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...

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.

Craig Lahiff's 'Swerve'

Credit: Duo Art Productions

A quick post about South Australian feature film 'Swerve'

Sean has been working as the editor of the film, and through it I got my first compositing job on a feature film. I'll have more to write about the experience (the SAFC funded me as a VFX Attachment) as well as more to write about the film as it gets closer to release.

'The Courier' & FLCL

I'm not going to make any bones about it... this is mostly another opportunity for me to embed The Courier somewhere. However I might as well take the time to do something with this.

One of the reasons I've chosen Jung Justice as a blog name is because as a storyteller I'm heavily influenced by Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. Jung's views on dreams and art as an important cathartic exercise validate my chosen vocation, so I'm hardly going to disagree and just about everything I've learnt about film and storytelling has come via Campbell's Hero's Journey in some shape or form.

The connective power of myths and legends (and how that interweaves with our dreams and our worldviews) fascinates me to no end and when these colossal elements and themes pervade what appear to be mundane narratives, I'm thrilled.

The Courier - a Youtube Partner?

Very exciting news! Youtube has informed me that 'The Courier' is eligible for the Youtube Partnership Programme, which means that from here on out, it'll start generating revenue!

It won't be much (the film is still at only 3,000 views on the tube), but it's a wonderful start and is extremely encouraging. More important than any potential dollars (going to be more like cents) is the fact that this silly little film is still finding an audience... one that appears to be growing. 'The Courier' was invited to take part in the TFI3 festival in Washington this month, but my own lack of Producer tendencies means I missed the boat. Still it was very flattering to have somebody else find my film and ask me to submit it to their festival.

Looks like there's still life in 'The Courier' yet. :)