The Universe Surrounding the International Post-Apocalyptic Franchise, Depleted
Shared Story Worlds’ Scott Walker recently did a full interview with World of Depleted Co-Founder, Jeremy Hanke, about the world of Depleted and what they hope to do for creative communities and shared story worlds through it!
To read the article, be sure to go to:
The article will be republished in the July 1st issue of MicroFilmmaker Magazine (http://www.microfilmmaker.com ) .
After a long mastering session at Oakwood Sound Design on Thursday, the Viking Team was excited to finish the first master of of Day 419. The first master is the second to last step in release. With the completion of the First Master, the cast, crew, marketing team, and active contributors will get a chance to preview the new film. In three to four weeks, after everyone’s minds have a chance to get some perspective, the Viking Team will sit down to make final corrections and tweaks for the Final Master, at which point the official release will be announced!
To see a glimpse of the work on Thursday, with a bit of music from new Contributor, zero-project, check out the following video which was recorded, dubbed, edited, and uploaded with an iPhone.
If you’ve been checking around World of Depleted (or the WoD Contributor section) of late, you’ve probably noticed that their have been changes, everything from the logo, to the registration, to the menus have been changing. This is because after spending a lot of time talking to fans, the team at Viking Productions is restructuring the menu layout to make thiings easier to find and locate for both new users, as well as pre-existing fans and contributors.
One of the big things that was lacking from the older menu design was a way to access the new content from Depleted right off the main page. Viking’s Jeremy Hanke had this to say, “One of the things we want to encourage people to think about is that the stories and mythology of WoD are a world unto themselves. That’s why we had originally separated them from the main page and placed it within the Contributor section. However, we discovered that this caused a lot of confusion, so we decided that we’d more clearly label a Content section on the front page that people could access.”
One of the big changes that’s part of the new Content section is that you can now sort through official content by either Author or Title. (And both types indicate what type of work you’re in for, whether it be films, stories, music, etc.) If you click on the headers for either of these departments, you also get to see a list of upcoming content that’s already in the pipeline. (I noticed that we’ve got a new one from Jojo Stratton coming soon, as well as one from Fred Koskin, and a variety of music artists coming up.)
The former Blog area has been renamed “Updates,” as this is where a lot of the updates for World of Depleted occurs. The change in logo and where information is stored is also to more fully embrace what World of Depleted is: a Creative Community. Many new users felt it was so tied into a single film in the series that they didn’t immediately understand that this was a Shared Story World. The changes will help folks understand this more readily (and will soon include a “What is World of Depleted?” page from the About section).
Experienced World of Depleted fans and contributors will also notice that the login options are now located at the top of the page under the “Enter” option. (And in the Contributor section, they’ll find both an Enter option, but also an Exit button to go back out to the main site.) The two areas of the site (the outer area and the inner Contributor area), now have more evocative descriptions of locations which users can access based on real world survival. For example, general members will be able to find their specific preferences at their base camp, while contributors will find their contributor information within The Cloister. (According to Hanke, the Cloister will also soon sport additional content that Contributors will have direct access to, including high quality versions of films, exerpts from films, music, etc.)
While the menu redesign is not yet completed, the team at Viking is very excited for what it will mean for fans of the series as it streamlines the way they’re able to use and interact with this world!
Contributors who want to be featured in more projects have a powerful new option that Viking is unveiling: “the Derivative Waiver.”
In a recent interview with Jeremy Hanke he went on to say:
“when we first started the Creative Community [of World of Depleted], we wanted to make the most fair possible default agreement that everyone would agree to as a Contributor. However, we knew that the most fair option did not actually mean the one that is most logical in ALL situations. While there are no hierarchies at World of Depleted, there are some types of art that take a lot more time and man-hours than others. As it stands now, under the default agreement, if Contributor A is making a film and he’d like to use Contributor B’s photo in his film, he may automatically do so, so long as he’s willing to equally split the profits he makes with Contributor B. Now, if it took Contributor B a few hours to take the photo and customize it before sending it in, but it took Contributor A a few months to make his film, is Contributor A probably going to want to equally split the profits? Probably not.
(Of course, for those creators that honestly don’t really care how much profit they might see, who just want to get their work out there, obviously this is a moot point. However, for many folks, this doesn’t seem like a reasonable expectation.)
As such, the ‘Derivative’ Waiver essentially states that contributors may choose to allow their work to be used with no revenue share in Derivative works, but they will retain revenue share in any situation in which their work is featured outside of that Derivative work. For an example, let’s go back to Contributor A’s film and Contributor B’s photo. If Contributor B has signed a Derivative waiver, then Contributor A can use his image in his film without revenue share, so long as he clearly credits him in the film’s credits.
However, now Contributor A decides to make a T-Shirt for the film that directly features Contributor B’s photo. They would now split the profits, since the essential part of this product is the non-Derivative image of Contributor B. Another example would be musicians and score composers, where they sign the waiver so that filmmakers can use the work in their Depleted projects without revenue share, but, if they wish to sell a soundtrack album for that project, then they would equally share in the revenue from that album.
I think this will make a lot more people actively interested in using other Contributors content, which will in turn get greater publicity for those Contributors who’ve chosen this route.”
Score Composer zero-project will be the first Contributor to not only sign the Waiver, but have it posted directly on his upcoming Contributor page. (zero-project has two songs that will be featured in the upcoming film, Day 419.) Director Jeremy Hanke had this to say, “I’m extremely excited that an artist of zero-project’s calibre is leading the way on this. I think this is going to encourage a lot of other Contributors to hop on board, which will be great for the entire community!”
zero-project is slated to join the official roster of Contributors next month when the Music section rolls out. A prolific composer, zero-project has over 91 songs that other Contributors will be able to use. He is also one of the top drawing artists at the largest creative commons community for CC music, jamendo.com .
While principle photography is not slated for the Depleted feature until 2012, we have gotten our hands on the secret teaser trailer for the Depleted feature that came out of last week’s shooting. According to director Jeremy Hanke, unlike a normal speculative trailer that has lots of elements that will change between the trailer and the final film, they specifically shot the trailer with video DSLRs that could replicate the look of the final production cameras that the feature will be shot on. In addition, careful thought was put into the different portions of the feature script that the segments were shot in, so that things would dovetail properly.
When asked if he feared that there might be some consternation amongst fans about a teaser trailer for the feature when the Day 419 prologue was not yet released, director Jeremy Hanke responded with:
“Not at all. I think our fans understand that this is a very early rough cut of the eventual spec trailer and the subsequent trailer for the final Depleted feature. Our lead actress is relocating to Los Angeles and will be returning for principle photography, so this was the ideal time for us to get some of the scenes we’ll need for the spec trailer, including one of the more difficult effects sequences. Of course, as our readers know, we were hard at work finishing the Day 419 film during shooting this and are very close to its actual release. In fact, as we were concluding the final sound design on Depleted, it became evident that there were a few clues we could give in this film that will dovetail into the Day 419 film, as well as into the upcoming feature.” He would give no more information, but I know I’m going to be looking for clues!
With that said, we present the Super Sneak Peak Teaser for the Depleted feature.
3rd Unit Photography by Lee Clements. Featuring Kat Carney as Jenna Whitmore. (Directed and edited by Jeremy Hanke.)
After a lot of hard work, it looks like the sound design is pretty much wrapped up. In today’s session, much work was done to tweak the final scene in which protagonist Jenna Whitmore must face her greatest fears. As part of the efficacy of the scene must come from a variety of audio cues, the scene required a lot of hard work from audio designer John Howard and director Jeremy Hanke to come up with the right blend to allow the audience to follow the different lines which converge in the scenes.
Later in the day, voice over artist (and 3rd Unit Camera from Monday’s shoot) Lee Clements came in to record a critical announcement that will be part of the intro to the film. In an interesting twist, that’s somewhat reminiscent of shows like LOST, Fringe, and Jericho, there will be clues and information hidden in a variety of locations in Day 419, including the introduction and even the studio logos. As to the specific information or clues, neither Hanke nor Howard would elaborate, although the director did say that QR codes would no longer be the only codes for fans to watch out for, remarking: “The interesting thing about post-apocalyptic worlds is not just who can manage to hold on to technological secrets, but who can re-master the secrets of the past.”
As for Day 419, once a final day of audio polishing and the semi-final score is completed next week, all that will be left is final approval of the score and final mixing and mastering. The release draws near!
Jeremy Hanke was again in the studio with John Howard working on the final sound design for Day 419. Meanwhile, score composer David Todd Singleton is working on a semi-final pass of the score, after a late night meeting with John Howard the night before. While it doesn’t look at this point like the team will quite finish the film by the end of the week, they will be very, very close indeed!
In perhaps the most laid back shoot day of the week, a skeleton crew from the Depleted feature made their way around Kentucky, from small forested trails (in which director Jeremy Hanke participated in a small cameo scene) to abandoned gas stations. Hanke had this to say, “Many of the shots we’re acquiring today will help tell some of the things that Jenna Whitmore survived after the Fall, before she reached Maysbridge [the main location in Day 419].” The images I was able to see looked very cool and we’re excited to see how it all looks when the film comes out, currently slated for either Q4 2012 or Q1 2013. (Clearly if it’s the latter they hold no truck with the Mayans predicting the Fall!)
Jeremy Hanke spent the day in Oakwood Sound Design working on the final sound design for Day 419 with Sound Designer John Howard. One of the more interesting elements of the day was one of the effects heavy gun shots in the film that featured more than 14 unique sound effects, including a composed time warp effect on the piano. (As seen in this low-rez video screen cap.) Videos will be coming shortly.
With the craziness of this week for Jeremy Hanke and the Viking Team, we are just now getting images from day 1 of of the shoot. The following images are from the early shooting for the Depleted feature, which will have principle photography begin in 2012. A very early teaser is slated to be released shortly! And a full Spec Trailer will be expected later this year.
