INTRODUCTION

Avatar: Flames of Ren is a short action film based on the universe of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

Avatar: Flames of Ren is about a young firebender who embarks on a dangerous quest to find and kill the avatar.

Ethan De Guzman as 'Ren'  (look-test, 2021)

Personal Note:

I began this personal project out of passion for filmmaking, martial arts and the ATLA series. Watching the series as a kid, the profound spiritual journey of Aang and the emotional self-discovery of Zuko made a powerful impact on me growing up and has, in many ways shaped my personal values.

Avatar: Flames of Ren is a spiritual journey of self discovery and acceptance.  This project is my quest, as a filmmaker, to express something similar as creative and as entertaining as possible within a short film.

I originally started this project way back in 2016. However, the project had been shelved.  This year however, because of a growing interest from my short clip (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5KI01ENSNU) I decided to revive the project and try again here at Indiegogo.

STORY

Our story takes place a few generations following Avatar Wan. Imagine a war-torn world before the four nations were even established. It is a time when the Avatar’s existence was still just a rumour not known to many and only understood by a few.

Ren, a young firebender, lost everything. He is a victim of war, haunted by nightmares of a horrible past - visions of fire, blood and echoing screams. Amidst all this destruction, were those unforgettable, terrifying, glowing eyes staring back at him - the Avatar.

We follow Ren as he searches for the Avatar for whom no one has seen in decades. Through his journey, his hateful flames grow furious as he becomes stronger. Ren endures many obstacles including fierce battles against other elemental benders.

With only a scroll depicting a spiritual tree to lead his way Ren eventually finds the Avatar who has been seemingly waiting for him. They fight a fierce battle but Ren is quickly overwhelmed. The Avatar is about to kill him when a strange but familiar power awakens within and he is able to deflect the final blow. Ren’s eyes glow and the Avatar in front of him fades away smiling.

Ren’s anger had severely blinded him from the truth - that he is the next Avatar and has always been. His fierce hate towards the Avatar had blocked his spiritual connection. His journey has allowed him to breakthrough. Thus he is able to discover himself.

Well, would you look at that, Flames of Ren is exactly what Zuko was blabbing about: "you must look in yourself, to save yourself from your other self. Only then will your true self, reveal itself."

FIGHT SCENES

We want to give fans the fight scenes that they have been craving for.  As fans would know, bending in Avatar is based on specific styles of Chinese martial arts.

Firebending - Northern Shaolin

Earthbending - Southern Kung fu

Airbending - Baguazhang

Waterbending - Tai Chi

As a passionate wushu* practitioner myself, I am very particular and strict about fight sequences.  I believe that it is important to be authentic and to clearly showcase the martial arts roots of each elemental bending style. It will be exciting to work with my coach and teammates from NZ Wushu who are all too familiar with these.

*Wushu us a compound of all Chinese traditional Martial arts.

Coach Wei Zhao demonstrating Tai Chi and 'Soft Fist' (Waterbending)

WEAPONS

In the real world, Northern Shaolin, southern kung fu, Baguazhang and Tai Chi also actually use a variety of weapons within their styles.

In the original ATLA series, we saw elemental bending with weapons: we saw a lot of Aang with his staff, briefly with Kyoshi and her fans, even an earthbender with hammers and Zuko with dual broadswords. However we did not see much of it.

As such, I also want to explore elemental bending with weapons. I believe that it would be exciting and refreshing to see. 

Waterbender weilding a Jian (straightsword) - also used in Tai Chi

Funding

Avatar: Flames of Ren is an action short film. Action is already hard enough to film morever action with elemental simulations! Most of the funding will go towards VFX which is the hardest part of this project.

As you can imagine, a project like this requires a lot of time and resources. A lack of funding is the only thing holding us back. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

We offer some exciting rewards for those who sponsor us including an exclusive White Lotus challenge coin and tailor-made cinematic costumes which will be made by our talented costume designer Jay Conanan.

Costumes / Wardrobe look-test (old cast of 2016, new cast is being determined)

We are also offering a Filmmaker's Pack for filmmakers that might be interested in how this whole process was brought about. How the story was written, approach in cinematography, grading, choreography - everything from pre-production, production and post-production including setting up this crowdfunding campaign. In collaboration with Zack McCarthy from CG Visuals, we are also giving away Trapcode Elements for those who avail of the Filmmaker's Pack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NvXgqMPbFE

Other Ways You Can Help

We are open to all the help we can get.  If you're a VFX artist, 3D modeler, dynamics simulator, matte painter, compositor or storyboard artist, you are all welcome.  Also, if you think you can help in other ways please email joey.de.guzman90@gmail.com

If you'd like to support us in other ways, please do share this page around!

Please visit our social media accounts!

http://www.facebook.com/AvatarFlamesofRen/

https://www.instagram.com/flamesofren

https://www.tiktok.com/@flamesofren?lang=en

Stretch Goals

$20,000 - With this, we will be able to spend more on great VFX for awesome looking elemental simulations - which are understandably time consuming and expensive.

$40,000 - With more than double the budget, we will be able to extend action scenes and spend even more on VFX. While telling a good story is important, let's be honest, most people are looking to being entertained with awesome fight sequences - and those are expensive!

$70,000 - With this accomplishment, we can have a bigger crew, better cameras, more cinematic lenses! This makes for a greater quality short action film!

$100,000 - Woah! That's a lot! Is that even possible? We can only dream! But with this achievement, we can go all out and make something truly epic - more intense fight scenes, extended sets for gorgeous landscapes, longer story and just an overall better cinematic experience.

CONCLUSION

I love Avatar, martial arts and filmmaking. Avatar: Ren’s Flames is all three in one and would be a dream come true for me personally. It is a passion project promising exciting bending fight scenes and a meaningful experience. If this campaign is successful, we will be releasing the short film online for all to enjoy.

I am really excited to bring this project to life and can only happen with your help. If you are even a little bit excited about this as I am and you’d like to help out, please sponsor us today!