The Universe Surrounding the International Post-Apocalyptic Franchise, Depleted
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:
The article will be republished in the July 1st issue of MicroFilmmaker Magazine (http://www.microfilmmaker.com ) .
I wanted to touch base with you all personally on the Day 419 progress. As you know, we’ve been trying our utmost to get a first master of Depleted: Day 419 finished by June 1st. The team at Oakwood Sound Design spent all day on Thursday working on it. While I was only able to be there for part of it, we’re really close to the end. While it doesn’t look like we’ll quite make June 1st for the 1st master, we believe it’ll be done around a week from that date. Once the first master is completed, we’re almost ready to release it. What will occur at that point is that we, as the creative team, will make any final tweaks that need to occur after the first master is done and then allow a few weeks of space to occur, so we can watch the film with fresh eyes and, more importantly, fresh ears, to make sure everything works together sonically. Doubtlessly a few more corrections will occur and then we will be ready to release it at that point!
One interesting thing with this entire process is that we’re going to have two versions of Day 419 available almost from the outset. One will be the “Internet Mix”, which will feature maximized audio, so people can hear the film properly on everything from an iPhone’s speaker to a battered pair of computer speakers. This will be hosted on YouTube (likely as two parts, as the film is clocking in at just over 21 minutes). However, because maximizing audio so it could be heard on all possible systems gets rid of a lot of detail, this version will minimize a lot of the amazing work that was done by the professional audio team at Oakwood Sound Design for this film. As such, we will have a higher quality version with a much more dynamic audio track available for people to watch in one setting which will be hosted by Sorenson360. We highly recommend that you watch this version on a system with either a good speaker system or with a good pair of headphones. (Interestingly enough, while really good headphones can be amazingly expensive, I recently discovered a pair of headphones that’s less than $5 that allows you to hear a lot of the amazing lows and range in Day 419. It was a happy accident, as I was looking for some inexpensive headphones that could be essentially “disposable” and I managed to find ones that had amazingly good quality for their price point. As we will soon have a World of Depleted store for elements that you might find useful, these headphones will definitely be on that list! )
Now that all the content has been finalized for Day 419, I can confirm that there will be codes hidden inside of Day 419. Where they are or how many there are, I will not tell. However, I can tell you that every one of them will impact your viewing experience of Day 419 and give you a greater clue as to where some of the story archs are headed. (Now, with that said, while some clues are obvious once you decode them, most of them must be first decoded and then thought about more fully to be truly understood.)
At the end of the day, we hope that this film will have been worth the patience of our Contributors and fans, and that it makes even more people interested in this Creative Community as a whole.
We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for your support and enthusiasm,
Writer/Director, Day 419
Co-Founder, World of Depleted
After a lot of hard work, it looks like the sound design is pretty much wrapped up. In today’s session, much work was done to tweak the final scene in which protagonist Jenna Whitmore must face her greatest fears. As part of the efficacy of the scene must come from a variety of audio cues, the scene required a lot of hard work from audio designer John Howard and director Jeremy Hanke to come up with the right blend to allow the audience to follow the different lines which converge in the scenes.
Later in the day, voice over artist (and 3rd Unit Camera from Monday’s shoot) Lee Clements came in to record a critical announcement that will be part of the intro to the film. In an interesting twist, that’s somewhat reminiscent of shows like LOST, Fringe, and Jericho, there will be clues and information hidden in a variety of locations in Day 419, including the introduction and even the studio logos. As to the specific information or clues, neither Hanke nor Howard would elaborate, although the director did say that QR codes would no longer be the only codes for fans to watch out for, remarking: “The interesting thing about post-apocalyptic worlds is not just who can manage to hold on to technological secrets, but who can re-master the secrets of the past.”
As for Day 419, once a final day of audio polishing and the semi-final score is completed next week, all that will be left is final approval of the score and final mixing and mastering. The release draws near!
Jeremy Hanke was again in the studio with John Howard working on the final sound design for Day 419. Meanwhile, score composer David Todd Singleton is working on a semi-final pass of the score, after a late night meeting with John Howard the night before. While it doesn’t look at this point like the team will quite finish the film by the end of the week, they will be very, very close indeed!
In perhaps the most laid back shoot day of the week, a skeleton crew from the Depleted feature made their way around Kentucky, from small forested trails (in which director Jeremy Hanke participated in a small cameo scene) to abandoned gas stations. Hanke had this to say, “Many of the shots we’re acquiring today will help tell some of the things that Jenna Whitmore survived after the Fall, before she reached Maysbridge [the main location in Day 419].” The images I was able to see looked very cool and we’re excited to see how it all looks when the film comes out, currently slated for either Q4 2012 or Q1 2013. (Clearly if it’s the latter they hold no truck with the Mayans predicting the Fall!)
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.
After a rough day in the wilds of the Bluegrass of Kentucky, the team finished their last shots near sundown. While there were some questionable times in the day where timing and insects made things difficult, the fact that they were prepared with light equipment (the 5D Mark II and Rebel t2i) meant that things finally started flowing smoothly in the latter part of the day. Director Jeremy Hanke is very excited about the footage that was acquired and looks forward to concluding shooting on Wednesday.
This past week, we caught up with Jeremy Hanke and Contributor Josh Lloyd as they were location scouting for the Depleted feature. In the midst of a crazy week of post audion Day 419, Hanke and his team will be shooting effects scenes for the Depleted feature with lead actress Kat Carney. For these shoots, it was necessary to match up locations properly a year in advance (almost to the day), as the feature will commence shooting in May of 2012. While a spec trailer could be made regardless of how well things tie in, the director stated that his goal is that every shot acquired this week will be able to be part of the final feature!
Lofty goals, but we look forward to seeing what comes up through it!
It’s with great excitement that we now announce the availability of the first part of our Forsaken interviews, in which founder Jeremy Hanke interviews James de Paula Hanika and Ben Nash about their recent film, Forsaken. In this video, Jeremy Hanke talks with them about the inspiration of post-apocalyptic films on their work.
If you’d like to see more, tune into the next issue of MicroFilmmaker Magazine, when the video interview about the technical challenges of the team is published. (Plus there’s a new article on the process from James de Paula Hanika.)
To see trailer and watch Forsaken in its entirety, don’t forget to check out Four58’s Contributor Page!
To see more about Four58 Productions and what they’re working on, go to the Official Four58 Productions Web page!
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!