Thanks to Red Shark News for turning me on to this team of Croatian filmmakers who are creating a sci-fi short set in the Blade Runner universe, using visual effects ripped straight out of 1982. Rather than rely on CGI to create their world, they’re building miniatures and shooting multiple passes with a home-brew motion control system, and judging from the trailer they’ve released, the results are stunning.

I started to get really interested in filmmaking as a kid when I saw behind the scenes of how these types of effects were created on films such as Star Wars, Aliens, and the like, and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at using these old-school techniques. Fingers crossed for putting some of my own sci-fi stories into production sometime soon. While I do believe that it’s possible with enough time and knowledge to create completely photorealistic images in the computer, there is still something about  shooting something in the real world that just adds a physicality that’s hard to recreate in CG, especially on a low budget. What’s cool is that we can still take advantage of modern technology to shoot and composite photographic elements for better results than even the biggest films were able to achieve in decades past.

These guys are pretty much my new heroes. They’re great on camera as well, for their own behind-the-scenes videos. Check out their website at http://sliceoflifefilm.com, where you can find more information about the project, and view the trailer and production diaries. I can’t wait to see the final film.