Update #004 -Final Run In.
Less than 48 hours left to help the crowdfunding campaign for my Sci-Fi film. Please donate now to help us try and hit the £1k barrier. I have just locked the main location for Day 1 so everything is looking good.
Great Director of Photography Neil Oseman, accomplished editor Adam Hale, location sound superman Sam Sirajuddin Cousins, highly experienced sound mixer Matt Katz, award winning actors Michael Parle and Isla Eleri Ure plus other talented cast and crew are on board. Whats not to like?
I can also announce that Hans Hess (www.hanshessmusic.com/) has been chosen to compose the score.
Please give what you can now and spread the word.
Update #003 - St. Patrick's Day Special Poetry Perk
This is nothing to do with my film really but if you think of both poetry and film as methods of creating a sequence of images in someone elses mind then maybe this perk is for you.
For this perk choose one of my poems at
http://www.worldirish.com/user/Stickleback
I will then print it out and write a signed dedication for you before posting worldwide. Could make a good gift for the Irish person or poetry/literature lover in your life.
Nobel Laureate for poetry Seamus Heaney once wrote to me to say he liked one of my poems so I like to think its of a decent standard.
Update #002
Great news! Neil Oseman once described by The Guardian as "the Spielberg of Hereford" signs up as Director of Photography on my Sci-Fi project.
![The Spielberg of Hereford]( "Neil Oseman - The Spielberg of Hereford")
He joins experienced sound designer Matt Katz of Noisegate Media who is our Post Production sound supervisor.
Update #001
I have added 2 perks. An extras perk where you can be in the movie. (This is suited to UK residents). I have also added a limited edition signed showreel perk.
![My twin and I]( "My twin and I")
The image above is me and my twin posing as gangsters. I originally got into making films when someone asked us to appear as loan shark thugs in their short film.
Crowdfunding for a film to be judged by actor Benedict Cumberbatch and director Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth)
My name is Brendan O'Neill and I'm an award winning Birmingham, UK based filmmaker.
I'm hoping its third time lucky in my attempt to win the prestigious London Sci-Fi Society 48 hour filmmaking competition this year.
Director Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and actor Benedict Cumberbatch (Warhorse, Sherlock Holmes, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) are on the jury this year so I'm going all out to win the competition. Last years prize was a feature film development deal with Vertigo Films so there is everything to play for.
The competition has grown in stature every year since Monsters director Gareth Edwards won it in 2009. Last year it attracted over 300 entries.
As part of the Film Division collective I've twice put 50 strong volunteer cast and crews together to try and win the competition. Last year we gained access to the costume wardrobe used in Band of Brothers and Atonement so went with a World War II theme.
We converted a basement at the Old Print Works in Balsall Heath, Birmingham into a German command bunker and then shot battle scenes complete with pyrotechnics and charging SS storm troopers on a farm in Hopwood.
In 2011 Film Division made a film for the competition called Internalised. Its about a woman who escapes from a sinister hospital like facility who is forced by her confused memories to return. It starred accomplished young local actress Kia Pegg of Tracey Beaker and Horrid Henry fame. It was filmed partly at the new Zelig Building at the Custard Factory and partly at BCU's Faculty of Health training wards in Edgbaston.
We used the rooftop at Friction Arts' Edge Building in Cheapside, Digbeth to shoot one scene. We added some CGI and special effects to make the Birmingham skyline look like a scene from Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.
48 hour competitions are very frantic affairs as you only receive the compulsory title, prop and line of dialogue you must use in the film on the Saturday morning. Although you can do some pre-production in terms of having actors and locations at the ready this means in effect that you have to write the final script there and then.
You then have 48 hours to film it, edit it, score it and add any special effects and CGI you may need before posting a link to your film to the competition organizers by noon on Monday.
A lot of the team are people with proven experience who are returning for a second or even third time to help me win the competition and bring the title to Birmingham. I'm directing myself this year having written and produced previously so I'm hoping our combined prior experience of doing this sort of competition will be invaluable.
Irish actor Michael Parle who won Best Foreign Actor at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival for his lead performance in Ivan Kavanagh's brilliant Tin Can Man has already signed up to take part. Tin Can Man won a Dublin Film Critics Circle award at the 2012 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.
Actress Isla Eleri Ure who won Best Actor for her own film Passengers at the 2012 Underwire Festival has also agreed to join the team.
I already have a strong line up in terms of cast, crew and some excellent potential locations so I'm hoping to at least short-list in this years competition. Whatever the result it will be a worthwhile exercise as I'm planning to shoot my first feature Finders Keepers - a gangster chase thriller - this summer.
All funds received go towards hiring cameras and equipment, insurance, specialist costume, art department and props, feeding and transporting cast and crew etc. Anything left over will be used for entering the out-of-competition version of the film into festivals.
Corporate sponsors are also welcome and will be credited as such.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you can't afford to help financially then you can still help by spreading the word on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Please use hashtag #SF4813. You can start by using indiegogo's own share tools.
You can also Like Stickleback Productions on Facebook if you want to keep up to date with this and other projects.
@Stickleback_Pro is my twitter name if you want to follow me there too.
If you want to follow my feature project the @FK_Film is the twitter name.
