Neill Blomkamp’s Experimental Oats Studio

Firebase – Neill Blomkamp

As a Sci-Fi fan, I am sure you are familiar with Neill Blomkamp, the director of “Elysium,” “Chappie” and the fan favorite science fiction thriller “District 9.” After many film success stories, Neil created Oats Studio as a way to keep the creative juices flowing. The new studio functions as a production sandbox where he can experiment with creative processes and produce short films that he will release to audiences on Steam and YouTube. Proof of concept short films is an excellent way to test the waters, float ideas, and gain financial backing for a movie. The idea is to see what projects are accessible before going whole-hog and spending a ton of cash developing a feature film. Neil digs the collaborative approach to filmmaking employed by Oats Studio and listens intently to the feedback his shorts generate on social media.

To take the collaborative approach one step further, Neil is selling high-end sound files and 3D images from Oats on Steam for the low price of $4.99 a pop. Filmmakers are encouraged to use the sound and image data sold on Steam to create their own productions and even remake Neill’s films from Oats Studio.

If proof of concept works for others – as it did for Stephan Zlotescu, the producer of the film “True Skin,” a short that turned some heads in Hollywood and was picked up by Warner Brothers and then Amazon Studios, the process can absolutely work for the Hollywood heavyweight Blomkamp. Neill is essentially using the same filmmaking process albeit on a grander scale.

To date, Neill has used his new production facility to release three short films: “Rakku,” “Firebase” and “Zygote,” and holy smokes; the results are nothing short of spectacular for proof-of-concept shorts. My favorite of the bunch is Firebase – a 26-minute long film best described as a horror story that takes place in the jungles of Vietnam complete with a River God, floating tanks, CIA agents and burley take-no-shit soldiers. Firebase is in your face filmmaking at its best.

Watch “Firebase” and let me know what you think of the film in the comments below. A word of warning, this is not a short that you want to eat lunch and watch as the gore factor is off the charts.

Credits*

Neill Blomkamp: Director
Writing Staff: Neill Blomkamp and Thomas Sweterlitsch

Cast:

Steve Boyle: STG. Hines
Nicole Goliath: River God Wife
Robert Hobbs: SGT. Carr
Tyler Johnston: SGT. Bracken
Pat Mastroianni: Dr. Bonham
Nic Rhind: Jacob Palmer
Carlo Yu: River God