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Thieves: Upcoming Cyberpunk film w/ Objectivist moral

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Jesse G. Barnes

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Let me first get this out of the way: I read the Forum Rules and have perused the site a while before I decided to do this, so I hope I'm not breaking forum etiquette. If I am, I apologize and I will make amends. I figured to avoid congestion and redundancy I would skip an "introduction" thread for the time being and just post this here. The best way to get to know me is through my art anyhow. It is me. Now before you go digging into this project, know that I don't consider myself wholly an Objectivist. I am not versed enough in the philosophy to confidently apply that title to myself yet. However, the majority of Objectivism I agree with -- and prior to even knowing who Ayn Rand was or what Objectivism is -- I already lived an Objectivist lifestyle and my attitude and art reflected that.

NOTE: Some of this material has a "Coming 2011" phrase attached to it. As typical with projects this ambitious, release dates are rarely hit. Thieves has been delayed to a 1st quarter 2012 release window. This is a short film.

Teaser trailers, articles, production stills and posters for Zenisphere Films' upcoming cyberpunk short, Thieves.

VIDEO:

NEW!

NEW!

Our video interview with Spoiler Free Movie Sleuth

First official teaser trailer!

LOOK:

First Poster

First production still

Our first character poster for Agent Janice Monroe

Jason Arthur character poster

LISTEN:

Most People Are DJs interview My interview starts about halfway through the podcast.

READ:

Our article on Fanbolt.com

My Q&A with Bill at EGEM-Mag.com

If you have any questions or comments regarding the production, please feel very free to throw them my way. It is an immense help to openly discuss this project as ideas and inspiration can be found anywhere.

Third Character poster for child prodigy, Anna Vanderhoff...

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Production still of terrorist and fanatic, Jason Arthur...

295752_273269132714168_171968912844191_738765_647135966_n.jpg

Edited by Eiuol
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After seeing the teaser trailer, I'm intrigued. It's a little hard to figure out what it's about, but I get the sense you wanted that. I adore cyberpunk as it is. I get a Neuromancer vibe from this, in the sense of the aesthetic from the lighting looks good, and it involves some kind of crime or shady dealings. I don't know if you've seen the movie Johnny Mneumonic, but this comes across as way more interesting.

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Thank you very much! :)

I haven't read much of Neuromancer. I have a hard time reading fiction. Yet, I do take this as a compliment. Comparing my work to the godfather of cyberpunk in a positive way is...well, I won't argue with that. ;)

And yes, I do not intend to allow my potential audience to know much going in. That is an accurate assessment. It is meant to be very elusive. The short itself will not be holding any hands either. I don't spell anything out for you as I despise films that assume I'm an idiot. I find the less I'm told, the more fun I have letting my imagination run wild.

I've seen Johnny Mnemonic, yes. It's a pretty cheesy flick with a lot of potential and some fairly compelling ideas. And again, thank you for the compliment, but please keep your expectations in check. Thieves is a micro-budget short in every sense of the word.

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Johnny Mneumonic is a bar almost anyone can pass. =P And that was a high budget movie compared to what Gibson wanted.

We'll see how it ends up soon enough! I'm probably intrigued especially because it reminds me of a story I wrote once I intended for film (it wasn't cyberpunk, though).

Edited by Eiuol
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Tell me about this story you wrote. Is it available online anywhere?

I'll second that request.

I don't have the software on this computer to watch the videos, but I'm interested by the rest of the sources you made available. The pictures provided are especially interesting, and I'm impressed by your use of lighting. I'm also interested in watching Patrick, in order to get a better idea of what to expect form Theives. I've gathered that it's on Youtube

but as I said, I can't view it at the moment. This is the proper link though?
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Thank you, Mudo!

We still have one or two more posters down the pipe. I'm glad the ones I have currently have piqued your interest as that's the intention: to give our potential audience a reason to want to dig deeper.

Lighting was a very important element to me to get just right for Thieves. I faltered a couple of times as we had to condense what was a three day script into two nights, but for the most part I'm happy with how the lighting turned out. Thank you for noticing this so quickly. There are some rather subversive and esoteric color symbols, but that's a more personal tool to nail down tone.

That is the correct link for Patrick, yes, although that's one of the least personal projects I've ever made. The DP for Thieves co-wrote and directed Patrick with me. We strictly had experience with comedic sketches prior to Patrick and we really wanted to force ourselves to step out of our comfort zone and shoot a very serious dramatic psychological thriller on a shoestring. Our crew and our budget was teeny tiny and our gear was much cheaper than what we had for Thieves.

While I do feel Patrick couldn't have turned out a whole lot better, considering our incredibly limited resources and experience, I'm still very proud of it despite it's "student film" vibe. I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you so much for your kind words and time.

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I can tell you that I'll be watching this.

I was impressed with your filming work on Patrick, especially for your first serious film, but it had three big flaws that even I could point out. An unsteady camera, cluttered backgrounds, and weak acting in dialouge. From what I've gathered though, each of those problems has been adressed thoroughly in Thieves. The camera seems to move very smoothly in both the scenes from the teaser and the trailer (I'm looking at the punch thrown at the end of the trailer in particular). The lighting and backgrounds seem brilliant and well designed, as opposed to Patrick's dream scene in suburbia. As for dialouge and acting, this is mostly personal preference, but Mr. Arthur's acting gives me chills. I love it.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Thieves, and planning on keeping an eye on Zenisphere in the future.

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Thank you very much for your insight, Mudo! :)

Patrick is far more flawed than that I can tell you. The idea itself I think is strong, but I wasn't deeply personally invested in the story. It was literally just an experiment. So, the writing is uninspired. I never directed anything very serious prior to Patrick and it shows. I wasn't demanding enough on the actors and not only that, since I was never confident in the writing, I was never confident in my direction.

The equipment we had were a few extension cords and two painter's lights, two very small (and very consumer grade) HD cameras and a tripod. I think the shots are decently composed, considering the clutter, and I'm still impressed with our extended tracking shot for the skirmish near the end. For having next to nothing to steady our cameras except a tripod and our hands, I think we did pretty well.

With all that said, as deeply flawed as Patrick clearly is -- believe me, I'm the first person to admit this when I turn people on to it -- I'm extremely proud of what we pulled off considering our limited resources and experience. I have no formal training whatsoever. I've never taken a single class on writing or film. I've learned everything I know -- and still do -- just from watching films I love.

Thieves is very flawed as well. While I've grown as a director and writer quite exponentially since Patrick, amateur film making, I'm finding, is far more difficult than I ever guessed. We had to cram a three day script into two days for Thieves. We were rushed and we dropped the ball a couple times. You'll most likely catch these errors when you see it for the first time. Regardless, Patrick rewarded us with some attention by some of the strongest and most talented local artists in the Detroit film community and I got several professionals who were willing to work for free just to be part of something we all feel is so special. We had a MUCH nicer camera with some pretty rad gear I've never seen before and several lenses and a very experienced camera operator to go with it. We had a REAL lighting guy. A professionally trained hair and make-up artist. I even had a script supervisor! Who would have thought how important a script supervisor is?!

Sheldon Simmons, who plays Jason Arthur, never acted a day in his life prior to auditioning for the role. Since the project is so very personal to me, I was going to play the lead, supported by the encouragement of my assistant director. As I was developing the character more, I realized I needed some qualities out of him that I just don't have. Sheldon worked next door to where I do and he was a regular. Something about him struck me as having a hidden talent. He was the only guy I auditioned. He got the part immediately.

I strongly appreciate your honest insight and your kind words. These are the kinds of comments I like getting: ones filled with genuine critique and honest praise where it's deserved. I'm thrilled you've noticed some of the special care that went into especially the set design (which we built almost entirely ourselves). Lighting was very important to me this time around to get that futuristic almost comic book-ish vibe and I think we did a pretty good job with that. Thieves is still a couple of months away yet as this is certainly the most demanding film I've done to date filled with technical hurdles which I had no idea how to surpass before I started it. It's gonna be a while and I hope I can count on you to hang on because I can promise you it will be worth it.

Thank you dearly.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Within two weeks at worst. However, it will not be widely available right away. It will first be released exclusively to press, bloggers, writers etc. I'll make a more concentrated effort soon to get into contact with those who are interested in reviewing it. Btw, Eiuol, I haven't forgotten about your story. I left off about halfway through it, but to make a long story short, I'm swamped with constant obstacles lately of every sort.

Thanks for checking in. :)

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Thieves will be available for press review in the next few days. However, we are looking into a special private screening FOR PRESS ONLY hopefully within a month. So, if you operate a regular blog, website, or do video reviews, write essays, or any other considered form of publication, you are welcome to see an early screening of Thieves FREE in exchange for your honest review! Please reply here as a comment or email us: [email protected] if you are interested!

If you are not from the Detroit area/or can't make it to the private screening and still wish to review Thieves, we still encourage you to contact us. Accommodations will be made.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have been immensely busy with press screenings and promoting Thieves like it's my job.

Thieves has been accepted into the Mitten Movie Project which is a very big deal for amateur film makers from my area as a very large number of films are regularly rejected. This is a particularly exciting festival to be accepted to because it happens once every month with a best film of the month awarded every show. At the end of the year a special festival showcasing each "best" film is held with a film of the year awarded at the close.

So far, we've had very mixed reviews of Thieves (not exclusive to published reviews) but nothing that would be considered "bad" yet, thankfully. The worst we've heard is that it's "just ok." Here are the only two reviews that have rolled in so far...

This reviewer had more strongly positive things to say, but also said that it "drags and drags" and "there's absolutely no suspense or tension." http://www.horrormoviediary.net/2012/02/thieves.html

This reviewer, however, loved it, calling Thieves "thinking man's sci-fi" that "is a dense piece that may take a couple views": http://www.spoilerfreemoviesleuth.com/2012/02/short-film-thieves.html

We will be having many more reviews releasing by the time April rolls around with many more festival announcements down the pipe.

I've never sent out and answered more emails in such a short span in my life. Plus, we've just had a new casting call go out for our next short film which will be very far from cyberpunk. I have been drenched in digital communications and preparations for festivals.

As for the public Youtube release, we're still not certain when the best time for that will be. We need to solidify some festival entries first. In the meantime, I am toying with some unique ways of releasing it. Remember, if you are a writer/blogger and want to review Thieves before it is released, please let me know and I can hook you up with a private screening and a press kit.

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  • 1 month later...

Been a long time. I've been severely busy with all sorts of life stuff happening everywhere. Well, I've sent Thieves out to a few festivals with more to come. Four of which so far are Michigan festivals: The Mitten Movie Project. The Reel Michigan Film Festival. The Jaxon Film Festival. The Thriller Chiller Film Festival.

And one festival in Ontario, Canada: The Brantford Film Festival.

Here are more reviews of Thieves. These two are incredibly positive:

http://wescoastrevie...ew-thieves.html

http://www.fanbolt.c...m_%27Thieves%27

And a very confusing, horribly written review. Seems like he was impressed by the technical aspects, but overall found the film hard to follow. I think that's what he's trying to say here:

http://jadedviewer.b...ves-review.html

The press screenings both went extremely well with a handful of highly positive reviews on their way from the journalists who attended. Can't wait for those to be published! Don't forget, Thieves is STILL open to review for writers who wish to review it for their website, blog, or magazine. Just let me know and I can get you the online screener!

Edited by Jesse G. Barnes
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  • 1 month later...

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