The Fredösphere

We got word from the Ann Arbor Boychoir that our son, Der Drübermensch, would be needed for a special recording session on a Sunday afternoon.  The choir had been hired by John Higbie, a veteran visual effects specialist from Hollywood.  John recently moved to Michigan and is wrapping up post-production of his first directorial effort, a science fiction movie called Magic Mentah (previously called Amsteroid).  He wanted the boys voices to add Ligetiesque spookiness to some of the space scenes.

Science fiction and choirs?  In my own backyard?  Of course I wanted to find out more.  I attended the recording session and met John, an incredibly sane, likeable person (i.e., not what you expect in a movie director).  John's movie has been in post for some time now and he hopes to release it in 2009.  He'll work the festivals and he expects the movie to be available on DVD.  (When that happens, I'll let you know.)

I asked him why he chose science fiction as a subject.  He told me his experience in visual effects can be best put to use in that genre.  Since the movie's plot involves dead Egyptian gods as well as spaceships, I suppose a more precise categorization would be science fantasy.

The still you see here shows an asteroid in the shape of a human figure; that's one of the gods.  To the right is a transparent green brain.  In the clip John showed me, the brain rotates and approaches the camera, until you are close enough to see a live actor inside.  John has done an excellent job marrying the CG and live-action coordinate systems here; the two are linked seamlessly.  Clearly, the guy is a pro.

The big green brain is accompanied by the boy's voices:



If you had heard the original, you'd be especially impressed by John's mixing and filtering of the sound tracks.

John will be in Ann Arbor this Thursday for some filming.  If all goes well, I'll be interviewing him for the Starship Sofa podcast.  I've already discussed Magic Mentah on an earlier episode (Round Table No. 6; scroll down).

I'm terribly excited to see this kind of production happen in Michigan.  Magic Mentah is just the latest example of movies with modest budgets having a fighting chance at commercial success.  It reminds me of Primer, another SF film made on a budget of a few thousand dollars.  (Although, Primer did not have any visual effects that I remember.)   Definitely see Primer if you don't mind extremely obscure SF-al concepts bandied about with minimal explanation.

I'll be reporting again on Magic Mentah.  Watch this space.

Labels: local, movie, sci-fi, SoundClip