Sound from the Deep - Lovecraftian short film now on YouTube!

Started by rongel, Tue 18/05/2021 19:01:04

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rongel

Hello there!

Eons ago I posted here a trailer for our Lovecraftian short horror film "Sound from the Deep". It had a good run at film festivals, and we won over 10 awards, and got to travel around the world with it.

Now it's finally found its place on YouTube:



Have a look, and spread the word! Curious to hear your comments, too.
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WHAM

Oh, hey, awesome! A Finnish movie, too.
Back when this came out, I recorded it off the Finnish national broadcasters website and had a copy of it up so I could share it with friends, but didn't dare make it public for copyright reasons. Good to see it's out in the open now!
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Mandle

WOW! Amazing stuff! Condolences on the passing of the actor who played the professor. He was great!

The main actor reminded me a lot of Jeffrey Combs (Herbert West from The Reanimator movies), high praise for a Lovecraft movie!

The special effects for the creatures were very good for a short indie film!

What was the approximate budget of the movie, if it's okay to ask? $100,000-$150,000 (U.S. dollars) or so would be my guess (Not including promotional/travel/competition costs. Just the cost of production until the final cut was "in the can").

(Also, no disrespect intended, but the line "It must be gas. What else could make a sound like that?" made my immature mind giggle)

rongel

Quote from: WHAM on Thu 20/05/2021 08:33:34
Oh, hey, awesome! A Finnish movie, too.
Back when this came out, I recorded it off the Finnish national broadcasters website and had a copy of it up so I could share it with friends, but didn't dare make it public for copyright reasons. Good to see it's out in the open now!

Thanks! Yes, 100 % made in Finland. It's really amazing (and a bit weird) that we got to do a government funded Lovecraft movie! Its festival rounds are over, so now you can share it much as you like!

Quote from: Mandle on Thu 20/05/2021 09:32:22
WOW! Amazing stuff! Condolences on the passing of the actor who played the professor. He was great!

The main actor reminded me a lot of Jeffrey Combs (Herbert West from The Reanimator movies), high praise for a Lovecraft movie!

The special effects for the creatures were very good for a short indie film!

What was the approximate budget of the movie, if it's okay to ask? $100,000-$150,000 (U.S. dollars) or so would be my guess (Not including promotional/travel/competition costs. Just the cost of production until the final cut was "in the can").

(Also, no disrespect intended, but the line "It must be gas. What else could make a sound like that?" made my immature mind giggle)


Thanks! Yes, our late professor was a great actor, very professional and a easy to work with. His "stare" at the middle of the film is one of the high points of the movie, I think.

The budget was pretty close what you guessed. I think it was around 130.000 â,¬. Big part of it went to the rent of the actual icebreaker where we shot the film. But it was nice that everyone got paid for their work, for once!

And I've heard so many gas / ass jokes about the film, that nothing can shock me anymore!
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WHAM

I had a bunch of friends from the US, Canada and other countries who are Lovecraft fans, and they all really loved the movie back when I shared it with them upon first release. Tons of really positive feedback, so I think you folks nailed it pretty darn well!

Hyvää työtä, ja eikun uutta putkeen!  :-D
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rongel

Quote from: WHAM on Thu 20/05/2021 10:11:43
I had a bunch of friends from the US, Canada and other countries who are Lovecraft fans, and they all really loved the movie back when I shared it with them upon first release. Tons of really positive feedback, so I think you folks nailed it pretty darn well!

Thanks for spreading the word, and nice to hear they liked the movie!

I think the movie works better for non-finnish people. The pronunciation may irritate Finns, and we also may be quite critical to our own works. Only when something is confirmed "good" abroad first, we accept it!  :-D

QuoteHyvää työtä, ja eikun uutta putkeen!  :-D

Jee, kiitti! Jos saisi tuon pelin nyt ensin valmiiksi!  :-D
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Mandle

Quote from: rongel on Thu 20/05/2021 09:54:08
The budget was pretty close what you guessed. I think it was around 130.000 â,¬. Big part of it went to the rent of the actual icebreaker where we shot the film.

Oh wow! I was assuming that the footage of the icebreaker from the outside was stock footage and that the scenes on-deck were filmed on a docked ferry or something with green-screens hung down  to composite the ocean in later. And that the interior rooms were just redressed office rooms pr something.

Did you actually go out on the boat while it was breaking through those ice-floes?

WHAM

Yeah, Finnish people speaking English is grating to our ears, but foreigners don't seem to mind as much. In fact they often find it kind of endearing. "Ooh, look at the little northerners, they're trying so hard!"

As for my own preferences, I think my biggest gripe with the movie is that it reveals a bit too much too early, and seems a bit too eager to get to use all that fancy CGI and show it off. Lovecraft was always keen to hide the horrors and mysteries, so the movie showing as much as it does so early on kind of dampened the mood for me, but I feel the urge to show off the fancy CGI was in part a proof of technical ability for the team, a way to show off what they can pull off, and thus understandable.

In this sense, the project reminds me of Start Wreck, but definitely with a way more professional feel to it all, though obviously the two movies are in very different genres as well.
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rongel

Quote from: Mandle on Thu 20/05/2021 10:41:46
Oh wow! I was assuming that the footage of the icebreaker from the outside was stock footage and that the scenes on-deck were filmed on a docked ferry or something with green-screens hung down  to composite the ocean in later. And that the interior rooms were just redressed office rooms pr something.

Did you actually go out on the boat while it was breaking through those ice-floes?

Actually the ship was in the harbour, and it was mid summer when we shot it.  :-D
Some external drone shots were taken later on the winter. So the same ship is actually doing its job and breaking the ice. But there's a few stock footage shots also.

Quote from: WHAM on Thu 20/05/2021 10:50:15
As for my own preferences, I think my biggest gripe with the movie is that it reveals a bit too much too early, and seems a bit too eager to get to use all that fancy CGI and show it off. Lovecraft was always keen to hide the horrors and mysteries, so the movie showing as much as it does so early on kind of dampened the mood for me, but I feel the urge to show off the fancy CGI was in part a proof of technical ability for the team, a way to show off what they can pull off, and thus understandable.

One problem that we had was that we were making a short film that had the story of a feature film! So we really had to trim it to the bones. In feature format we could have spent some more time building the tension etc. By the way, there's no 3D computer stuff in the film at all. Majority of the effects are practical effects and miniatures that have been composited on the screen.
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WHAM

Quote from: rongel on Thu 20/05/2021 11:21:41
By the way, there's no 3D computer stuff in the film at all. Majority of the effects are practical effects and miniatures that have been composited on the screen.

Hot damn, now that is impressive! And a perfectly valid reason to show off the good work, too!
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KyriakosCH

Subscribed :) (Philosophy of Horror)

Nice movie, and the budget seemed to be quite decent too!
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rongel

Quote from: KyriakosCH on Thu 20/05/2021 14:17:53
Subscribed :) (Philosophy of Horror)

Nice movie, and the budget seemed to be quite decent too!

Thanks! I think the budget is pretty average for a government funded short film here in Finland. But most of the funded films are human dramas that happen in a kitchen. Also Finland is a quite expensive country. So to create this illusion of the arctic, and all the effects with the same amount of money was a bit challenging. But it was a lot of fun to figure it all out!
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Mandle

Quote from: rongel on Thu 20/05/2021 15:44:43
I think the budget is pretty average for a government funded short film here in Finland. But most of the funded films are human dramas that happen in a kitchen.

Or something like this? (Another short film by an AGSer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-OOpZitfd0

rongel

Quote from: Mandle on Thu 20/05/2021 23:00:13
Or something like this? (Another short film by an AGSer)

Yes, nordic noir is the thing now, that video encapsulates it pretty well! And Alasdair's videos are great!
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heltenjon


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