Update: Though I was lured to promote his kickstarter with promises of working on the film, as soon as the campaign ended, Mr. Dickinson went radio silent on me. I have to regard the whole thing as gullibility on my part, and bullshit (in the H. G. Frankfurt sense) on his. For that reason I’ve stripped the links from this post. No need to keep getting played.
Are you a supporter of indie sci-fi? Want to be? There is a Kickstarter that I want to point you to, for some shared-interest reasons, and other completely selfish ones. First, the Kickstarter. It’s for a film called Creative Control, by Benjamin Dickinson.
In Near-Future Brooklyn, an ad exec uses a new Augmented Reality technology to conduct an affair with his best friend’s girlfriend…sort of.
The shared-interest reason I’m sharing it is that it looks like cool, indie sci-fi. The kind of stuff that’s not about pimping action figures, but about luscious storytelling.
The selfish reason I’m sharing it is that the director, Benjamin Dickinson, has asked me to consult on the interfaces for the film. You see, the kickstarter money is specifically for the funds to get the UI conceived, designed, and built. The first threshold of money goes for the VFX, but if it doesn’t happen, there won’t be a project for me to consult on. If you’re the sort who supports indie projects like this and the film goes through, I’ll be working with Ethan Keller, the guy behind the now-familiar and beautiful Productivity Future Vision for Microsoft.
Benjamin’s no slouch either, being a kickstarter “veteran”, funding his first feature-length film there, which garnered a lot of audience love, attention, and praise. Check out First Winter on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video if you’re curious about that.
Oh, and the cast is eye opening too, amongst which are H. Jon Benjamin (of Archer and Bob’s Burgers fame) and Reggie Watts of this wonderful insanity.
On top of that the big brains may (still in talks) at META consult on the VFX as well. So, an all star team all around.
I’ll admit I’m eager to lend my voice to the project, and therefore eager to see it get funded. Check it out and pony up some credits if you want to see a film with some UI by a filmmaker who wants to see it done right, with attention to the interface as an important part of the narrative rather than just indulgent “interface porn” or a pretty-stick afterthought.