Yesterday, the final editorial viewing of Day 419 occurred with score composer David Todd Singleton at Oakwood Sound Design. Final corrections were made on the mix based on his comments and two additional elements will be created by Singleton by Friday. At that point, the last touches to the Master will be completed and the film will be finished. According to insiders, the current distribution plan appears to be a serial one, with the short being broken into its five main progressive parts which will be released once a week for five weeks. For those who do not wish to wait until all five episodes are released, there will be a rental option for $1.99 to check it out ahead of time or the option to purchase the DVD and get a higher quality version than can be currently supported online. No word has yet been released on what the special features on the DVD will be, although there have been rumors that there may be special training on how to defend your life in the violence of the Fall.
Midnight Screening of 1st Master of Day 419 a success…
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!
Day 419: Sneak Preview and Final Mastering…
Yesterday was a big day for Day 419, as Viking’s Depleted team was in the Oakwood Sound Design Studio working on the Final Master of Day 419. According to director Jeremy Hanke, the film is almost completed, with a final session slated with Score Composer David Todd Singleton for next week. The last session will allow final comments to be made, at which point any corrections will be made and and the film will be completed!
Folks who were able to attend last night’s Day 419 1st Master preview got a chance to be on the cutting edge of technology! Hosted on Adobe Connect, the event allowed people to preview the film and then engage in a question and answer session with writer/director, Jeremy Hanke. While there were some opening night technology issues which led to some inconsistencies in playback and the questions ended up being typed rather than spoken, the overall screening was a success. As with actress Kat Carney’s screening, the music from composer David Todd Singleton, along with the two songs from zero-project, were highly praised by those who attended. Director Jeremy Hanke shared some of the inspirations for certain creative choices in the film and regaled those in attendance with stories of past film screenings he’d attended, including one put on by filmmaker Kevin Smith.
One more sneak screening is slated for cast, crew, and select contributors this week. After that, the final master version of Day 419 will be made available as an episodic release in five weekly serial segments through World of Depleted’s YouTube page. A Sorenson 360 version will be available with the film in its entirety shortly thereafter, as will the DVD version. The limited collector’s edition of the DVD is currently slated to be one of the awards given for fans who choose to support the crowdfunding campaign of the Depleted feature film later in the year. (In addition, I’ve now gotten word that photographer and Day 419 cinematographer, Nate Eckelbarger, has designed an exclusive screen printed poster for Day 419 which will be made available for special contributors during the Depleted feature crowdfunding event. While it will not be shown until the campaign, I have gotten word from an insider at Viking that the poster is: “bitching AWESOME.”)
Stereo Deluxx Joins the Official Depleted Soundtrack
Underground band, Stereo Deluxx, has offically come on board for the Official Depleted Soundtrack. Fronted by Stacey Lux, Stereo Deluxx has a sound that’s been compared to No Doubt and Garbage, and were one of the first bands to experiment with giving out entire professionally created albums to their fans with their cult classic, Pretty Time Bomb. (Their revolutionary release of the PTB album would predate Nine Inch Nails similar move by over 8 years.) While we haven’t been told which songs will be on the soundtrack, we have been told that one of the songs will be an unlockable for Contributors before the Soundtrack is available.
More on this as it becomes available!
Login Error on World of Depleted’s website corrected…
As some of you may know, we recently had a plugin issue at the World of Depleted website which required people to login or register before they could even view the site. This has been corrected so that anyone can view the main the site, regardless of membership. While additional options and secrets are unlocked with membership, we will never exclude fans and those who explore our site by forcing them to sign up first!
We do apologize for the confusion!
-Jeremy Hanke
Co-Founder
World of Depleted
Sneak Screening of Day 419 First Master…
Depleted star Kat Carney had the privilege to be the first member of the cast to see the first master of Day 419 at a private screening at Oakwood Sound Design yesterday, which consisted of her and her best friend Amanda, director Jeremy Hanke, and John Howard (Day 419’s Audio Designer), as well as Donovan Davis of Oakwood Sound Design. While the starlet’s involvement in the franchise and additional responsibilities in the film could’ve commanded the private screening, director Jeremy Hanke clarified that the exclusive prescreening was due to the fact that Ms. Carney would be out of the country during the official release of the film and “it would’ve been unfair for her to miss out on the movie she was so instrumental in.” (As our sources fell us, Ms. Carney will be joining her boyfriend for six weeks in South America where they will be helping build orphanages for the children who’ve lost their parents in areas like Colombia and Venezuela. Once concluded, she will permanently relocate to Los Angeles, flying back for principle photography of the feature next May.)
Mr. Hanke explained that a special viewing of the film will be prepared for the rest of the cast and crew for next week, with his expressed desire that it be a live online viewing event so that people can share thoughts and questions live after the film is completed.
When interviewed about her impressions of the film, Ms. Carney expressed enthusiasm about how the film turned out, with a special appreciation for the sound design and the score which was crafted by David Todd Singleton (with supplemental songs from new Contributor zero-project). As these two elements took longer than the other elements of post-production, the Viking Team was very pleased with the response.
As director Jeremy Hanke stated, “when you’re finishing up a film, your perspective is radically skewed due to how much time, effort, and blood you’ve put in. Honestly, you don’t know if its any good or if it sucks. All you can see is all the tiny errors that viewers rarely notice but which seem massive to you. Kat has more distance than the post-production team, but she also has a huge vested interest in this film being as good as it can be and she’s a very smart cookie who really knows her stuff. So the fact that she was pleased was really great.”
In addition to getting a sneak peak of the secret ending (which is currently under wraps), Kat was presented with a prototype of a special collector’s item from next year’s feature. We were not given a name for the item, but we were provided with the picture below. Only time will tell what it’s significance may be (although judging from Ms. Carney’s reaction, it must be fairly important).
For the final release, the Viking team stated that they plan to do a few noise and artifact passes on the visuals, as well as the final adjustments to the audio which will happen in the Final Master. Pending review from the marketing team, it looks likely for a July 4th general release.
Kat Carney featured as MicroFilmmaker Cover Girl for June 1st issue…
The stunning Kat Carney (star of World of Depleted’s own soon-to-be-released Day 419) has been chosen by MicroFilmmaker Magazine to be the cover girl for their June 1st issue.
The issue, which has a dominant issue on casting, features an article by Day 419 director, Jeremy Hanke, on casting for action films, including images of the lovely Ms. Carney from her work in Depleted as Jenna Whitmore.
To see the new issue, simply go to:
MicroFilmmaker Magazine
Interview with Depleted Founder Jeremy Hanke at Shared Story Worlds…
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:
Shared Story Worlds Interview With Jeremy Hanke
The article will be republished in the July 1st issue of MicroFilmmaker Magazine (http://www.microfilmmaker.com ) .
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.
WoD site menu redesign….
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!