The last you heard from us on this site, we'd published part II of an anomaly creation tutorial. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly, and all sources seemed to confirm a release date of April 2013. As April approached, suddenly things seemed to dry up, and it seemed like we had disappeared off the face of the planet. Those who follow our Facebook page received a message stating that production had ceased and that the series had been cancelled. Fortunately, rumours of our demise had been over-exaggerated...
SO, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?
Well, first you have to understand the nature of the project - we are not a big budget, Hollywood production. We aren't even at amateur production budgets. All those directly involved are students and have many other commitments, creating big logistical issues for a series this heavy in visual effects, which take a lot of time and effort to produce.
The zero-budget nature of the series means that we can't spend on fancy equipment and trained crew - everything has to be done by hand by a small team, and even then the majority is by one person. All the scripts, visual effects, shooting, and general stuff are handled by just me, with a few helping hands when it comes to props and script editing (for which I must thank the fantastic Martin Dan Rasmussen, who has assisted me in checking over scripts, coming up with new ideas and generally being incredibly helpful for quite some time). Obviously, with a production like this, the progress is incredibly dependent on the motivation and passion of a few individuals. At times, work has completely overtaken me and I have simply been unable to dedicate enough time to the project. This happened a couple of months ago, and I decided to provisionally cancel Primeval: Revelations until I felt like I could continue it and not come up with a half-arsed product at the end. I lacked time, money, and, most importantly, the will to continue on.
Well, first you have to understand the nature of the project - we are not a big budget, Hollywood production. We aren't even at amateur production budgets. All those directly involved are students and have many other commitments, creating big logistical issues for a series this heavy in visual effects, which take a lot of time and effort to produce.
The zero-budget nature of the series means that we can't spend on fancy equipment and trained crew - everything has to be done by hand by a small team, and even then the majority is by one person. All the scripts, visual effects, shooting, and general stuff are handled by just me, with a few helping hands when it comes to props and script editing (for which I must thank the fantastic Martin Dan Rasmussen, who has assisted me in checking over scripts, coming up with new ideas and generally being incredibly helpful for quite some time). Obviously, with a production like this, the progress is incredibly dependent on the motivation and passion of a few individuals. At times, work has completely overtaken me and I have simply been unable to dedicate enough time to the project. This happened a couple of months ago, and I decided to provisionally cancel Primeval: Revelations until I felt like I could continue it and not come up with a half-arsed product at the end. I lacked time, money, and, most importantly, the will to continue on.
WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW?
In the last month or so, things have calmed down a bit, and I'm certainly a lot more willing to carry on. For that reason, I've made the decision to resume production - sort of. I don't have the time to produce something as ambitious as a web series, and certainly not one so complex and packed with VFX. A full series will not be happening any time in the foreseeable future, much as I'd love it to. Instead, I endeavour to produce a really epic short film that will draw from the scripts I have already written and incorporate content that has already been created. The film will probably be around 20-40 minutes long.
At this very moment I am working on the first draft script (which may simply be titled Revelations to avoid any copyright to the logo and to try and make this film as original as possible), with an aim to finish for around February to allow for an April/May shooting date and a release date sometime during Summer 2014. All of this is very tentative, and at the moment I cannot guarantee that anything will come of this; films come and go all the time, and the majority of ideas never come to fruition.
In the last month or so, things have calmed down a bit, and I'm certainly a lot more willing to carry on. For that reason, I've made the decision to resume production - sort of. I don't have the time to produce something as ambitious as a web series, and certainly not one so complex and packed with VFX. A full series will not be happening any time in the foreseeable future, much as I'd love it to. Instead, I endeavour to produce a really epic short film that will draw from the scripts I have already written and incorporate content that has already been created. The film will probably be around 20-40 minutes long.
At this very moment I am working on the first draft script (which may simply be titled Revelations to avoid any copyright to the logo and to try and make this film as original as possible), with an aim to finish for around February to allow for an April/May shooting date and a release date sometime during Summer 2014. All of this is very tentative, and at the moment I cannot guarantee that anything will come of this; films come and go all the time, and the majority of ideas never come to fruition.
One of the upsides of this downscaling of the project is that I can focus far more on the little details; whereas with a series I would have been rushing to meet deadlines, a short film will enable me to really push the end result to be as good as I possibly can make it. More time means a better product. For example, I now plan to render 3D feathers and fur on the raptor model, something that I wouldn't have been able to do before due to the massive increase in render times this causes.
I hope you guys understand why things have been moving slowly, and are as excited for the future as I am! Stay tuned for further updates as things will start to move a lot faster come the new year. Primeval: New World may have been cancelled, but we certainly aren't done yet! Happy holidays everyone!