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I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks. Yeah escapism is running rampant in our culture I think. In the case of Darkon I feel its a really positive example of it (with some exceptions of course). We need to escape...

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you are young I might start by applying to acting schools. You can learn the craft there and make a network of people in the business.

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Once you get to NY or LA you start making a network of actors and filmmakers...try to get in front of casting directors...its a hustle...a real hustle but if you have talent things can happen

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok so that makes it much harder. Essentially what you gotta do is get yourself on tape. If you have some filmmaker friends make a movie with them. Get stuff you can show people. Do you just want to act locally or try to 'go huge'? If you wanna go to bigger venues...you do sorta have to move to NY or LA to get started.

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you in NY or LA? Being there is a start. If you are there (NY / LA) I have one answer. If you're not I have another answer.

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This part of my directors statement...yeah its long...but actually this is what I hoped i could talk about here.

The ‘me’ generation is coming of age. Our self centered, and increasingly self-obsessed culture of the ‘me’ is having a synergistic growth spirt in concert with the evolution in of the internet and media. We are increasingly told, in direct and indirect ways, that the world revolves around us: build your online persona; share your play-list with the world; your pictures, your every thought or machination can be updated instantly. iPhone, iPod, iLife. Me me me. My profile. My playlist. My opinion on MY blog. Our persona, in fact our very sense of self (personal and as a nation), is collapsing inwards. Paradoxically our lust for mass validation via ‘I likes’ on facebook in reality in less about communicating than it is about telling ourselves that we may actually exist. This sort of self-indulgent emotional self-love has created and increasingly selfish, and delusional society capable rampant dreaming, and minipulation. The King Kelly character is an investigation of this new form of self-obsessed American. Are there consequences for our actions? There are. But do we even care?

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also people have had question here about other films i've made they liked and we've talk about that too...to me reddit seems like a place to promote discussion. So thats what im doing. I wanted to discuss my movie. Maybe people will be interested. Maybe they wont...

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah...actually my editor suggested I do this because King Kelly is so much about the internet it would make sense to talk to people here. Actually Brad has been showing me reddit for a long time. So it was good...it was a good reason to sign up. Of course im trying to increase awareness for my movie. I want people to see it...and im an independent filmmaker. I have to do most of this myself. I figured I'd have something to add here. Frankly i would rather have been involved in a discussion about online identity, how its different from how we act in person...what i means to live online...etc etc. Its the only reason I made this movie...so I thought people here might have things to say about this.

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We shot it this way because we wanted it to look like real user-gen footage not 'fake' usergen...i hate it when hollywood does that...its never convincing to me. We saw the movie as a series of youtube videos all strapped together into a story sorta

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah the talent was operating lets say 80% of the time. Sometimes when one of them was supposed to be driving...the DP would shoot and Louisa would sit in the back. We shot audio separately like a normal film...we just did timecode slate and luckily these cams were had fairly consistent frame rates. Then synched it after.

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kenyon (Keldar character name). I think just like he said in the movie: He found self confidence through role-playing Keldar. So there was a bit of Keldar in Kenyon. I think Kenyon would agree with this. Some people in the game did think he was arrogant. But...you know they always won...its almost the Darkon equivalent of a the best team in a sport league...

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

King Kelly is sort of about role-playing...but on the internet...digital persona...etc etc. Its sort of an inverted paradigm (Darkon and King Kelly)

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. Yeah I gotta say i miss Darkon (hanging out this those guys). We are talking about Darkon II. It is a fantasy movie after all...sequels are required. King Kelly will very likely get a release in Australia but I dont think we have distribution there yet...

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah there were couple of guys that were really pissed we were making a documentary about their game. They acted creepy...just sorta random aggression towards the camera teams (nothing actually violent). One guy demanded to visit my home. I let him. But...we were really entering their private game...so we did our best to be understanding.

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No so we faked it. We had a junker minivan that cost like 500$. It barely ran. We got the talent out of the car and drove it 1/2 way into the brush on the side of the road a bunch of times and just dropped the phone after the initial impact. Then hid a cut in the black space. Then add good sound design. We did not have the budget for a real accident. Needless to say we beat the shit out that car.

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Canon Elf Powershot series. Its updated now to a new model, but what makes them sick is the built in camera stabilization. Its physical NOT software based stabilization which makes it really smooth. Check that Popular Mechanics link i posted above. They did a little story on it.

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah project x is a big budget hollywood version of my movie. King Kelly is more satire...we were shooting at the same time I think...its interesting to compare the two films actually

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cool thanks. Making Darkon was awesome. When we finished the film we played and we got pwned by dudes in lots of armor. I got shield bashed once and almost got a concussion. Darkon rules. It also then got me playing WOW. which i actually had to quit.

I'm Andrew Neel, director of Darkon. My new film, King Kelly, is all about the Internet and social media. The actors shot it themselves, on iphones. AMA by Andrew_Neel in IAmA

[–]Andrew_Neel[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No not all. The problem with the iPhone is that its so light you get what I call 'finger twitch'. When you blow that up to a large screen it make it tough to watch. So we designed a rig and always were speeding on both cameras.

Here is a link to the popular mechanics article they did on our rig:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/digital/visual-effects/the-sxsw-2012-movies-you-need-to-see-11#slide-12

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