Given a surplus of spare time of late, I’ve taken a critical look at the long-stalled Orphan project. An ambitious amalgam of music video and sci-fi short that has languished too long in production hell.
Although filming proceeded apace a few years ago, setback after setback hit the schedule, especially when trying to secure a regular crew, props, and suitable shooting locations. However, after reviewing and organising the footage already shot, I’m still able to make the story happen.
Often derided by critics of modern genre movies, “Scrapbooking” has been used to describe a filmmaking approach seen in effects-heavy blockbusters, where scenes are often shot in greenscreen isolation while the script is still evolving. The movie is then assembled in post-production from these individual scraps. This doesn’t always work, and the end result often wants for coherence despite such creative editing.
In the case of Orphan, a fair amount of the footage already exists, with additional takes (and especially outtakes) now repurposed to fill out the storyboard. Making good use of DaVinci Resolve Studio’s ‘Magic Mask’, I’ve been able to isolate actress Aida Knight from these shots in a separate project. The cleanly masked result is then composited with stock footage and self-designed FX work to augment the environment, retaining the original scenery where appropriate.
Although there’s a little more telling than showing than I’d like in this new take, the narrative still holds together – along with the underlying humanity of Aida’s performance. Any visual jankiness and abstract hyper-reality only adds to the ‘Blade Runner on a budget’ Cyberpunk vibe.
And it’s working! The revised assembly cut has been delivered to the band, progressive goth rockers Dawn of Elysium, with the first ‘final’ candidate hopefully expected in the next few weeks as I finish off the effects, grading, and supplementary storytelling devices. Their patience through this production has been saintly.
This is a most auspicious time to finally pull everything together, as the band release their third full-length album The Mandela Effect on September 22nd, around the Autumn Equinox. Orphan takes its place within ten tracks that ruminate on time and alternate realities, and I look forward to hearing more than just this one.
Dawn of Elysium celebrate the album launch a few days later, on Saturday September 26th at The Underground, Bradford. Although I won’t be there myself, I wish them all well as I crack on with the process.
Production Stills
