Day 419 – Page 2 – World of Depleted

June 24, 2011June 24, 2011

Midnight Screening of 1st Master of Day 419 a success…

Director Jeremy Hanke Moderating Questions — The Midnight Sneak Preview of the First Master.

The Midnight Screening of the first Master of Day 419 went well early this morning. While the late hour and participant conflicts made the last First Master screening an intimate affair, those who participated had a great time. The film was hosted in a private Sorenson 360 screening room and then the Q&A was moderated in a special Adobe Connect meeting room. Having watched the taped version of the meeting, it’s easy to see that director Jeremy Hanke was relaxed and having a good time with contributors like Julie “Jojo” Stratton, crew like cinematographer Nate Eckelbarger, and marketing team members like graphic designer Craig McDaniel.

In addition to exploring new places the Jenna storyline will go in the upcoming Depleted Feature, Jeremy used the evening as a time for Nate Eckelbarger to unveil a sneak peak of the upcoming limited edition Day 419 screen print posters, which will be available to fans who help sponsor the crowdfunding effort for the Depleted feature. Additionally, it was revealed that a special limited edition Day 419 DVD will be available for those who contribute that will be only available through this crowdfunding effort. (No word as yet as to what all will be in this limited edition, but I understand that it will be a must-have for all true Depleted fans.)

Additional news was brought about different versions of Day 419 that will likely be available and the episodic release of Day 419, which will allow people to pay a small fee to watch it in its entirety before all the episodes have been released.

In between talking about Day 419, the World of Depleted, and the Knights of Xeno, there was a lot bonhomie about movies and video games, most of which I hadn’t heard of, but which seemed to be sticking points for the participants!

In the end, the showing finally wrapped up just after 3 AM and a good time was had by all. For fans who’d love to see some of the elements of this session, I’m told that a few of the elements will be going to the YouTube page for everyone to enjoy. More on that as we know it!

Emergency Alert — The new emergency alert message featured in Day 419 seems to reflect cutting edge changes in alert systems, including the new PLAN system.

June 3, 2011June 3, 2011

1st Master for Depleted: Day 419 completed…

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.

May 12, 2011May 12, 2011

Day 2: In The Audio Studio…

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.

May 8, 2011May 6, 2011

Day 419 power through week…

Filmmaker Jeremy Hanke will be in studio all this week at Oakwood Sound Design, working with Sound Designer John Howard and Score Composer David Singleton to finish Depleted: Day 419. Along the way, he’ll be video taping and audio taping different parts of the process for a behind-the-scenes retrospective on the DVD. Additionally, new podcasts of the process will be going up at different stages throughout the week!

April 22, 2011May 20, 2011

The Second Depleted Day 419 Trailer Is Now Up

Hey folks,

We’ve kept you waiting longer than we wanted to release a new teaser trailer, but now we have one for you to watch and think about! This one has final visual effects, actual sound design from the film, and official music from the sound track collection in it by David Todd Singleton.

We hope that you enjoy it as we continue to prepare Day 419 for final release!

April 20, 2011April 18, 2011

New information about Depleted: Day 419…

Friends and Depleted Family,

A lot of you have been waiting patiently for Day 419’s final appearance. Those of you who’ve submitted pieces have had a chance to see some tantalizing segments of the film, but no one has yet had a chance to see it in its entirety. While I still can’t give you an exact date on the release, I can tell you its getting very close as we wrap up our audio and score work and get into final mastering.

With that said, I am working on a reward for your patience. As many of you undoubtedly understand, no film can ever have as much information or content packed into it as its creators would wish. With that said, I am in the process of writing a short novelization of the film to accompany its release. This will have additional elements that didn’t make it to the screen and exerpts that are slated for a director’s cut, as well as additional insight into the World of Depleted itself. It is my hope that this will augment the immersive experience you find in Day 419 and further wet your appetite for the continued work in the World of Depleted that you will see both from Viking, but also from your fellow contributors who are helping to form this world with their blood, sweat, and tears!

To all of you, I want to thank you for your support, encouragement, and excitement from the bottom of my heart! As we build more into this world, it is exciting to me to see the kindred spirits who do it with us!

Chag sameach,

Jeremy

P.S. Look for some more exciting new information to go live later this week!

January 26, 2011March 19, 2011

Day 419: Rough Critiques Begin This Week…

Dear Friends of Depleted,

Folks who read our magazine, MicroFilmmaker Magazine, know that I am a huge stickler for critique as a way to improve filmmaking. (It’s simply impossible for any filmmaker to put blood, sweat, and tears into a film and remain objective. For low-budget filmmakers who have often written and edited the film, as well as directed and/or produced, the ability for objectivity is completely gone. An educated and impartial critique helps people get the valuable and constructive insight they desperately need to make their film the best it can. Some well known filmmakers who have “earned” the right to work with impunity have forgotten this, thus leading to sub-standard work that left their fans let down.)

With my editorial duties at the magazine and my producer role in a number of shorter projects, it’s been awhile since I’ve both written AND directed a film. As such, some folks have asked whether I will really put my money where my mouth is and have Depleted: Day 419 critiqued. And the answer is ABSOLUTELY. While a public critique is something that I am still working hard to arrange (as my choices are limited due to how many filmmakers know me personally, which immediately limits the perception of their credibility as critics of my work), this week we started the process of having trusted and experienced members of the film industry in LA watch the rough cut of Day 419. (While much of the film is completed at this point, it is still considered rough until we actually distribute it.)

Once these critiques are complete, we’re also going to be looking at some possible alternate cuts of a few scenes with a very accomplished editor. The end result will hopefully be the tightest cut we can deliver to our fans (and the “unused cuts” will provide plenty of extra features and alternate takes for the DVD boxed set).

Once both are accomplished, we will have a much more concrete timeline on actual release of the Day 419 film, as well as the actual timeline for the Depleted feature. (As many of you know, release timelines are always educated guesstimates, even in Hollywood where there is a massive amount of history with film releases, a huge marketing machine, and lots of money to get things done in a more rapid pace. )

I’m really excited to see all the things we are able to do with this first film and have a bunch of improvements for workflow and quality for the feature already lined up! This will be a very exciting time for everyone and I’m glad you’re here to share it with me!

With My Greatest Gratitude,

Jeremy Hanke
Writer/Director/Editor Day 419/Depleted
Co-Creator World of Depleted

January 21, 2011January 22, 2011

Depleted News: Mid-January…

With the snow-falls across the midwest, things haven’t been snowed under at Viking Productions and their work on the World of Depleted! Here’s the exciting news I was able to glean from some of the folks in the various production and marketing teams:

Foley Magic — Much of Hollywood's magic doesn't come from what you see, but what you hear! From Top Left, clockwise: 1) Two of the mics used for Foley; 2) John Howard, Day 419's Audio Designer; 3) Marinated pork loin provided good realism for slow stabs; 4) Lining up the sounds with the cut in the Nuendo DAW.

Foley Magic: When the sound effects libraries and wild sound recorded on set can’t measure up to the needs of a film, the audio designer takes his team to the Foley stage to create super-intense sound effects! Having garnered the advice of pro sound designer, Kelley Baker, who has done the audio on many Hollywood films, including 1998’s Psycho, Day 419’s audio designer, John Howard, had a good idea of where to start for some intense stabbing effects needed for the film. Director Jeremy Hanke was on set to capture the footage of the events with his pocket video camera. Folks wishing to check out the cool video can go to: Cutting to the Quick: Foley Work on Depleted: Day 419
Official World of Depleted Contributor FAQ Channel on Vimeo: As the folks at Depleted come close to releasing the official Contributor agreements (which have previously been in a private beta), they have now launched the World of Depleted Contributor FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) channel, which provides video explanations of different questions about how distribution works! Three videos kick it off and two more are slated to appear next week. Director Jeremy Hanke states, “this is a way to boil down the main concepts present in the contributor agreements into easy to understand videos. I believe these will help eliminate confusion and reassure fans who may be a bit nervous that this has been well thought out ahead of time!” He went on to say that future videos would feature more pictures and step-by-step examples! (Additionally, there will be a printed version of these questions and answers at the World of Depleted website in the future, for folks who prefer reading them.) To check it out, go to: the Contributor FAQ channel.
New Changes for Contributors: Jeremy Hanke will be meeting with entertainment lawyer, Paul Battista, this week to add a new feature to the contributor contract. After an in-depth exploration of the current rules during the beta process with Brain Candy LLC’s founder, Scott Walker, it was decided that the previous rules had been a little restrictive in regards to Apocrypha. For those unfamiliar, two forms of submissions would be recognized at World of Depleted: Apocrypha and Canon. Apocrypha is designed to be much like Fan Fiction is today, but would have the advantage of being officially displayed at the World of Depleted website, giving publicity to the creator. Canon, on the other hand, would be accepted as official information and/or mythology, helping to sculpt the world of Depleted, and permit both the creator and Viking productions to profit from this arrangement. It has now been decided that both Canon AND Apocrypha will allow their creators to profit (a first for things that would be accorded fan fiction)! According to Jeremy Hanke, “We wanted to really encourage people to shoot for Canon, because that helps grow the official world and mythology, which is why, originally, Apocrypha didn’t have revenue share with it. However, we realized that this de-encentivized (if that’s a word!) people who wanted to create well-told stories in the Apocrypha section. As such, both will now be able to profit using the same revenue share model.” To make sure confusion doesn’t arise with fans, once submissions have been reviewed and official certified as either Canon or Apocrypha, Creators will be given an official Badge which they will be required to use in the marketing of any of their Depleted products.
New Footage for the Depleted Feature: The striking Kat Carney will be filmed in Kentucky’s snowy tableau for some of the flashback scenes in the Depleted feature this weekend. 2nd Second Unit (no, not an alliterative typo!) DP Eric Henninger (who played the role of Nash Fitch in Depleted: Day 419) will be filming.
New Crowdfunding Updates: As fans recall, director Jeremy Hanke has chosen to use crowdfunding to raise the majority of the funds needed for shooting the Depleted feature film. While he has not yet released the date that crowdfunding will commence, he has stated that he will be borrowing a page from successful microbudget filmmaker, Mike Flanagan. Flanagan recently created an award-winning feature film (Absentia) on a micro-budget utilizing a crowdfunding campaign so successful that he actually made nearly double his intended budget with it! One of the large elements was creating targeted, humorous videos for each of the members of the main cast and crew, that explored information about the film, but which were funny enough that people would pass them on to friends because they were welll-done and genuinely amusing.
RPG News: Twilight 2013 Rumors put to rest. While there had been rumors that Viking Productions (the production company behind Depleted) was going to be able to arrange something with the now-defunct 93 Games Studios for their core fules behind Twilight 2013, according to co-founder Jeremy Hanke, the terms required were currently untenable and Viking has to pass. While Viking continues to explore other alternatives for an RPG backbone, folks who want a good ad hoc way of getting into the game will be pleased to know that the rights for Twilight 2013 appear to have reverted to the original Twilight 2000 creator, GDW. While there is no word on whether they will be creating new bound versions of the set, they are now selling .PDF versions of the Twilight 2013 set at RPGnow.com .
World of Depleted: Rumors of New Films – While unable to be verified, there has been a rumor that Viking Productions may be officially producing another short film in the World of Depleted. My sources say that it has a working title of “WoD: Dark Day Tomorrow” and tells some of the backstory of the enigmatic sniper, James Fallhery, one of the protagonists of the Depleted feature.

More information as we know it on the World of Depleted!

December 4, 2010December 4, 2010

New Score Composer Officially Announced for Depleted: Day 419

Today we are pleased to make the official announcement that daVid Singleton has been selected as the score composer for Depleted: Day 419. After he had first met with Sound Designer John Howard, I had a chance to personally meet with him at the Oakwood Sound Design studio for more than two hours and found that his understanding of both the genre of apocalyptic literature and his creative musical talent made him the right choice for the score composer for this film!

Singleton moved to Lexington, KY after living in LA for a number of years, where he recorded background vocals for Arnold Palmer’s smash “Addicted to Love” as well as Fleetwood Mac’ s “Rock a Little” album. (He also sold an original melody to A&M Records in 1990, which became Amy Grant’s chart topping smash, “Baby Baby.”) In addition to his work with other bands and composing for television and film, he has three albums of original music that have been released. We’re extremely excited to complete the film under his score composition!

October 13, 2010October 13, 2010

Blowing Up: A Glimpse of some of the Effects from the World of Depleted Sizzle Reel

We’ve been working hard on the effects both for Depleted: Day 419, but also for effects which will be used in the feature film and on a sizzle reel for the World of Depleted franchise, to give folks a feel for the wide reach it has and to get the creative juices flowing of fans and contributors.

The following video showcases a scene from the sizzle reel where Jenna deploys a remote control bomb as she and Andre Flanagan walk away from the site. Composited in After Effects, this explosion utilizes multiple elements found in Action Essentials 2 (created by Video Copilot and marketed by Toolfarm).