Homemade Sci-Fi explores the rapidly-expanding galaxy of independent and DIY science fiction movies, web series, short videos and related mutations of the moving image.
Who are we? Why are we here? Excellent questions, Adm. Stockdale.
DJ Bad Vegan wrote and directed the offbeat DIY sci-fi feature In-World War, currently in post-production. A life-long sf fan, he grew up reading sci-fi icons such as Jack Vance, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and Anne McCaffrey -- and worshipping Star Wars, Star Trek and the original BSG. He also produced the acclaimed underground feature, Quality of Life. (It's not sci-fi, but still watchable, believe it or not.) He also serves up practical, in-the-trenches tips and lessons for other ultra-low budget filmmakers at DIY Filmmaking Sucks.
Ben Rubin is a scholar and a gentleman, currently in the MFA program for film at Columbia University. He also needs to write his bio. We're going to publicly shame him until he does so. Shame shame shame Ben Rubin. Shame.
Nuala is a cat. There's really nothing more to it than that.
Hunter Prey is an awe-inspiring and visually striking space thriller that is all the more impressive when taking the shoe-string budget into account. We saw the first thirty minutes of the film at Comic-Con and it kicked ass.
This is a must-see. If Syfy doesn't pick it up, they're nuts.
From the official website:
Hunter Prey centers around a group of elite intergalactic commandos that have crash-landed on a harsh and unknown planet while transporting an alien prisoner. Now they must track down and recapture the escaped creature, and their orders are to bring it in ALIVE.
The guys behind SciFinal (a great site devoted to sci-fi web shows) are fresh off the release of an online series of their own.
Zerks Log is a sci-fi comedy web series told through the found video logs of an alien space commander who clearly has issues. Happily for those of who love the old BBC series Red Dwarf and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, sci-fi funny business seems particularly suited to the web series format, promising a possible renaissance for lo-fi sci-fi comedy. You should check it out.
Read on for an exclusive interview with Producer/Director Steve Lettieri.
Set thousands of years in the future, a derelict spacecraft powered by a human brain [named HENRI] floats aimlessly in the outer reaches of space. Yearning for freedom and yet unable to move, HENRI devises a plan to build himself a mechanical body from parts of the ship.
Director Eli Sasich was kind enough to give us an exclusive interview about the film.
We both were undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz and he had just made a no-budget sci-fi feature film (the third in a series, if I recall correctly).
It was amateur. It was corny. Everything about it looked like ultra-cheap student filmmaking. But it was a powerfully delirious experience to see a fellow student make a feature film, inspiring my own "don't ask permission" approach many years later.
Jesse now works in the movie industry professionally and continues to make movies on the side -- films that look every bit as polished as any Hollywood blockbuster.
Check out the trailer his latest short film, Cockpit: The Rule of Engagement, and read our exclusive interview with him.
