District 9 - some inspiration for Indies

modernPrimitive

modernPrimitive

Active member
Hi,

I'm not sure if anyone knows about District 9 (produced by Peter Jackson) but I thought it would be pretty inspirational for some the members here.

Director Neil Blomkomp started out as a 3D animator here in South Africa and produced and directed a short called "Alive in Jo'burg" several years back. You can see it here on youtube:

Anyway to cut a long story short Neil went on to become a big-time vfx director and was asked to direct Halo. After Halo was put on hold Peter Jackson decided to back and produce "District 9". Based on South African history one can assume that it's a full-length feature version of "Alive in Jo'burg".

Shooting was completed a few months ago here in South Africa. Post will probably carry on for another 18 months or so.
Can't wait.
 
I remember seeing Alive in Joburg and thinking wow, this would make a great movie. Hollwood would never do something like this.

-Nate
 
Nathyn said:
I remember seeing Alive in Joburg and thinking wow, this would make a great movie. Hollwood would never do something like this.

-Nate
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Me too. I always liked the idea of a sci-fi documentary, in the sense that it feels totally real. This is the guy to do it. Hopefully this will convince the studios involved with the Halo film to feel secure enough to let Blomkamp direct the adaptation. (From what I've read, the studios were insecure with letting an unexperienced director take on such a big budget production.)
 
Yeah I'm not sure if D-9 will be Alive in Jo'burg on steroids. My guess is that the basic concept is the same but whether there's going to be a docy style to it I'm not sure. I know one of the line producers but of course eveything is being kept highly secretive. Hopefully some of the directorial style of Alive in Jo'burg will be retained.

Btw, there's quite a lot of Halo stuff on Youtube - I saw some of the tests that Peter Jackson and Neil did together but they're difficult to find amongst all the gaming videos. A lot of hand-held fast-paced cinematography.
 
I thought the Halo live action shorts he did were really good, although, I have to admit, I don't know if I want to see the entire Halo feature film done in a documentary style. I think a feature version of Alive in Jo'burg in the style of the short version would be great, but maybe then make Halo in a slightly more traditional way but with the documentary style in certain parts -- for example: the new Battlestar Galactica uses hand-held, semi-documentary style cinematography but never makes you think "hey, I'm watching a news report or a documentary".
 
jeremytuttle said:
SPOILERS - of TRAILER



I was really on board with the trailer, digging the doc style, and the helicopter shot blew me away... I think they should have cut it there. After that it was just a touch corny, not too much, but enough to take me out of it. Maybe it was the face pixelation thing that got me.
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Yeah, I agree. The pixelated face thing didn't seem right. Maybe it is an unfinished effect?

Another thing, this District 9 flick looks solid overall, but is the whole fake documentary thing going to be Blomkamp's gimmick? We can't really know for sure until he does a few features, but if he does end up doing Halo, will it be a big documentary style epic? Don't get me wrong, Blomkamp is very talented. His short films are really well done, but they're all docu-style pieces telling a made up story.

Just thought I'd mention this since if I was in his position I wouldn't want to pigeon hole myself into being that "faux scif-fi documentary" dude.
 
This is just my opinion but I always saw the Halo video game as a very cinematic, epic, movie... something that James Cameron (or similar) would do... and yeah have some hand held shots here and there where it warrants it, even do the helmet cams from time to time, but Halo as a faux doc.... nah.

Don't get me wrong. I like the idea of the faux doc, it can make it feel very real and District 9 appears to use it to great effect.
 
jeremytuttle said:
This is just my opinion but I always saw the Halo video game as a very cinematic, epic, movie... something that James Cameron (or similar) would do... and yeah have some hand held shots here and there where it warrants it, even do the helmet cams from time to time, but Halo as a faux doc.... nah.
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Same here on a Halo movie. Not to write Blomkamp off, but I'd love to see what Peter Jackson could do with a Halo film, as in the director and not only as a producer.
 
KyleProhaska said:
Looks like 2009 has its Cloverfield.
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Definitely has a similarity in the documentary style merged with a fictional story and a science fiction premise. I think it will be fine though, due to the story and setting being something completely different.
 
By the first trailer I was thinking "okay they made the short film into a feature, cool but the ending of the trailer kind of ruins it for me"

Then they realized how bad it was and they re-did it a bit better, and without that stupid pixelated eyes thing.

So honestly, I haven't been super excited about this, until I saw the latest trailer (trailer 4):

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/district9/

The second half of the latest trailer really draws me in everytime I watch it.
 
I went to the theaters today and on every theater door there was a clever sign. It said "Theater for humans only - any non-humans are subject to..." and it had the District 9 alien logo with a circle and line through it. Very clever. Had the MNU logo and everything.
 
Got a chance to see the set while they were in Johannesburg, they shot on a 'secret' location and built an alien spaceship reminiscent of ALIENS III, under an informal tin shack. looked really spectacular. Massive 5 story high blue screen, and old hospital corridors, interrogation rooms, old pickup trucks converted into alien combat vehicles very haphazardly put together to fight the aliens, some were blown up already.... I think its going be an awesome film. It was shot entirely on the new generation RED cam apparently.
 
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