Neill Blomkamp's Oats Studios - short, experimental films - 1st film released

[Vulgar Monkey]

Have to say im not a fan of the cooking shorts (as said, I prefer the high end visdev and broad stroke narrative concepts), but I suppose you're right about them mainly being an exercise in making mundanity unsettling. And that fits into blmkamps wheelhouse nicely.

 

I think I was unsure how to take them.....I was a kinda wondering if they were meant to be funny or something, but now you mention it I think i missed the point.

[MeanElf]

On 07/07/2017 at 08:06, Pelekophoros said:

...There's immense talent in the VFX, concepts and visuals but Blokamps original stuff (can't remember the name, with the robot police etc) was leaps and bounds ahead of all of this. 

That would be Chappie and it wasn't that early, District 9 came out in 2009, as his first full length film, then Elysium in '13 and Chappie two years later.

 

I'm loving the Oates shorts and I seriously hope they're teasers for full length projects which the crowdfunding will make possible.

[JohnC]

I think he means Tetra Vaal, which is basically a prototype short for Chappie I suppose.

[JPL]

Or even Alive in Joburg, which was the precursor to District 9.

[MeanElf]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

I think he means Tetra Vaal, which is basically a prototype short for Chappie I suppose.

 

1 hour ago, JPL said:

Or even Alive in Joburg, which was the precursor to District 9.

Ahh, okay then, I think I've only seen Tetra Vaal out his early short films - can't really recall it though.

[JPL]

38 minutes ago, MeanElf said:

 

Ahh, okay then, I think I've only seen Tetra Vaal out his early short films - can't really recall it though.

It's on YouTube. Check it out. It's really cool.

[instasis]

10 hours ago, JPL said:

Or even Alive in Joburg, which was the precursor to District 9.

 

That's the one. In terms of structure, direction and approach it's far more coherent than most of these (though obviously the VFX are a little lacking...fuck...12 years on). It's telling that the best Oats output so far are some super-shorts that wouldn't be out of place in a Paul Verhoeven movie.

 

EDIT: to expand and on that, and to be fair, Rakka is a grittier version of Falling Skies, which has already had 5 seasons. It'd be nice to see a better version of that, I'm not sure this is it (Weaver notwithstanding). Firebase was some cool mythology coupled with awful acting and a bizarre structure - I get these are shorts, but you still have to sell more than VFX concepts (I think). God is a special effects driven Monty Python sketch without the humour. Cooking with Bill has a wonderful atmosphere too it.

 

Zygote and this single clip are more impressive than the bigger pieces IMHO because they let me do all the imagined world building better than the studio does

 

 

[Commander Jameson]

Teaser #2 for Zygote

 

 

[mindgames]

 

[Grobbelboy]

Love that absolutely horrifying creature, what a brilliantly executed idea. 

[Goose]

I quite enjoyed that one. The creature was a great, hideous design.I did really struggle to understand what the guy was saying though. I was impressed with the world they created in such a short space of time as well, the hierarchy and such.

 

Something I do reckon though - whoever came up with it is a Bloodborne fan. Not only the creatures head full of eyes but I'd almost swear that the creature's screams were sampled from Vicar Amelia's. 

[Benny]

Spoiler

What was with the weird armour with alien guts inside?

[Goose]

I'm assuming it's another thing to get you asking that exact question.

[mr_woo]

Got round to watching all of these (well the 3 main shorts), enjoyed them all but nearly shouted at the screen at the end of Firebase   Zygote was especially superb, thought Dakota Fanning was great and that monster design was absolutely awesome.  From Software would be proud.  I knew I recognised the voice of Quinn, turned out to be Jose Pablo Cantillo from Crank.  Hope we see more of these or at least something someone wants to let Blomkamp turn into a film, genuinely enjoyed them more than Elysium or Chappie. (come on Netflix, you fuckers are funding everything these days)

[Despin]

these short films depress the fuck out of me. I wanna see feature versions of all of them. I miss this exact type of movie in cinemas.

[instasis]

Zygote was amazing. Short, contained, clear narrative, well executed. The monsters head looked like a big penis covered in eyes.

 

Loved it. The short, not the penis covered in eyes. 

[Padaxes]

That was excellent! 

[Benny]

It was probably the best of the shorts so far. A nice premise well executed. The exposition was also well implemented and not overly laboured like the other shorts

 

My favourite thing so far though is the Cooking with Bill segments.

 

Spoiler

I like the idea that the technology they are using is somehow warping in randomly mixed up human parts.

 

[Commander Jameson]

 

[Hawklord]

Just worked my way through all of these. Yeah I'd like to see more parts of each story. The Cooking with Bill stuff reminded me of Frank Zappa for some reason

[Commander Jameson]

It just occurred to me that the two characters in Zygote could almost be Newt and Hicks post-Aliens.

[NecroMorrius]

On 7/12/2017 at 22:36, Goose said:

Something I do reckon though - whoever came up with it is a Bloodborne fan. Not only the creatures head full of eyes but I'd almost swear that the creature's screams were sampled from Vicar Amelia's. 

 

Definitely possibly, Blomkamp is a big gamer. But the creature concept is more or less ripped straight out of a recentish game, I can't say what it is without ruining the ending of the game for people who haven't played it yet.

 

Spoiler

It's an Indie game

Spoiler

From June 2016

Spoiler

Which was a sidescrolling puzzle platformer

Spoiler

Which was made in Denmark

Spoiler

This is your last chance

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Commander Jameson]

 

[tobert]

Thought this was good but the cgi looked halfway been a game and tv show, a bit rough. I wonder if they are testing some performance capture tech using this as a test bed, maybe the title kapture is a nod to this

[Vulgar Monkey]

I was wondering the same thing. There was nothing there that couldnt have been done just as well with live action, so I assume it to be a proof-of-concept of some sort.

[Goose]

 

[Commander Jameson]

ADAM: Chapter 1

 

 

[JoeK]

Hang on, that’s been out for years hasn’t it? 

 

Its very good though.

 

EDIT: Ah! A continuation. Very good!

[Commander Jameson]

 

[Benny]

Just watched that ADAM thing. I really love the concept of it and the visual design.