CCMag spoke recently to our good friend, animator/director Frank Silas, about his first-ever sci-fi short film; Sledgehammer.
As a director, you began working in the video game industry. How has this informed your role in filmmaking?
Actually, I've always held that to be the other way around. My love of film has always informed my work in video games. When I discovered that video games could be as immersive if not more so than film is when I fell in love with video games. Working in video games my approach then has always been to find more ways to make the gaming experience more immersive, not necessarily more cinematic, but more like the immersion of the cinematic experience.
What was the impetus behind Sledgehammer? Was it originally meant to be a full-length picture?
Ridley Scott and James Cameron's Alien and Aliens were the impetus behind Sledgehammer, honestly. I watched those over and over again as a kid. That's when I decided that I wanted to be a Director. I was thinking what if there was another planet near LV429? What if there was an LV428 and what if humans had crashed an experimental ship on that planet then sent Marines in to retrieve it, who themselves became marooned there fighting for their lives against insurmountable odds? What would that look like? Obviously I wanted to make something original and not a pure fan film. That's how Sledgehammer came about. We have ideas about what a full length feature film of Sledgehammer would look like, but I would love to have input from fans, especially backers of our Kickstarter for this film to help us create a feature length version. But doing this shorter version shows that we actually can accomplish a visual effects film like Alien or Aliens.
What type of audience does Sledgehammer hope to reach? Is there a comparable film or series whose fans might also enjoy this film?
We're hoping to reach the Science Fiction and Science Fiction Fantasy audience: people like us who love Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, and Aliens. What's more those fans can actually be part of the process of making this film. I think I just answered that question.Box was an earlier endeavor into sci-fi, based on a comic book. Are there other comics you’d like to adapt?
BOX was more inspired by BOX 13 the graphic novel by David Gallaher and Steve Ellis. We didn't have the rights to make a pure adaptation of that property, so I made sure to take a similar plot device, but in a completely different direction. I would love to make a feature film adaptation of BOX 13, and would welcome the opportunity to do that with other comic books. I can tell you that for what it costs to make a graphic novel or trade paperback we could make the feature film, in a lot cases. What we plan to prove with Sledgehammer is that we can also do it at a level of quality you would expect to see at the box office.
Dipping your foot into the waters of sci-fi/fantasy with Box, what practical lessons did you learn on that production that helped you and your team move foreword into this bigger, more complicated world of science fiction?
What has been the biggest thrill/surpise so far in the making of this film?
The biggest surprise so far is how much it is exactly like making the previous film, but on a much larger scale including the obstacles to getting the film made. The biggest thrill so far has been getting to shoot with the RED Epic camera and our amazing crew.
What is next on the horizon once Sledgehammer becomes a reality?
We'll have to wait and see.We need to raise $40,000.00 to succeed. Right now we are working hard to get the word out to all Comic Book, Sci Fi, and Video Game fans everywhere! Check out the rest of the interview along with awesome art from the production in vol.2 of Comic Creator Magazine! -Matt Wieman
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