Sci-Fi Short Film "Firmware" | DUST
A young woman and her decommissioned military droid struggle to escape a nuclear exclusion zone, hoping to find a better life on the outside-- free from the oppression of the forces that keep her there.
"Firmware" by Calvin Sander Romeyn
Connect with the Filmmakers:
/ calvinromeyn
www.roxelcreative.com/
www.nichevfx.com/calvin
More About "Firmware":
1990. 20 years have passed since "The Incident". Civilization has collapsed and national borders have been forgotten. The walled-off "Alcazar Exclusion Zone" has emerged as a small functioning society- a melting pot of survivors from around the world. A young woman and her decommissioned military droid struggle to escape, hoping to find a better life on the outside-- free from the oppression of the forces that keep her there.
"Firmware" Credits:
Created by Calvin Romeyn
Cast:
Zaraiah - Angel Celiz
AL1, Old Man - Reece Presley
Misha “The Exploded” - Sam Krochmal
Ivan “The Ambitious” - Suksham Shan
Resistance Leader - Clarie Johnstone
Tannoy Voice - Miglė Kužmarskytė
Droids - Sam Romeyn, Reece Presley
Droids (Voice) - Calvin Romeyn
Additional Performance Capture - Angel Celiz, Reece Presley, Sam Krochmal, Sam Romeyn, Calvin Romeyn
Screaming Woman (Voice) - Avery Taylor
Children (Voices) - Fraser Romeyn, Wesley Romeyn
Gintars “The Taser Wielder” (voice) - Jessica Wong
Nikolaj “Dog’s off The Leash” (voice) - James R. Cowley
Additional Voices - Larry Clay, Jeff Hlookoff, Noah Penner, Angel Celiz, Isaac Kuntz, Emily Wildeman, Jeff Hlookoff, Calvin Romeyn, Sam Romeyn, Welsey Romeyn, Fraser Romeyn
Crew:
Produced and Written by Calvin Romeyn, Sam Romeyn, Noah Penner
Composer - Jose Pavli
Sound Design - Sam Boulton, Anize Amestoy
Visual Effects - Calvin Romeyn
Colour Grading - Brite Point Media
Lead Animator - Fred Smith
Animators - Austin Wright, Emily Chin, Calvin Romeyn
Rigging Lead - Will Inglis
Additional Texturing - Francois Van Eeden
FX Artist - Sam Li
Performance Capture by Beyond Capture, Vancouver
President & CEO - Graham Qually
Production Manager - Maeve Russell
Studio Lead - Vandy Sok
Animation Supervisor - David Raposo
Producer - Rommel Cruz
IT Manager - Eitan Israelov
Tools Programmer - Sinead Kearney
Shoot Master - Ryan Basaraba
Realtime Technician - Parker Hartzler
Camera Lead - Ali Heraize
First AD - Matt Lautrup
Capture Technician - Russell Ma
Audio Technicians - Carlos Rodriguez, Nathan Aron Romer
Production Coordinator - Jenny Zinger
Associate Producer - Mitchell Roberts
Production Coordinator - Bradley Tyler
Facial Lead - Albert Poblete
HMC Technician - Nicole Wheatley
Facial Animators - Morgan Gonzales, Jessica Gonzales
Mocap Editors - Guillermo Aguero, Ashleigh Ayers, Audrey Ayoub, Joshua Brown, Andres Ferrat, Andrea garcia de alba, Kendell Maloles, Julian Martinez, Angelo Nunez, Savian Sills
Brand Manager - Ryan Kearns
Movement Director - Charles Douglas
Marketing Manager - Monika Qually
Financial Controller - Jesse Wirachowsky
Infrastructure Development - Jamie Smith
Prop Maker - Kenzo Babin
Behind The Scenes - Ruby Alstad, Emily Doyle, David Van Dyke, Ben Dextraze
Assistant (to the) Director - Tina Romeyn
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Hey Everyone! Calvin, the director here. Thank you for watching Firmware!
My name is Sam Romeyn, co-writer, voice actor, and mocap actor for the soldiers and military droids. I loved getting exploded, tazed, and falling off a box for this film! Thank you dust!
Not gonna lie, the human movements and facial expressions are deep in the uncanny valley, but aside from that, acting, setting, sounds, everything was extremely well done. Nice work!
Poor ol chappie, nice to see he is still making movies
Hi guys! I'm Angel and I play Zaraiah. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the support! I hope for everyone watching, you guys enjoy the artistry and countless hours of dedication that we have poured into this project.
Co-writer and co-producer, here - thanks for watching, everyone!
DEFINITELY one of the better Sci-fi shorts I've seen in a long time!!! MASSIVE THUMBS UP 👍!
Nice to finally see the results of all our hard work. Well done Calvin! This looks amazing!
You know when it's done right, it leaves you wanting more.. Well, I want more! Look forward to the behind the scenes feature.
Wow!! I toke time to realize that was an animation!! Superb!!
I am thoroughly impressed. Finally, a movie with 100% accuracy in the computer systems and operation. Somebody did their homework!
Love this soooo much!!! The fact this was all done in unreal is awesome!
I love that technology has progressed to the point that anyone who is willing to learn and put in the time can produce TV/Movie quality work. Kudos! Audio design, performances, colour/grit effects to give it a film feel were all excellent! I was fully immersed.
Excellent story and marvelous skins. could not tell it was animation until she was moving/running. Computers haven't perfected that yet.
In a word, BRILLIANT. It's all about the story, and it was very well crafted.
Such an awesome and amazingly talented crew! Congratulations to everyone who worked on this film!
This was absolutely one of the best I've ever seen. I love how the conclusion was actually a new beginning, I want to see more of this story!
(girl) “You gotta be kidding!”
Whoever Calvin is, I'm pretty sure he'll be awfully proud and pleased to know that his work was superb!
I was glued the whole video😅