Harbinger Down

Harbinger Down

Teaser Poster
Directed by Alec Gillis
Produced by Tom Woodruff, Jr.
Written by Alec Gillis
Starring Lance Henriksen
Music by Joel McNeely
Production
company
Country United States
Language English

Harbinger Down is an upcoming American independent science-fiction monster horror film written and directed by Alec Gillis and produced by Tom Woodruff, Jr.; the founders of the special effects company StudioADI.

The plot of the film follows a group of graduate students aboard the titular fishing trawler Harbinger, who are studying the effects of global warming on a pod of Orcas in the Bering Sea. When the ship's crew discover the wreckage of Soviet era spacecraft, they are attacked by shapeshifting alien monsters.

Funded by fan donations through Kickstarter, the film will feature exclusively practical creature effects created by ADI through the use of animatronics, prosthetic makeup, stop motion and miniature effects, as opposed to the use of computer generated imagery.[1]

Production

Background

"We looked at that and said, ‘There are still people who like what we do!’ because we had been getting beaten up a bit over the last five or six years in feature films. So we decided to put up a couple of other videos, like our Green Goblin test makeup for the first Spider-Man film, and that video got an even bigger fan response than The Thing did, so we thought, ‘Well, maybe people would be interested in our work for Ridley Scott’s I Am Legend and again, there was another big outpouring of, ‘Why didn’t they use makeups like that instead of the digital characters they used?’"
 — Alec Gillis describing the Internets response to the behind-the-scenes videos of their special effects.[2]

In 2010, Amalgamated Dynamics was hired by Universal Studios to create the practical special effects for the 2011 The Thing prequel.[3] However before the film was released, the majority of ADI's effects work on the film was digitally replaced in post production by computer generated imagery. This decision was upsetting to the crew of Amalgamated Dynamics, as this was not the first film of theirs where they later found their work replaced.[2][4]

After the release of The Thing, in response to fan queries about what became of ADI's effects for the film, Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. uploaded a behind-the-scenes video to YouTube which showcased their original practical effects prior to their replacement. According to Gillis and Woodruff, the video received such an overwhelmingly positive response that it inspired them to create a YouTube Channel which would feature their archived videos of creature effects from throughout their career. Gillis said that it was the tipping point that prompted them to go ahead with their dream of producing their own film. "Honestly, we were resistant to it at first, so it wasn’t until I looked around my shop and saw an empty facility that I realized we were actually at the mercy of studios that didn’t actually care about our techniques anymore. They view it as a commodity and a product, and they’ve corporatised the structure of creating art and in the end it all becomes disposable. That’s not how the fans see our work."[2]

Kickstarter campaign

On May 8, 2013,[1] Alec Gillis began a Kickstarter drive for Harbinger Down, advertising the film as being a monster horror film that was, "in the spirit of two of the greatest sci-fi/horror films of all time, ALIEN and THE THING",[5] and that would feature only practical techniques to create the films monsters, including the use of animatronics, prosthetic makeup, stop motion and miniature effects,[1] with the film's creatures featuring no digital animation outside of rod/rig removal and digital compositing.[4] With a budget goal of $350,000, the film would have Lance Henriksen attached to star,[6] composers Joel McNeely and Michael Larrabee creating the musical score, and would also feature the efforts of Oscar nominated model builders Pat McClung, Robert Skotak and Dennis Skotak.[1]

By 7 June 2013, Amalgamated Dynamics funded Harbinger Down, making it the most successfully funded Sci-Fi/Horror Project in Kickstarter History, at $384,181.00. The film will feature exclusively practical creature effects created by ADI/StudioADI through the use of animatronics, prosthetic makeup, stop motion and miniature effects, as opposed to the use of computer generated imagery.[7] Gillis' stated that while the money raised by the campaign would be sufficient to fund the "nuts and bolts" of the film, the film's special effects would have to be created at Gillis and Woodruff's own expense due to the film's low budget.[4] The success of the Kickstarter campaign went on to draw the attention of producer Sultan Saeed Al Darmaki to the project, who provided additional funding for the film through his company Dark Dunes Productions.[8][9]

Principal photography

Principal photography began on January 27, 2014. The cast includes Lance Henriksen, Giovonnie Samuels, Camille Balsamo, Reid Collums, and Matt Winston.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "HARBINGER DOWN: A Practical Creature FX Film". Kickstarter. May 8, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "ALIEN AND THE THING FX MASTER KICKSTARTS CGI-FREE FILM". SciFiNow.com. May 18, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  3. ↑ "The Thing F/X Team Revealed!". Dread Central (CraveOnline). February 25, 2010. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Shock Interview: ADI’s Alec Gillis on Harbinger Down and the Kickstarter Campaign". shocktillyoudrop.com. May 15, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  5. ↑ ""Harbinger Down" Kickstarter Campaign! Support Practical Effects.". Stan Winston School (stanwinstonschool.com). May 9, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Fund This Film: ‘Harbinger Down’ is Sci-Fi/Horror for Fans of Practical Effects by Masters of Practical Effects". filmschoolrejects.com. May 11, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  7. ↑ ""Harbinger Down" Wins At Kickstarter, Gets Posters". famousmonsters.com. June 7, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Interview With Alec Gillis". Outpost 31. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
  9. ↑ "13 Questions for ‘Harbinger Down’ Executive Producer and CEO of Dark Dunes Productions, Sultan Saeed Al Darmaki". A&E Playground. Retrieved March 15, 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harbinger Down.