Oats Studios Shorts

[Steve Green]

Neill Blomkamp has set up a studio producing shorts.

Their latest one has a bit of an Alan Moore/FS vibe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1_HfhtB5eo

The other ones (Rakka/Firebase) are quite interesting but fairly gruesome.

[Heath C Ackley]

I watched these vids the other day. The effects were quite impressive as was the scale of the films, despite the episodic format and the twenty-five minute length. It was good to see Sigourney Weaver back in the genre again. I hope Blomkamp makes more and keeps with the one-off formula.

[Steve Green]

There's another one up just now (pretty sweary and gory)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKWB-MVJ4sQ

[Andy Lambert]

Ooh, you tinker!
Having just watched these shorts, I was about to start a thread about them but you beat me to it..!

They're brilliant, aren't they? Doesn't it make you weep that Ridley Scott blocked Neill Blomkamp from making those Alien movies...? After the okayish Prometheus and the outright terrible Covenant, I'm quite convinced Blomkamp was the man for the job, not Scott.

[Steve Green]

I like them, but get a bit frustrated they're more of a sampler, look great though.

Not seen covenant, the dumbness of Prometheus characters put me off.

[Andy Lambert]

Not seen covenant, the dumbness of Prometheus characters put me off.

In that case, you're better off staying away from Covenant.

[Theblazeuk]

I enjoyed Firebase immensely, though felt like it was a misstep to put the Chosen one in power armour. Just looked a bit silly amongst the jungle and the horror. 

[Keef Monkey]

Funhaus (a gaming youtube/podcast channel I follow) had a really good interview with Blomkamp about the whole thing, well worth a watch/listen if you're interested in the whole project - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YpX6MumIr8

The thing I found most interesting/a bit scary is that there doesn't seem to be any solid plan for monetizing the whole affair. In the interview he says each film is costing millions and any ideas he has for actually making cash from them or recouping that seem pretty vague and 'we'll see what happens'-ish, because nobody has really tried anything like it before.

I've only watched Rakka so far and thought it looked amazing, my only complaint is that as a short it didn't really have an ending, and I'm hoping that the project won't feel like a lot of first episodes to things with no pay-off or follow-through. Basically I'm not keen on putting too much time into watching them if they're going to feel like pilots for series that don't exist, or lengthy trailers for imaginary movies. Still need to watch Firebase though.

[JLC]

Funhaus (a gaming youtube/podcast channel I follow) had a really good interview with Blomkamp about the whole thing, well worth a watch/listen if you're interested in the whole project - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YpX6MumIr8

The thing I found most interesting/a bit scary is that there doesn't seem to be any solid plan for monetizing the whole affair. In the interview he says each film is costing millions and any ideas he has for actually making cash from them or recouping that seem pretty vague and 'we'll see what happens'-ish, because nobody has really tried anything like it before.

I've only watched Rakka so far and thought it looked amazing, my only complaint is that as a short it didn't really have an ending, and I'm hoping that the project won't feel like a lot of first episodes to things with no pay-off or follow-through. Basically I'm not keen on putting too much time into watching them if they're going to feel like pilots for series that don't exist, or lengthy trailers for imaginary movies. Still need to watch Firebase though.

They all seem to be open ended first episodes

[Theblazeuk]

Reminds me a bit of Image comics Pilot Season, which I was excited about when I first encountered it then realised everyone in the know was jaded and had seen it repeat cycles for years without much fruition. Still some of those ones did come out as full blown series over the last couple of years so maybe even that comparison is a positive sign?

My order of preference:
1. Firebase
2. Raka
3. Zygote (great monster but in this case i would need more pre-short rather than post)