The festival will take place March 21-25. Visit their website for more information. We are thrilled to be part of this great event!

I took another brief hiatus from production of Clockwise: Part 2 in order to help develop a live action short my friend Sam Eilertsen will be directing this spring. The short, a sci-fi noir called Replica, is set in a universe I was developing for an ambitious 40-minute machinima.

Sam was intrigued by the idea and asked if I would be interested in working with him on an 8-minute live action film set in the same world. We worked on the script together, writing and rewriting each other’s drafts, until we were finally satisfied with the result.  Now things are finally moving forward. Casting will begin soon, followed by fundraising and production. I can’t wait to see everything start coming together! More updates soon.

Replica (by Sam Eilertsen and Harrison Heller) takes place in a not-too-distant future in which humans have created a race of sentient androids. The androids (known as “grays” for their silver eyes) were built as slaves, but eventually gained equal rights with humans. However, they remain an oppressed minority. Five years after their emancipation, an assassin armed with powerful weaponry starts killing the leaders of the Android Rights Movement, and a human detective is left the job of investigating the killings. Scorned by his fellow officers for his apparent sympathy with the grays, Detective Quinlan persists and begins to uncover a dangerous secret…

The machinima will be shown along with other selected films at an indie theater that happens to be very close to where I live. The festival is scheduled for the weekend of November 11-13. I can’t wait! You can see a list of the other selected films here.

This is the first time one of our films has made it into the festival. Bitfilm has not announced their machinima selection on their site yet, but I can’t wait to see what else was chosen!

An astronaut desperately searching for his wife on an alien world. An office drone suffering the pain of a crumbling marriage. A mother trying to cope with the aftermath of a tragic accident. They are all waiting on a miracle.

For this project, I wanted to try something different from the type of films I have been making the last few years, which have relied heavily on dialogue. I wanted to go outside my comfort zone and challenge myself to tell a story entirely through visuals and music. I asked my friend Tommy Kraft, who has scored numerous ABP films, whether I could make a narrative music video based around one of his songs. He sent me “Waiting On A Miracle” and we worked closely to develop three micro-stories that would reflect the melancholy themes and tone of the song.

We hope you enjoy it!

“An astronaut desperately searching for his wife on an alien world. An office drone suffering the pain of a crumbling marriage. A mother trying to cope with the aftermath of a tragic accident. They are all waiting on a miracle.”

YouTube | Vimeo | iTunes

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the event but my friend and fellow machinimator Damien Valentine told me he had a blast. Maybe next time!

DragonCon has maintained a machinima section now for 5 consecutive years due to the hard work and dedication of Tina “Romily” Rollins. Thanks, Romily, for keeping this great venue alive for machinimators. I look forward to future fests!

This project brings ABP back to its roots. The first ABP film was the machinima music video Star Wars: Gangsta Rap: JKA Edition released in 2005.

The Waiting On A Miracle music video has been completed and will be released on YouTube and Vimeo on Wednesday, September 14th at 12am. The song will be released on iTunes at this time.  I had a lot of fun making this project, which will hopefully be the first of a series of machinima music videos featuring the music of Tommy Kraft.

An astronaut desperately searching for his wife on an alien world. An office drone suffering the pain of a crumbling marriage. A mother trying to cope with the aftermath of a tragic accident. They are all waiting on a miracle.

This festival is particularly exciting for me because I live nearby and will be able to attend (something I have been unable to do with nearly all of the other festivals). It’s going to be a lot of fun!