Seventh Victim . . .

Latest news can be found elsewhere:

Seventh Victim can now be downloaded in it's entirety from RapidShare.

Production Log:

July 2004

Following way too many emails on work time, nagging from Darren and a long term desire to do a Twilight Zone style fanfilm, Russell Devlin begins work on an adaptation of Robert Sheckley’s 1953 story “7th Victim”. Russell possesses both the original “Galaxy” magazine it appears in and the X-1 Radio anthology series adaptation, and elects to do it as though it had been an episode of an X-1 TV series.

Aug 2004

The first draft appears. Russell has definite ideas on casting and adapts Sheckley’s characters to people he believes will be able to perform these roles. Darren Maxwell is cast as Stanton Frelaine and Audrey Lamont as Janet Patzig. Andrew Kutzer is approached and agrees to direct. A prototype title sequence is devised and a production plan prepared. The latter is completely revised in coming months due to weather and conflict with other projects.

Sept 2004

The script readthrough takes place & 4 new drafts are prepared following input from actors & crew. Locations are scouted.

Oct 2004

Rehearsals begin for the Stanton/Janet scenes. Because of actor availability, these scenes are to be shot first, not last as originally planned, which creates problems later. Other cast and crew are recruited and materials & props obtained. Final Script drafts are completed.

Nov 2004

Production begins Nov 7. Poor weather affects the first day and only the Coffee shop scene can be shot. The footage looks good but is unusable due to sound problems. A full weekend shoot is undertaken the following week of the Janet/Stanton scenes and this time it works. Darren begins editing and the website is established

Dec 2004

The Producer is subjected to a series of serious crises this month and comes within a hairsbreadth of abandoning the project, but the quality of the first edit makes him persevere.

Jan 2005

Editing continues. It is hoped to restart production but a combination of holiday and other production commitments delay this till February.

Feb 2005

Production recommences with the Stanton/Ed sequences mid Feb and the TV insert scenes at the end of the month.

March 2005

The Stanton apartment & Clothes ad scenes are completed at the end of month and the full length workprint edit completed shortly thereafter

April 2005

We now have a locked edit of the footage in our possession. She runs end to end (from the first frame of Black Maria to the last frame of the credits) at a time of 16 minutes and 43 seconds. As a bonus to this, the music is also complete. We reviewed the music choices to see if any changes needed to be made and are satisfied with the results. All that is remaining now is sound design, addition of some visual effects, with colour correction to be the last task taken on board.

We are hoping to have a sneak preview at the big Star Wars convention Force 4 on May 21-22 at the Cato Conference Centre, The Hotel Y at 489 Elizabeth St Melbourne. _Stars Darren Maxwell, Viv Perry, Geoff Tilley and Kath Shade should be on hand to sign posters, bullets, etc. See www.starwalking.net for details.

Trailer now available - Trailer Download page


July 2005

Well it's been a quiet month at Black Maria but all cuts are complete and the website is being updated and the official 7th Victim premiere at Continuum 3 is only 7 days away. Yes, almost a year after the conception the finished product is ready to be shown to a (hopefully) eager world !!

Continuum 3 is Sat/Sun July 16/17th, at the Hilton on the Park Hotel and Convention Centre, located at 198 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne.

The 7V screening is during my & Darren's Sat 4.00 pm panel "Fan-films: Bigger, Longer, Harder". This will feature a before/after discussion about 7V and other recent fanfilms and hopefully a lively discussion about the divergent approaches taken by filmakers will ensue.

This con also features a Sunday panel chaired by George Ivanov on recent independent genre films, featuring Justin Dix, 7V's own Darren Maxwell and other luminaries and will be well worth attending. More details of the con can be found on

http://www.continuum.org.au/c3_program.html

Again I thank the con organisers for their support and encouragement to fan & indie filmakers.


I had hoped to announce the next BM project "Wonder Woman Vs the Axis of Evil" this month but as our lead Amazon is slightly pregnant that project is on hiatus.

Instead we will move into pre production on our next X Minus 1 story "I Rocket", based on the story by Ray Bradbury.

In keeping with the experimental nature of Black Maria productions this will be an attempt to produce a limited animation film in the style of the classic 1950's EC Science Fiction comics.

I have no idea if that will prove feasible or not but what the hell, we're going to try !!
August 2005

Our second new project is "Plan 10 From Outer Space", a sequel / homage / parody of the Ed Wood cult classic and overall Flying Saucer mythos.

This is a longer term project,  timed to be released with Plan 9's 50th anniversary,

 

April 2006 - Conflux.

Big News folks, well relatively big anyway.

"7th Victim" is to screen at the Conflux Film Festival at Canberra in June !

See http://conflux.org.au/2006/filmfestival.shtml for all details.

This will be the best exposure yet for the production and I advise all of you with suitable productions to enter to do so.

I have completed all the test animation for "I Rocket" and have started on the production animation. Script Rehersals will be held during April & I hope to get the recording done this month also, though once again it's a busy month for all concerned.

So now it's back to the animation prog for a bit of rendering !

 

July 2007 - Full Download Available.

Seventh Victim can now be downloaded in it's entirety from RapidShare.
See the 7V DOWNLOAD page.



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