FEATURE: MK OUTLIER - in post

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Hi everyone, I'm Chris Jacobs, the Writer/Producer/Director of MK OUTLIER.

I used to haunt these forums a bit back in the ALPFD days. Decided to stop haunting and make another feature (my first feature was horribly un-watchable haha).
A few years later we're now in post, and we're pretty happy with what we've achieved with a Canon HV40, lens adaptor and some FD glass, and no real crew at all.

We built a space station set in our garage, and there is a pretty funny newspaper article about that and the film here.

The story:
Private James Conroy is unable to commit to his girlfriend or his military career, when a mysterious apocalyptic event wipes away everyone and everything.
Fighting off mutant creatures, and his own inner demons, he is all consumed by his fight for survival.
When he finally contacts Garry Freeman, who is stuck in a space station, they have to learn to work together if they’re going to save themselves, and maybe all of civilization.

Teaser Trailer:


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We have a teaser at the moment because we're working hard on the sound (location sound was horrible) and we have a lot of FX shots to complete.
Fortunately due to the newspaper article we've had an offer of assistance from a very pro sound designer. That's all still being negotiated, but it's exciting, as he's worked on some very cool films.

I'm going to put up some more information including BTS pics etc in some more posts here, and post updates as we go along.

The main point here is to share our story, as personally I got a lot out of these and other forums, so hopefully we can give something back along the way.

Yes, of course there is some crowdfunding going on too. :shocked: Do support us if you like the project, but don't feel obliged. We're here to talk about film making.
However it is a good way to ensure yourself a copy of the movie..


MK OUTLIER is available to pre-order here: http://igg.me/at/mkoutlier/x/265386
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Most importantly, thanks for watching/reading/being interested.
Cheers,
Chris
 
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MK OUTLIER's inception.

MK OUTLIER started life as a miniDV feature that I was going to 'bash out' over a few weekends with some friends, mostly as a tool for learning and practicing. I had previously made music videos, shorts and worked on commercials. I'd also been writing feature scripts for a few years, but really wanted to get back behind the camera. The story came about as follows:

My ideas pop into my head as a series of images. I can trace the inception of MK OUTLIER to an idea that popped into my head while watching Behind Enemy Lines. The idea was: a man trapped in a small space station working together with someone on earth to solve a problem of global significance. What problem? I had no idea.

[FONT=&quot]I needed tomake a film, and fast. I’d make something quick and dirty, cheap but full ofenergy. I thought about the games I was into, the movies I liked. The Tarkovskifilm ‘Stalker’ and the game based on it were favorites. Something about the wayTarkovski makes so much of so little; terrifying the audience with sound andacting, not big effects or monsters. Then there was the game of the same name;terrifying atmosphere and great action. Somewhere in my mind these thingsstarted to blend with my space station idea, but had yet to fully form.

[/FONT]Something had always intrigued me about the ‘last man on earth’ stories and I knew that this would be an easier thing to film with limited resources. I grew up in areas that could easily be used to create great atmosphere, but wasn’t sure how to leverage them. I’d loved the Vincent Price ‘Last man on earth’ but while there was a lot to enjoy in Will Smiths ‘I Am Legend’ every time I watched it I was left feeling that there was something missing. I felt that the idea of him as the last man on earth was fine for the first act but it really couldn’t be sustained for the second one, and the third was a hurried mash as a result of bringing in the real story so late. This dissatisfaction continued to spin inside me and the other ideas I had started to mesh onto it. I also watched ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ a few times. This was another movie that had intrigued me. On the surface a guy is running for his life behind the titular enemy lines, but beneath this is a story about a guy who has lost his mojo, a reluctant hero who is forced to make a decision about what’s right after his boring life is thrown off course. He has to rise to the challenge life has thrown him or die. One of the storytelling mechanics in this movie is that the guy has a radio and spends his time running from a largely unseen enemy and talking to his father figure commander at home base, who helps him on his journey to safety, and his inner journey to himself. Mostly the guy is just running through forests.. hmmm…

My pitch to Warren (Warren plays the protagonist and is a long time friend) went something like this; “OK, imagine that you’re watching Will Smith in ‘I Am Legend’ for the first part, and it’s awesome. Then he gets in touch with someone over a radio, they argue and the guy doesn’t know what disaster Will is talking about. Then we find out that the guy is in space, in a space station. He’s stuck there. Cool. They eventually work together to try to find out what’s going on. Then I revealed the plot twist to him. Warren is a very harsh critic. He said "Nice, that's actually pretty good."
After I pitched the idea to a few other people including random strangers (always the best) and getting positive feedback I was happy to go forward with this idea and started writing the script.

I decided I’d write the script with particular actors in mind. Warren would play the main character, having done a great job in previous shorts and having a great screen presence. Our mutual friend Dave was also cast as a natural foil for Warren. I knew that if I based their character’s traits on the actors I could get them to give good performances. They wouldn’t have to do too much outside of what they do naturally. I also cast the lead female role, but the actress ended up getting pregnant, leading to only some minor re-writes. Casting early sped up the writing as I could only ever write characters that these real people could play. I found that I had to make their story arcs, or journeys slightly smaller or less extreme, but that this would be fine as long as the situations they were in created enough drama.

I did a brief outline then bashed out a first draft very quickly. The outline was just a list of scenes in which the basic turning points were noted. I had the act breaks pretty much worked out in terms of the action, when they would occur and what the changes were. I made a few structural mistakes I would later have to correct while shooting, but for the most part got it right. I didn’t have a location for the ending, but decided I would find one when ready. I knew what it should look like so figured that would be enough for now.

I sent the draft to a few people and got the feedback I’d become accustomed to by this point (this was my 6th feature script, I use a script editor). The protagonist was too one dimensional, some things didn’t make sense, how was I going to achieve certain technical aspects etc. I reworked and reworked the script over a few months while I began building props, sourcing the costumes and wording up the cast.

Once I was happy that we had certain aspects of the script nailed down I decided we could start shooting. I knew that we could shoot a lot of the action without having the script perfect as none of the major action would change much. Happily I discovered that this was almost entirely true. To this day I only ever had to reshoot one scene because of script changes. This is because I got the all important structure almost perfect to begin with. Almost.

At this point I started to suspect that I had a really good story. Several people who read the script told me they couldn’t put it down. I had finally turned out a script worth a damn (I hoped!) Suddenly I wanted it to be more than just a quickly made miniDV feature. I could see that we could do so much more, and many of my past experiences (that I thought were failures) suddenly made sense. I knew how to do everything I needed because of everything I’d previously lived through.

Most importantly I knew that for me the one thing that often stopped me getting things done was over thinking things. I had to start shooting.
Fast.
 
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Our camera rig - first incarnation:
Canon HV40, IndieRails Pro, DIY Lens Adaptor, Canon Zoom, Manhattan LCD, DIY shoulder rig.
We later switched to a JagPro Lens Adaptor, Canon FD primes, Shotgun mic and a lighter LCD.
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Early Costume Test:
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Creature Suit Development:
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Framing out the Space Station Set ( in my shed):
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On Set in the first garage set:
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