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Old School Sci-fi Short Starring Keir Dullea Utilizes Classic Effects
New submitter Wierzbowski85 (2852925) writes Indie Kickstarter-funded sci-fi short HENRi features classic visual effects and storytelling – with a twist. As detailed in Cinefex magazine (issue 134), the film itself utilizes a mixture of the old and the new — combining live-action sequences with puppetry, quarter-scale miniatures, and modern CGI. Speaking with Wired, the film's director said: "The goal was to seamlessly integrate these different techniques to create the world. My philosophy is that effects are merely a tool to help the story, and that in mind, we used pretty much every trick in the book." The film also stars genre legend Keir Dullea, of 2001: A Space Odyssey. In a making-of video for the film, Dullea says, "Having done 2001, [HENRi] was a wonderful homage to Stanley Kubrick and that film." The short is now available for free viewing online at Hulu.
Went to view the Hulu link and it tells me I'm not worthy because I'm not in the USA. That is just douche-baggery.
Shh.
USA, population : 318,463,000
*Rest* of world, population : 6,727,537,000
That's a rather large population who could be donating to get this made that they've just alienated.
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
I think this film was designed to make you want to go dig out your copy of 2001 and watch it. And in that, it succeeded.
Being a 21%er I did get to enjoy the film.
I'm just "this guy", you know?
I'm asking the same. The movie's creators know they are featured on /.. It is possible they read through the comments. They'll see Hulu is very unpopular. I'd like to ask them why they have chosen Hulu and not another, more international website, like youtube with ads enabled, for example.
I watched the film, despite the long commercials. Essentially (for me) it is was a waste of time.
A good scifi film should raise interesting questions (what is "intelligence", "human", "purpose"...) To some degree this film tries to achieve this. A computer more-or-less becomes self-aware on a long-dead spaceship. Okay, good start. However there is no point to it whatsoever. The computer sits in a chair and thinks and then watches the spaceship explode. Questions about why would someone send a (presumably) research vessel aimlessly into deep space, why design an AI that has no mission to accomplish (no programs, projects, repairs to do?), why did the crew die of old age (advanced spaceship and no cryo-storage?). Come on, a generational spaceship with crew being born, trained, and dying would be better. What destroyed the ship at the end?
I feel this film is a weird cross not of 2001, but of "A.I." (where the entire point is to see the robot play out the end of humanity to far-future space aliens discovering the ruins) and "Silent Running" which details a man trying to save the last bio-habitat space station by sending it out into deep space before Earth can destroy it. At the end of the film he hides the habitat in deep space so Earth can't find it, and beyond their reach. So effectively it is the same thing as destroyed, and pointless.
The commercials were more interesting than the movie. The film technique may be impressive and noteworthy. However to me I'd rather watch a film with so-so technique that is entertaining (ex "Avatar") vs something that is avant-garde and boring (ex: "HENRi", "Blue")
Why didn't they just post it to a private web server with no public facing ports?
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I bought and downloaded and watched this almost two years ago, why in the world is it making the 'news' now? It's pretty, but the story felt kind of.. absent, like it was trying to riff off of some of the great sci-fi of the past and not really putting it all together. to make anything particularly coherent.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
It opened fine for me in Firefox with Media Hint - after the obligatory ad of course! But, yeah, Hulu is a terrible choice to host an "indie" short.
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Hi – I'm Eli, I directed HENRi. I normally don't interact with forums or comments concerning my work – once a project is out there, it's fair game. However, I was made aware of the heated discussion here at /. about the film being released on Hulu, and I wanted to clear up a few things.
First, I want to apologize to those of you outside of the U.S. who were unable to view the film due to Hulu's territory restrictions. I certainly want anyone who wishes to see the film to be able to do so, regardless of where they are located in the world. More on that later.
Second, we didn't specifically pick Hulu for distribution. After the festival run we licensed the film with Shorts International and IndieFlix. These two companies then distributed the film with their partners across multiple platforms for maximum exposure – including OnDemand and TV programming, educational use, and streaming / digital download services. Hulu is the latest viewing option to go live, and the first "free" option for those who don't mind a few commercials. Hulu also has region restrictions, which is unfortunate and out of our control.
For our non-U.S. based friends, there are several ways to check out the film. On our website we use a service called Distrify – which allows you to stream or download a copy of the film, and the making-of doc, for a small fee. There are no international restrictions, and we kept the price point at the lowest possible option. For those of you who subscribe to IndieFlix, we are available on their service, which can be accessed around the world. We also sell region-free DVDs and Blu-rays.
I hope that clears up any confusion or frustration some of you had. Many thanks to those of you who have watched the film and supported us. So say we all.
Best,
Eli Sasich