"H.G. Wells would have approved!" - Starburst Film Magazine on Season 1

'Horizon' is an award winning science-fiction web series that premiered in October 2015 with a 10 part first season that was entirely self-funded by the director and producers.  Described as “hair-raising” and “gripping”, it tells the story of five friends attempting to evacuate the city of Bristol in the UK, after an alien ship appears on the skyline.

                                

It has gone on to screen at festivals around the world where it has been nominated for numerous awards, in cities such as Vancouver, Toronto, Miami, Melbourne & Washington DC to name a few. At the HollyWeb Film Festival in Los Angeles it was awarded Best Visual Effects & Best Science Fiction.

The pilot episode is below and the rest of the show can be watched for FREE by visiting www.horizonwebseries.com right now. 

Now we’d like to invite YOU to become a part of this show and help us to make Horizon: Season 2!

This second and final series is intended to be the conclusion of the whole show. The story has already been mapped out and the scripts written, with just as much action, drama and suspense as there was in season 1 – all building to a dramatic and shocking finale.

We also have lots of new cast members and locations already lined up that we want to utilize to make the second season a reality.

                                  

Why we need your help:

Season 1 of Horizon was funded solely by the producers, it was non-profit and relied on the passion and commitment of a number of talented Bristol film-makers to bring it to life. In order to make a second series and maintain a high degree of quality, we need your assistance. 

Shows such as this take a lot of time, investment and planning to produce. For season 1 we were lucky to have a lot of lovely people in Bristol offering their time and experience for either no money, or donating it in kind, a lot of which was fitted in around other work. As a result, the show was in post-production for almost two years. This is not something we can repeat and with your support we can raise the budget we need to deliver a great second season and cover our costs behind the scenes.

Here's some of the things we need help with to bring season 2 to life:

Camera Hire – To make sure the show is filmed on the best possible format we can afford to work with.

Lights – To keep our production values high and our episodes looking professional.

Special/Visual Effects – Living in a sci-fi world requires a lot of special and visual effects, and these take lots of time and money to deliver.

Sound Mix – To give the show it's shine and keep things at the highest level we can, we like to get a professional in to sound mix each episode.  This doesn't take days or weeks, but months as a completed series runs for around an hour and can include crowd scenes, riots and gunfights – all of which have to be carefully mixed. Our sound designer Alex Hudd was in fact nominated for a Royal Television Society West of England award for his work on series 1.

Food and Travel – We have to feed our cast and crew, especially if they're working hard getting to set very early in the morning! Travel expenses need to be covered too as we have a large cast and crew on set to make it all happen.

Locations – One of the key features of Horizon's first series was that it featured a number of different and unique locations across the city of Bristol. However, this does mean that sometimes hire costs are involved and this budget will allow us to cover that. We already have some great places lined up to shoot season 2. 

Why support us?

We're a community of film-makers, actors, and technicians from Bristol who make films to create entertainment for others. No one profits from Horizon; it is all done for the love of film-making and telling stories. Besides creating something fun to watch, a lot of our crew are young film students. They are able to mix with and learn from the other half of our crew who are made up of experienced professionals working in the industry. They can then pass down their working knowledge to the young people coming up whilst on set.  It's a friendly and easy-going environment, where we offer the chance for students to learn from the professionals.

Take a look at some of the great rewards we have on offer to those who can contribute and you can also help us by spreading the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Thank-you for your time and we look forward to welcoming you on-board!

Meet the Cast:

Paul Tonkin - "Steven"

Paul is an accomplished stage & screen actor. His theatre credits include the title role in Hamlet; Honey in Recidivists; Of Mice & Men; Twelfth Night; East of the Sun, West of the Moon; My Previous Self ; Murder in Play; Wolf – The Musical, and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. His film credits include; Gingerbread man in 'AmStarDam' as well as taking lead and supporting roles in the short films 'Intruder' and 'Broken', for which he received a best supporting actor award.

Paul Tonkin Showreel 2016

Alicia Ancel - "Chloe"

Alicia has been acting since she was five years old, and has been busy on a number of productions over the last three years, including the feature films 'Dark Vision' by Stray Spark Productions and 'One' by Reel People Films. In 2013 she worked with Aardman Animations on Change4Life, where she was the face of their national TV campaign. She has also done corporate work for Dyson, The National Trust, Honda and Bristol Airport. Her television experience has included characters for Skins, Casualty, Trollied and Sherlock Holmes.

Official Website

Simon Pearce - "Dan"

Having started out studying drama at college, Simon went on to work pre-dominantly behind the scenes as an editor and camera operator. He has worked on a number of previous shorts with Paul Dudbridge (director of 'Horizon'), and originally came on-board the first series as a writer/co-producer. Simon has recently been making a small return to acting and early on in the development process Paul asked if he'd actually be interested in playing one of the roles in the show.

Simon has previously appeared in BBC's 'Casualty' and the two part TV drama 'Unknown Hearts' for Gate TV. He also continues to work on his own short and feature length projects.

Official Website

Kate Marie Davies - "Nicole"

Having trained in drama and musical theatre for five years, Kate has played leading roles in touring theatre, on-line web series, numerous short films and several feature films including the Italian feature film 'Beautiful People', sci-fi movie 'Kaleidoscope Man', and the upcoming 'Deadman Apocalypse'.

When she's not acting she's also a personal trainer, fitness instructor and keen video gamer.

Kate Davies Showreel 2016

Jason Allen - "Sanders"

Jason made his acting debut in July 2010, playing Eastern European villain 'Radjovek' in the feature-length thriller 'Heavy Duty'. Having cut his rookie acting teeth, Jason went on to appear in several music videos and short films, including 'Broken' and 'Intruder', both directed by Simon Pearce, and Nancy's 'Over Again' music video, directed by Paul Dudbridge.

Kessie Bartlett - "Katie"

Kessie began acting as a child and went on to take classes at the ITV West Television Workshop in Bristol, where she first met 'Horizon' director Paul Dudbridge. Kessie worked on multiple short films and music promos whilst studying a degree in drama and creative writing, graduating in the summer of 2014 with a BA HONS. She appeared in a guest role on Channel 4's BAFTA award winning drama 'Skins' and in 2010 she worked on Paul Dudbridge's short film 'Maria', in the role of Sarah.

Meet the Crew:

Paul Dudbridge - Writer/Director/Producer

Paul produced and directed the entire 10 episode first season of the show, and as a result was nominated for Best Director at the Royal Television Society West of England Awards 2016.  He served as lighting camera-man on the action feature film 'By Any Name' based on the best selling book by Katherine John, and has a host of experience in commercials, music videos, shorts and corporate productions.

When he's not filming, Paul guest lectures at various universities and colleges around the UK. He taught the Writing and Directing module on the Masters course at the University of Bristol, and he has just finished writing his first book for film students entitled "Shooting Better Movies: The student film-makers guide".

Paul Dudbridge Director Showreel

Simon Pearce - Writer/Producer

Simon has been making films since he was 13. Currently working as a freelance editor in film and television, he has already directed two of his own features and a number of shorts, which have gone on to win awards at festivals around the world. His latest feature, the supernatural horror 'Judas Ghost', is available to buy and stream now from Amazon, iTunes and Google Play.

Simon Pearce Director Showreel

Chris Marshfield - Writer/Executive Producer

Chris has been working with Simon as a writer for more than 10 years. Their first short together, 'I', was selected along with nine other winners to be screened on BBC 2 as part of the BBC Blast Young Film-makers challenge in 2004, and Chris has gone on to write a number of short and feature scripts. His graduating short at Newport University went on to win awards in the UK & Canada, and his first feature script 'Thieves' was described as a "taut, focused and fast paced thriller" by the BBC Writers' room.

Emily Miller - Producer

Emily has been working behind the camera in film and television for the past five years, after starting her media career as an actress. She has produced and directed a variety of films, documentaries and adverts over this time, from hard hitting dramas to sci-fi shorts. Emily is currently working in children's television at the BBC and is passionate about taking on the challenge of series 2 of Horizon!