'Red Dog' Trailer

It feels like it's taken forever, but at last there's some promotional material for 'Red Dog', the latest film from director Kriv Stenders.

It was a pleasure to work on this film and I heartily recommend seeing it upon it's August 11 release.

For now, check out the poster for the film, featuring the titular Red Dog. Koko is just one of the reasons the film is so enjoyable. Everyone loves a good canine thespian, and I predict (should enough people see the film) that Koko will be remembered with the best of them... like Benji!

It's also my pleasure to say that a trailer is also in circulation over on Youtube. After having Koko's 'audition' as the only promo available for the movie, it's exciting for there to be a more substantial look at it.



It's a superbly cut trailer, and gives a great overview of the type of film you can expect to enjoy. Great cinematography, killer soundtrack, fun performances and plenty of Red Dog.

I mentioned to one of my aunts that I was contributing vfx to Red Dog (did you see them in the trailer? No? Good.) and she mentioned that they'd just seen the statue in Dampier. Other people I've mentioned it to have been familiar with the book by Louis de Bernières (Captain Corelli's Mandolin), so it would seems that there is a bit of a built in audience (they should love it in WA). I hope that the film performs well. as it's probably the most enjoyable Australian film I've seen in some time.

What do you think?

Poster for 'Swerve' online

Credit: Duo Art Productions

Hi All,

Just a quick post to highlight the poster for Swerve, Craig Lahiff's latest feature. Since both Sean and myself put so much time into this film, we're both really excited for its' eventual release.

I think it looks fantastic and does a great job of selling the tone of the film. I'm less sold on the 'floating heads' at the bottom of the poster, but I understand that the need to get the actors' faces onto the promotional material.

I really can't wait to see the final product.

Check out the IMDB page for Swerve to find out more details.

Leaving Home

Ethyl Ethlington, the ditsy, pig-tailed country girl is finally Leaving Home. She has found a room for rent with the ubiquitous Chopper Belchamber. A man with an unbridled lust for footwear. Will her size sixes be enough to save her from the horror?

Doing It At 100 megabits

Crazy characters take us through the social aspects of LAN'ing, gaming with friends and LAN hammered antics. A short Documentary directed by Sean Lahiff.

Action!

Here at Heavily Armed Productions, we love a good action scene.

Over the years, generally inbetween projects, we'll shoot a short improvised action sequence. They don't always get finished, and they usually don't make any sort of narrative sense... but we have a lot of fun with them anyway!

Below is a small collection of some of our Action! shorts.

Keep in mind that some of these are .... quite old. Otherwise, click play to see people shoot other people!

Bad Day

Caleb has just lost his girlfriend and his job. Things get worse when he awakens in a druggy haze to find himself confronted by a philosophising doppleganger. The proposal his mirror image makes is intriguing but Caleb's about to find out what it means to have a Bad Day...

Sterilising Sol-3

Claiming potential colonialist space breeds fierce rivalry amongst mercenaries. They fight for the 3rd Planet of Sol. Sterilising Sol-3 is a short science-fiction film.

Directed and Written by Sean Lahiff: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm2130439/

Produced by Bettina Hamilton: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm2555671/

Cinematography by Nima Nabili Rad: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm2636270/

Edited by Simon Herden: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm2590528/

Sound by Colin Zammit: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm2844962/

The Courier

The tale of an extraordinarily dedicated Courier, and the lengths he will go to make sure he delivers on time. Not even an armada of despondent robots will stop him.

Written/Directed by Simon Herden and Produced by Bettina Hamilton. Designed by Ari Gibson. Edited by Sean Lahiff. Sound by Colin Zammit.

The Courier was an independent short with a production budget of only $250 AUS which then took 1 1/2 years to complete with only one 3d artist and one compositor to finish the extensive visual fx work. Originally designed to function as a pilot, this script was the first of many for The Courier, in which he went on to battle Vampires, clandestine military organisations and Cthulu in comic book form.

VFX Before & Afters - 'The Courier'

Every now and then I feel compelled to revisit 'The Courier' and see what else I can get out of it. I must admit to never being thorough in compiling behind the scenes videos for it, despite having shot a lot of material.

Finally, after finding myself with a serious desire to procrastinate, I ended up completing some 'making-of' material.

I always wanted to put together an extensive DVD for The Courier, but for whatever reason (it seemed pointless for such a small film... and I was lazy) it never got done. However, I always wanted to point out just how much of the film was affected, because I think a lot of people often take for granted how much work gets put into these sorts of films.

So on that note, allow me to present a side-by-side version of 'The Courier'

compositing on 'Red Dog'

In addition to 'Swerve', I was fortunate to work with the fantastic group of artists at Resin on Kriv Stenders' 'Red Dog'. 

It was a much larger compositing job than on 'Swerve' and was a fun challenge. There was lots of rotoscoping and greenscreen and I'm very happy with the end result.

'Red Dog' has been selected to premiere at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival and I'm sure I'll share more of my thoughts on the experience once the film is in the public sphere.