Now the rough edit of Casimir Effect is past the midpoint we’re looking further into the future, everything from music, to the special effects. We have a bunch more meetings before we really get dug in, but we have established our post production and marketing budget goals. We are looking to raise £12,000 to cover post production and marketing. However we have a bit more time to raise these funds. This new goal has been split into two, the first £6,000 needs to be raised by the 1st October 2010 and will be mostly used for post production, the last £6,000 by 1st February 2011 which will be used for the preparation for film festivals.

.

Like reaching our other goals we will be auctioning off a number of items including more film props, costumes and set dressing, and all those donation that have gotten us this far. We are also putting together a selection of limited edition signed prints that will be put up for auction over the coming months. As always we will be adding more items to our store, including signed versions of our regular prints. I have a bag with some more Torchwood goodies to be signed, and a few of the audio books Gareth did.

We’re also thinking of making some costumes for cosplay if there is interest, CJS ID badges custom made with your picture and name on them. As always we’re open for new ideas and suggestions as to what you would like us to do and we will look into getting them.

Sound and Music

As mentioned before Blue Gillespie’s tracks Paradox and Time Knot are for the film. Once we have the rough edit we will be looking at getting the songs as stems (each instrument in its own track) so we can remix and rework the songs for the sound track. However before that we have ADR (Additional Dialogue Replacement) to get done, once we have the ADR sorted we can start looking at getting the first full trailer out. But before then we hope to get a second teaser out.

Once we have the ADR sorted, our sound guys Espen and Ewoud will be spending the summer collecting sound effect and building banks of sounds. To create everything that is important to the world of the film, everything from a sliding cup to the hums and crackles of the time machine. When they are off doing this we will be working on the music and reworking the songs we have to create all the character themes and incidental music, that will set the mood and tone for each sequence.

Special Effects

This is the hardest part of post production and will require a large team working many hours to get everything that is needed. Once we have a rough edit we will be going through each scene deciding what effects are needed and what we would like to do but hadn’t thought of. Then we need to prioritise them so we can create our workflow for the coming months. Also it will tell us which scenes we need to re-edit first and allow us to structure our path to the final edit.

Everything from Rotoscoping (cutting out actors from the background, and replacing markers), to rendering new elements for the time machine and the future. Everything takes time and we need to start the complex things now and leave the easy things till near the end. Of course these special effects are also where most of our post production budget will go.

Trailer

As mentioned above we will be working on a new teaser once we have a rough edit, this will give you a taster for what we have coming. Than after that and we have some of the sounds in and music ready we will do our first full trailer and look to doing a longer trailer later in the year with some of the completed effects.

Sex Wales and Anarchy 3

And finally we will be at Sex Wales and Anarchy 3 this year, hopefully we will have a few scenes close to completion for people to see. However we are also running the film side of SWA, called SWA Film, we’re turning this into a mini film festival, with a prize fund at the end of it. The details will be on the SWA3 site in the next few days and hopefully many of the filmmakers that are following us will submit something. We are still looking for our judges at the moment but we’re hoping we can get some interesting names to help out.

Anyway it proves to be an interesting day with lots of fun and creativity and some good local bands to boot.

In the last few weeks things have been on the hectic side in preparation for Christmas and being able to take a few days off and doing nothing much other than watching TV and playing games. So this is more of a consolidation post covering the odds and ends of what we have been up to.

Teaser Trailer

One of the main things we managed to get out of the door is our teaser trailer, it took a few days to put together and animate but were happy with the end result. Over the last week it has had a good number of hits on Youtube and its coming up well in searches.

This is the extended version of the trailer; there is also a shorter version, both can be used embedded and spread around the internet if people want to help promote Casimir Effect.

Fundraising

We have been doing well with our fundraising, were close to our goal for the end of 2009. The eBay auctions we have currently listed will help bring us closer to that goal. We also have our product page open as a way you can help us reach our goals, and any donations even small ones will help us hit our target.

First Budget Goal £5,000 GBP / £5,000 GBP 31st December 2009 (On Schedule)

Though our funding model is not wholly unique, we have taken ideas from any different models for lo-budget films. But in doing this our model has become something different. It shows the power of the internet and how it can be used for small or large scale production, helping it develop and find an audience that has some vested interested in the production either through an actor, story, genre, original work or just the tenacity of the people involved. With the current film industry obsessed with event films of little substance or derivative works taking from an already existing franchise, a hand full of people are looking for something different and it has become easier to find with site such as Facebook, Youtube and MySpace.

Not only can this model of film making offer something to the audience, it makes the audience part of the film making process, by bringing them in to help market the film, and raise funds. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have helped us so far and for the continued support, and lets make a difference in 2010.

Doctor Who

Like most people this holiday season we watch Doctor Who – The End of Time pt1 and even though it suffers in places from being too fast paced and everything goes whizzing by. Overall it was enjoyable entertaining television, and everything a TV show should be. I have no doubt it will have its detractors, but the TV ratings show that it achieved what it was supposed to and entertain the masses. There was so much going on the two parter probably should have been a mini-series with at least five parts, where every loose end could have had time to be tied up and the return of the time lords could have been done with more suspense.

Also as a Cardiff based film we found that some of the locations might be useful in Casimir Effect. So this week is going to be digging and ringing around to get contacts and arranging visits.  Alpha Steelworks in Newport will be our fist port of call, and I will see if I can cut a deal at Tredegar House, as there basement levels would be ideal for parts of the film; however the cost of Tredegar might be prohibitive.

Questions

I’m looking to expand the FAQs section, so it would be good if some of our readers can comment here and offer some questions and expand the FAQ. One new question that will be added as an example:

Why did you choose the Casimir Effect?

One of the fundamental theories of time requires vast amounts of energy and exotic matter. Using the Casimir Effect unlimited free energy can be generated, and currently science is looking into the application of the effect in power generation, anti gravity and other strange an interesting things. So with the energy situation sorted, you need to generate exotic matter (exotic matter is matter that defies the current law of physics, such as negative mass), The Casimir Effect can also be manipulated to create such matter, this is then used to open a stable wormhole through space-time and widen it. The main problem is the gravitational forces caused when crossing the event horizon. However a few theories suggest that the Casimir Effect can also be used here to create opposing gravitational forces and counteract the effect of the wormholes gravitational tide.

Casimir Effect is a quantum force even stronger than gravity it represents a level of attraction/repulsion that can be used in a story telling point. With quantum particle A being attracted to quantum particle B and becoming bound in a dance with other quantum particles to create what we know as Atoms, never touching but never being apart. This fits well into a story telling narrative of unrequited love.

This is a very fluffy description of the Casimir Effect, as it is a very complex area of quantum physics that we have only scratched the surface of. We hope that through this film that some of those who find this interesting will take this further and look deeper into quantum physics.

I have received an e-mail from Helen who is one of the organisers of the Save Ianto Jones Campaign that helped raise over £12,000 for Children in Need. They are looking to help out publicising and fundraising for Casimir Effect. We thought long and hard about this as to coordinate any outside marketing efforts so they won’t take up our time. Because of this we will develop some info pack for people to use for different media.

Casimir Productions aim to promote the film and find new and interesting ways to raise funds, while also co-ordinating well planed publicity.  We hope that the people can independently come up with ideas to raise funds. We will compile info pack and make them available to anyone who wants to help.

The main reason for such coordination is that in the media industry people get bombarded everyday with spam and news stories from every angle, much of which gets ignored. So a well planned info pack and showing of support can have a greater impact especially if it is worked in with a strong viral marketing campaign. Also marketing needs to be clever just as much as it needs to be widespread, flyer and poster gangs in festival towns a few weeks before can create an immense buzz ready for the first day of the festival.

What we are doing here is in many ways the new wave of film development and marketing, it has worked with Snakes on a Plane and films by Nick Love. Taking it a step further and finding new ways for fan who support a film to let the world know about their passion and the passion of everyone involved is pushing the boundaries.

Now everything seems to be picking up in pace we need to generate more awareness for Casimir Effect which is where you come in. With our limited budget we cannot afford massive advertising expenditure so we do as much as we can with what we have and hope that you can help.

Talk to People

This is by far the easiest and cheapest form of promotion; I do it a lot, sometimes I feel as though I have not more to say about my life other than Casimir Effect. You don’t need to go Verbal Diarrhoea lengths to help, but if you have any friends who like sci-fi or like a romance with a twist then let them know and send them a link. This is great for forums, Twitter, Facebook and any other place where you talk to people with similar interests. Also as we have Gareth and Neil if you know any Gareth fans or Matrix fans that’s another angle you can use on the people you know.

Banner and Website Promotions

We have provided a selection of icons and banners for you to use, these can be found on the Viral Marketing section. Please feel free to use them on your websites blog and whatever you can squeeze them on to. Like taking to people this is a cheap way to help out and get the word spread.

Social Networks

Many people use Facebook, Myspace, twitter and countless other way to connect with the rest of the world. We try to keep our main site as up-to-date as possible, and keep Myspace and Facebook topped up when we can. However if you see something of interests on one of Casimir Effects site pages, tweet it blog it or do whatever you can to get it out there. Re-Tweeting our Twitter posts is a fantastic way to expand our network of friends.

Tombstones

At the top of each blog update there are a number of popup tombstones each for a different way to spread the word about an update. There is everything from Facebook status updates, through Twitter updates and Diggs. If you can click on one or two of these which suite your style then it will help us spread the word

Internet Campaigns

Flyers

This is one of the elements of promotion that will cost something but can bring a whole new audience to Casimir Effect. In our Viral Marketing section we have flyers to download. These as simple flyers can be cheaply copied please don’t spend massive amounts of your own money printing stunning colour versions, just a print and cheap B&W photocopy is all it needs. Then cut them up and spread them around at gigs, college, university, work, conventions, events, festivals, well anywhere you think you can get away with dropping some flyers. If you work in a shop you could pop them in people’s bags when packing them or in packages if you sell stuff online.

Fan Fiction

It’s probably too early for people to look at writing fan-fic, but to let you know we love the stuff. The only thing we ask is that if you do write some you put that it is Copyright Casimir Productions as it is our world and characters. Hey we may even put some of the best stories up on the site, we will try to link to them if we can. We aren’t opposed to  NC-17 slash-fiction, at the end of the day it’s a bit of adult fun; however we cannot link to NC-17 Slash-Fiction is as Casimir Effect is aimed at a general audience where such stories may be considered inappropriate.

Funding Update

We are 40% of the way to our first Funding goal, thank you to everyone who has helped. Our first midpoint is coming up we might be £150 sort of this if everything keep going as it is. It just means that little bit extra needs to be found over Christmas. Other than that it’s fantastic that so many of you want to help.

It has been a busy few weeks, we have been gathering our Heads of Department and have most of them in place. Over the next few weeks we will be finalising them all and starting to put the ground work together for the latter stages of pre-production. The big news today is that we have cast an actor for our final main character, Cromwell Jackson. Neil Rayment (Matrix Reloaded) has signed to play the part of the antagonist. Neil is looking forward to getting into the shoes of the character and working with the rest of the cast and crew. We will get a press release out in the next few days. It’s a bit naughty of me announcing it here first, but a lot of visitors to this site have helped us get to where we are and I think they deserve some exciting news.

We have our first sponsor in John Malkovich’s ‘Big Sleep Hotel,’ who are providing us with meeting space and rehearsal facilities, as well of discount codes for our fundraiser and other events. We might also be filming in the penthouse or executive suite of the hotel, see the pictures in the gallery below of some of the rooms we may be using.

[View with PicLens]

We have also started our Viral Marketing page, with web banners and simple flyers for anyone who wants to help out promoting the film. If you do have a chance to hit a festival or convention with flyers drop us an e-mail or message and we will make sure we thank you in the credits.

We are also looking at a number of online teasers/news reports to film and get out on the net, to establish some of the events surrounding Casimir Effect’s story.

Also a big thank you to everyone who has sent us donations and bid on our auctions we wouldn’t be able to make this film without your generous help.