Upcoming podcast interview with Behind The Steam

Quick update on The Lazarus Machine – next week writer/producer Steve, composer Chris and I will be interviewed by Alyssa and Kristin of Behind The Steam, a great music-oriented podcast focused on the rather diverse Steampunk scene. It was scheduled for yesterday but postponed due to flu – get well soon, Kristin!

Looking forward to that enormously, particularly since in the last few days we have managed to arrange three original tracks from Unwoman, Sunday Driver and Vernian Process. I love how approachable everyone in the Steampunk music scene is!

Remember to spread the word about The Lazarus Machine’s KickStarter campaign – we’ve had a lovely response from those who’ve seen the page – but we need to reach more people!

Unleash the Steampunk!

Time for an update on our long-awaited web serial. Things are moving fast now, so I will be posting much more frequently! As a reminder, here is the test scene we shot as a proof of concept – click through to watch the video…

This was a great experience – cast and crew were wonderfully enthusiastic, the CG sets are fantastic, and we’re very happy with the results. Now it’s time to repeat the process on a grander scale to create 8 episodes of about 8 minutes each. It’s comparable to shooting a feature.

The most important news is that the project has a new title. “Winter” has been a great working title, but it doesn’t convey anything about the story. So henceforth the flagship story of the Voidships world will be…

“The Lazarus Machine”.

And we’re going to need more help. We have a KickStarter campaign poised to launch, and a lot of very exciting news to reveal, particularly if you’re a fan of great actors, steampunk music or behind-the-scenes VFX breakdowns. We have all manner of ways to keep track of our progress, and we need you to share our ramblings with anyone who likes steampunk, or independent filmmaking, or science fiction, or good drama:

Email! Go to monstrousproductions.com and sign up to the mailing list.

Twitter! Follow @Voidships or @adaddinsane or @Qixotl.

Google+! Join The Lazarus Machine community.

In fact…check out the G+ community right now for our first casting reveal!

Steampunk: the State of the Genre

I thought I’d collate all the other upcoming steampunk film projects I’m aware of, mostly for my own benefit. The question is, will these projects suck away the potential audience for Winter, or can we ride their coat-tails to a greater audience than we could have reached without them? I’m an optimist – I think we’ll benefit from the increased awareness of the genre.

Boilerplate – JJ Abrams, based on the book by Paul Guinan.

LarkLight – dir. Shekhar Kapur, based on the novels by Philip Reeve. Delayed to 2013.

Les Aventures Extraordinaires d’Adele Blanc-Sec – Luc Besson, based on the graphic novels by Jacques Tardi.

Steampunk: The Movie – dir. Billy Boyd (not the Billy “Pippin” Boyd). Low-budget US indie film, currently in post.

Bioshock Infinite – upcoming videogame set in a flying city above turn-of-the-century America.

I’ve definitely missed some important ones. I’ll update when I remember…