Perfect Pitch: Bringing The Perils of the Fall to Day 419 – Yesterday, voice artist, Kari Ann Morgan, was brought in to record a variety of voices for the new Day 419 at Oakwood Sound Design. Morgan is a talented vocal mimic that can recreate pitch perfect recreations of acccents, inflections, and voice types. As such, she was tapped to help supply some of the wide range of different voices that would be heard in Jenna Whitmore’s chaotic return from the Middle East to the U.S. after the Fall. Additionally, for a pivotal flashback set in Dublin, director Jeremy Hanke has tapped Dublin-based filmmakers, John and Martin Moylan, to help gain needed dialogue. Finally, to help these radio broadcasts have the most authenticity in association with real world conditions, Ham Radio Specialist and Engineer, Victor Annas, will be going into the studio with D419’s sound designer, John Howard, to make sure the audio effects are as authentic as possible!
Canonizing History: Forsaken Receives The Very First EC Code – Ben Nash & James de Hanika will be the first filmmakers to receive the coveted Depleted Canon badge for their short film, Forsaken, and be able to begin the rewarding relationship of helping to further flesh out the World of Depleted and be involved in commercial profit associated with the film. The current badge (featured below) includes the EC Code “#001. ” WoD Founder, Jeremy Hanke, did clarify that the badge is undergoing a final redesign by graphic designer, Craig McDaniel. (Although, he was quick to state the current Badge is officially recognized and will likely become a valuable status symbol in the future, as so few people will ever receive one of these early ones. Sort of like collector’s coins…or, more appropriately, stamps!)
- Current Depleted Canon Badge
Contributing To The Future: Sneak Peak Into The Upcoming Evolution of WoD – I had a chance to chat a bit with WoD Founder, Jeremy Hanke, who’s personally overseeing the new Contributor site. He stated that since everyone who creates content is a Contributor, the official Contributor site is where all approved content (both Canon and Apocrypha) will go. While anyone will be able to view the content on the site (and make comments), only those who register as Contributors will be able to submit new content. Additionally, Hanke went on to say that one of the newest features that he was extremely excited about was a specialized challenge event board. The new Contributor Challenge Board will allow specific challenges to be issued, which will really jog the creative juices. I asked Mr. Hanke what exactly he meant, to which he replied: “Well, if you ask everyone to make a film or send in a cool story or take video of stuff, most people won’t know where to start because you have now overloaded your contributors In directing terms, we refer to general concepts like these as “unactionable”–things that people can’t actually act upon directly. However, if you have a short challenge like, write a 500 word short story that deals with three people trying to escape a plague zone…or record a 3 minute audio message from the day the Grid goes down of a family member leaving a goodbye message to his kids–these are now actionable. Now, our contributors can glance quickly at these challenges each week and either they will immediately get hooked by the current challenge or they won’t–very little gray aread. However, for those who aren’t hooked by a current challenge, they’re more likely to contribute something else that they are passionate about, because now they see how simple a contribution really can be.” Hanke also went on to tell me that there will be cool things that filmmakers can unlock by contributing to these challenges, including special sneak previews of future content, the right to be a part of an extremely restricted vote on official Viking Productions Depleted content, inclusion in targeted specialty collections marketed by Viking Productions, and even the ability to win high value prizes for certain challenges. Plus, while he wouldn’t go into any specifics, he did explain that Contributors that submit more Officially Recognized content during these Challenges will have a chance to win cool cumulative prizes.
Picture Yourself The Way You Like: Harnessing The Desires Of The Fans – Fans like Fred Koskin (and myself) have wondered when World of Depleted would allow us to control our avatars! Well, the good folks at Depleted have announced that this is now a new feature in both the official World of Depleted website and the new Contributor site. (Apparently, Contributors will in fact have a separate login, which will also give them access to Contributor exclusive areas. No word yet on what all will be in these special Contributor areas.)
Broken Hearts: Gavin Explores New Secrets On Valentine’s Day – Fans who’ve been missing the updates from the enigmatic Gavin Hesterdale will be happy to see that a brand new entry has appeared out of the ether, and may be one of the longest entries to date! Rumors have been circulating that one of the elements from this new entry will show up in the official Depleted feature film. To no one’s surprise, I can get no official confirmation on that!
Well, more on all of these things when I know more!
The actionable challenges are a very cools idea – what a way to help give people focus in a huge storyworld like WoD – plus, it can open the creating door to many who might not have time to work on larger projects, yet still want to play – hurray on the avatars and very cool on the sound developments (radio broadcasts are cool…. I love the old time radio productions – what an activity that would be for a community in after The Fall life – along the lines of community theater coming back 😉
You’re most correct, docwho, on the concepts of radios and what part they will play! This is something that most post-apocalyptic films overlook, despite the realities of its likeliness.
Our engineer, Victor, who’s helping us with this stuff (and has the highest ham radio license you can get), has been showing us SO much cool radio and shortwave gear. He’s also let me know about some of the fascinating backstory on governmental shutdown of communications in our past! (Naysayers of the Depleted backstory will soon be forced to realize that much of the elements that occur to predicate the Fall already have a solid foundation in historical fact and foreshadowing!) For example, after the attacks on Peal Harbor, the government shut down private communications and made it illegal for amateur radio people to broadcast. People who chose to become pirates of the airwaves and report on what was happening could be thrown in jail! (Believe it or not, this also happened in World War I.)