months.  Sadly we didn’t get any pictures of yesterday; I’ll try to get some today.

There was a surprise visit from Kai Own who ended up doing a comedy sketch with Gareth, which from what I can guess was written for John Barrowman and James Marsters, Kai and Gareth still had the crowd screaming. Then after the hectic day we all got chance to just sit and chill as a hand full of people came over to natter.

Not sure what to expect today, Kai hasn’t been booked on anything but we presume he is talking over James Marsters slots. So once more we brave the microcosm of the Hub 3.