Digital effects keep getting cheaper and cheaper to do from home. Maybe that’s why a lot of digital effects these days look like they’ve been churned out by a five year old playing on his Mac. The effects in Men In Black II and Attack of the Clones sure were great, weren’t they? Grumble…grumble…grumble.
But, in the right hands, digital effects can be executed well enough to pull you into the film instead of making you want to shield your eyes. Take Ohio filmmaker Peter John Ross’s “New World” for instance, budgeted at $1,000, it contains 211 digital effects shots, all done on home computers. “’New World’ is not intended to be a final product, but strong representation of what I intend to do with “New World” when it becomes a TV series,” Ross says of his film.
Jon Osbeck is another filmmaker who is looking to digital video as a cheaper means to create his vision. “Five years ago, I could not have been able to afford to do my movies. The costs of film alone would have been more than double the expense than the shoot, the editing and audio on my movies,” Osbeck says of his work. He currently has six short films under his belt.
Peter John Ross’s “New World” will be screened at this year’s San Diego Comic Con (August 1-4) as well as the Ohio State Fair this August.
Jon Osbeck’s episodic series “MANN” is currently being featured in Florida’s Detonate Film Expo and won the Audience Award for Best Comedy at the Drop Your Shorts Short Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio.
Visit John Peter Ross’s website for more on New World.
