Time is running out to save Henry Bramble's Imagination!

Don't take my word for it, listen to Downton Abbey's Mr Mason himself - Now come and join the adventure before it's too late at :http://igg.me/at/infectious-imagination/x/3449576

Henry Bramble suffers another VFX nightmare

If you haven't already heard, we didn't get into Cannes. There were just 8 films selected out of a whopping 3,500 shorts from across the globe. It was a relief to be honest, because if we had been selected, our film would not have been finished in time. It is now June and has taken the vfx team six months to deliver just one completed and approved vfx shot out of forty four?! - I can't tell you how frustrated and angry this makes me feel, but in these instances, you have to just set your emotions aside and find a way to move forward.

Currently DiRoom (who were responsible for outsourcing the vfx work) have found three UK based vfx compainies who are willing to do the work for the remainder of our budget. However, despite their impressive vfx reels I have not yet been convinced that they are capable of delivering such specific work - i.e. a life-like Hollywood level cgi Voydarkatron. having had such a bad experience with the last team, I am being more than a little cautious as I try not to let paranoia cloud my judgement.

I was never convinced that the previous vfx team were qualified for the job, but my concerns fell on deaf ears. After all the delays and additional funding, the temptation to want to believe that they could deliver what we wanted within such a short timeframe was just too great. Our judgements were clouded by the desire to resolve the problem as quickly as possible, but in doing so the problem just got bigger.

The lesson that should be learnt here is simple - you pay for what you get. In reality we hugely underestimated the budget required for the vfx. The actual cost of the work to be delivered in such a short timeframe (a month), through a professional hollywood level outfit like Framestore, The Mill or the MPC is closer to £30,000. But rather than facing that fact we seem to be still looking for a way to get them done for less than a third of that estimate still within a similar short timeframe. With vfx artists expressing their anger at hollywood for not paying them an honest fee, I find this situation very uncomfortable.

Please can everyone wake up and smell the mocha choca. I really don't want to watch us make the same mistake a third time! In my mind, the only logical solution is to either be prepared to wait for as long as it takes for a smaller outfit to complete it for the money we have or raise £30,000. However the only way we can realistically raise this in a relatively short space of time, is through a carefully planned crowd-funding campaign like Indiegogo or Kickstarter. So for now I wait in hope for the Henry Bramble team to follow my lead.

Final Design for Henry Bramble poster by Richard Davies

I'm very excited to reveal the latest and final poster design for The Infectious Imagination Of Henry Bramble, created by the amazing Richard Davies (TurksWorks).

Proto - A Screen South Innovation Short Film

Thought I'd let you know about PROTO one of the four innovation short films commissioned by Screen South in 2011 and the first I believe to be completed. This is the first short film directed by Nick Pittom and I think he's done a great job - Much better than my first film (Drakkon) way back in 1993! Despite our problems with the guy running the show at the time, VERL's animators did a wonderful first class job on the CGI for this short film. You can follow it's progress here or on Facebook or just watch the trailer below.