Something Real, a Culture Novel Based Fan Film By Hieroglyphic Films

[wookiesack]

The drone was awsome! oh man i was worried ited be corny. The drone "hair" was a great touch. And you stayed real close to the book version. Please make a full length movie. Ill give you all my money.

[rebishaz]

This is great! Well done. I think The Player of Games has been my favorite so far. At first I was disappointed I wasn't able to spend the entire series with Horza, but the perspectives of each novel add to the glory and complexity of the Culture universe. Now, back to the unfortunately grueling trials of Matter. 200 pages of medieval setting, 10 pages of Djan in space and back again...

[poirob2]

nice to see that NY hats are still in fashion :) seriously tho guys great stuff!

[MrWms1980]

"I got a patio!" love it :)

[shadowofthebeasts]

Very good standard, Wanted to see the rest!

[davidciren]

@moratjon - incredible, just incredible. The closest and most accurate impression of the Culture I have ever seen. Frankly I'm amazed at just stumbling across this. Thanks! :)

[ewebeepa]

This is the most genuine piece of film I've ever seen. Thank you !!!

[ggungaby]

Hmm...this is pretty good.

[funkb0x]

Brilliant short film.

Thanks for sharing this upload.

[seekortry]

Did they ever continue this project? This is excellent. This had potential. Good acting and everything.

[jdrennie]

@seekortry Sadly, I actually shot a couple of sequels but didn't get the chance to finish them. I needed to earn money instead by that point. I've moved onto other films since then but would love to revisit Banks in the future.

[seekortry]

@jdrennie Hmm :-/ Had you considered asking for funding from your audience? There are a lot of Banks fans that might be willing to support something like this. Consider what happened with Pioneer One. I think this one has potential. I see so many of these videos (like the Rendezvous with Rama intro) that I cannot believe nobody throws money at to produce. All this crappy television gets tons of funding, and there is real money online. Sorry, man. I will check out your other films. Thanks.

[jdrennie]

@seekortry I made them nearly 8 years ago now before all those opportunities were available. I've considered it, but would much rather start again with a new film. I've got a few ideas that are less Banks-influenced and more standalone. Also, I now run my own animation and VFX company so I've finally got the resources to do it right!

[seekortry]

@jdrennie One of Niven's novels would be interesting. For something small, the two parts of Protector seems straightforward. Only five characters, most of it takes place on small spacecraft. The little mini-world would be interesting to model in CGI. I am not sure how difficult it would be to make the Protector human look realistic, though. One good aspect is that their faces (all of their skin) is hardened, and mouths distorted into a beak.

[PG19871230]

Die Drohne hat recht. Er wird die Sicherheit des Spieles vermissen und zurückkehren.

[dazmalski]

Thanks for this. I liked the idea of a drone with dreads.

[SuperMatthew80]

Nice one. Cheers for posting this.

[Earthsage19]

Awesome.

[ahtaimo]

I think I could just about live with the issues arising from being a Culture citizen!

[Dustwyrm]

Great stuff, and a nice primer for Culture virgins.

But I fear Hollywood would take the name and make CGI laden excrement staring Mathew Mcconaughey with soundtrack by Nickelback.

What we need is for an eccentric wealthy person (to the point of being virtually post scarcity) to bankroll a production/distribution with Iain maintaining full executive rights.

Any Australians interested in doing fan stuff please message me.

[pumf1]

Nice one. Now if only Hollywood would take an interest....

[redplague]

In the Culture do humans have sex with drones?

[snowyowl0]

@redplague It's not mentioned in the books I've read, though it's certainly possible, and it fits with the general style of the Culture. I would think yes.

I do know that most humans are bisexual and switch genders at least once in their 300-year lives.

@formless777 Yes, I think so. World Of Warcraft gold and similar "imaginary" currencies would still exist, and could be limited in availability. Such things are not encouraged, but I'm sure they could exist.

[damianpaz]

@redplague yes, and space-ships.

[drippynutsac]

the drone's Aura Field never changes.... Blue is "Formal".

From reading culture novels the Aura Field of drones is constantly changing to represent emotion, and is as hard to mask as human emotion through facial expression. The drone's aura field should not remain blue throughout...

[godthisisannoying]

@drippynutsac The light at the front of the drone is just that, a light at the front of the drone, not an aura, not a field, and definitely not an aura field :) They either didn't want to represent it, couldn't represent it in a convincing way or missed it from the novels (doubtful).

[jdrennie]

@godthisisannoying Ah, that's because it was my first CG animation and I didn't really know how to do that. Besides, doing a real aura field would actually look quite odd. It was my way of representing the aura without going to that much detail. I chose blue for aesthetic reasons.

[dazmalski]

I like this. Is Castor her name? Does she have a twin called Pollux? (I know they were males....but)

[formless777]

Here is a question. If material scarcity ended, and everybody everywhere could have anything they wanted and you couldn't be robbed or harmed and there was an unlimited supply of energy to play with... do you think people would invent new forms of scarcity to torment each other with ? I think they would. I think there are lots of neurotic people who like playing sadomasochistic status games because they are insecure, and that is the true issue of human misery.

[bolobo]

Luc Besson to direct... um... Use Of Weapons. No, Excession.

[Sneaklemming]

Ive never read any Iain M Banks novels - but this fan made film was much better than what you normally see - great job to whomever made it.

[CorvidBlight]

Nice

[SvenTviking]

He claims it is an Anarchist society. Except in foreign policy and war were it is ruled by a select group of minds. He claims the Culture is pacifist. Except SC and those same minds will do almost anything (Have to do almost anything) to secure the culture.

[SvenTviking]

Banks is an interesting character. He writes of this pacifist, techno anarcist society. And claims to want to live in it. But then he has special circumstance. Doing all the nasty, sneaky things needed to secure the culture. Like a big pure white lambs fleece. With a shitty finger print in the corner.

[SvenTviking]

Excellant. There are rumours of a culture film.

The right directer would be the problem. Somebody who could convey all the cerebral stuff, and do the big CGI wham bam mega starships mega weapons stuff. Thats Bank's secret. He satisfys on all levels.

[sunlightguy75]

@SvenTviking Well, that rules out J.J. Abrams and James Cameron as directors... as much as I would like to see a Culture movie, I am also sure Hollywood would mess up everything... maybe Stanley Kubrick could have done it.

[SvenTviking]

@sunlightguy75 I was thinking Kubric but could he have done the humour? Terry Gilliam?

[basslinedan]

@SvenTviking Danny Boyle?

[SvenTviking]

@basslinedan I would say (Here goes!) Peter Jackson. Simply for, no Americam accents in LOTR and not screwing up Gollum! He'll need Andy Serkis to act out Mawhrin Skel....

[conor1986]

class

[Nmax]

I am a big fan of Ian Banks. That was very nice. Well done sir. You've recreated the Culture universe very nicely in this short film.

[MikesDigitalDeath]

Love it!

[junipersuction]

Awesome. I really want to watch a Culture movie - these guys could make it happen. It looks like they took the start of The Player of Games, but wow!

It would need a LOT of CG, Culture ships etc, but they seem to have that covered.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Is there anymore footage of this, or just some test project? info please!!!!

[kryptokrow]

awesome  work

[UGRYF]

Excellent!

[batman2909]

Awesome, loved it.

What's the big red bit at the end for?

[xiangyik]

Shit. They need to make a good culture film real soon.

[moratjon]

Hi all. I'm the writer and director of the film. I've got a new website if you're interesting in seeing the making-of (along with an HD version). As for the comments about my writing - I completely agree! Gladly, I'm also better at VFX now ;-) I sent a copy to Iain not long after I made it and got a very nice typed letter in reply, but I don't think he every watched it. Perhaps one day I'll get to make the Player of Games film! Thanks for all the positive feedback! Jon

[fburton8]

@moratjon Yes, I am interested. Where is your website?

[wookiesack]

@moratjon Oh my god if you start making movie adaptations of Banks books id be first in line. Use of weapons is the best book i ever read. excession was a close second. But they would need top notch special effects. And if you screwed up the drones and made them gay i would hate you. I try to imagine banks movies alot. but it runs the chance of being corny. It needs to be dark and gritty. not clean and romantic.

[WizardJim]

Brilliant, very Banksian even in the style of speech. Ye gods, what I wouldn't do to see a Culture movie...

[redplague]

Pity about the guys acting.

[UniversalCitizen]

Wow this was great! I would love to see more and I am sad the website is gone.

I DO believe there is a good market for great, cerebral sci-fi and I hope that as the technology gets cheaper we will see more great independent works.

I wish I was more of a graphic artist I would make sci-fi adaptations in Flash.

[Cupit29]

Very good.

[TarquinOctal]

Nice start but... Basically that bit in Player of Games, except the guy in the book isn't pissed off about physical authenticity and that. He's pissed off about Culture people *faking* it. Otherwise he's kind of comfy sitting at home and playing board games .What he gets offered by Special Circumstances is the chance to play an entirely different kind of board game...

Making plot points, sorry. In fact I like this a lot, beats Hollywood making hackneyed crap like Avatar.

[oldmagic]

lol still burt-hurt the humans lost?

[mwells219]

yeah if they ever tried to make one of the culture novels into a movie it would tank because no one would be able to grasp the complex ideas that banks deals with.

[Stellarhit]

Very nice. So good to see someone doing something with the culture novels. I absolutely love those books, in fact I bought the whole series yesterday.

Very well made and I very much enjoyed the acting. The animation and acting with the animation was excellent! :) five stars

[Hiteryan]

Sweet

[Fezzelfoxie]

Aww, I really loved this! Made me cry just a little.

Great Job whomever did it, their website seems to have been and gone from the looks of things.

[calibre369]

thanks for uploading this!

[banzospod]

spot on,will someone please make some more,ie the state of the art is do able but i would love to see the excession as a movie.pleeeeeeeeeeze

[magictym]

Something real was filmed in 1 day on digibeta and then 4 months in post production for the speacial effects, colour correction and sound effects to be added. It is the first in a mooted trilogy of 3science fiction shorts, all exploring the theme of the future of humanity and how it can survive when there is no longer any need for it to exist. (My thanks to welshzoetrope for this info.)

Although i haven't found the other 2 shorts. if any 1 does let me know

thanks

[JohnnDwyer]

Well done. Is this an excerpt from "The Player of Games"?

[ffsnametaken]

Nicely done, I'd always wanted to see a movie about the culture

[perfectlysneaky]

This short was really entertaining

[bobbocesu19]

Vadrian 7

Yeah, i think thats becasue they were always male's. I imagined it with male voices too

[montagfire]

I liked it. Well done.

[TheArtLife]

In the future humans will bicker or speak only in expositionary dialogue. Looks nice tho'.

[lodestone77]

Haha - too true. This is what happens when aspiring sfx people write their own dialogue...

But man - top notch job on the visuals, even though that is not at all how I picture drones. Wish I could find the other two.

[mallardvasey]

Hey, fair's fair - it's only a 7 minute short - not a lot of time to get a point across. I really like it - and I'd love to see a full length culture film.

[TheArtLife]

A short film is just like a long film - the same rules apply. The film has great visuals and fairly decent acting - it just needed a better, and less wordy, script.

[mallardvasey]

I agree with you, it is too wordy - but I think in this case, the wordiness was a byproduct of having to cram background information about "The Culture" as well as a fragment of plot, within the film's short length. This would be easier to do in a longer piece, which (hopefully) could be less wordy.

[Stellarhit]

I don't agree. If you knew of the novels this would have made sense. It did for me. They clearly say it is a culture inspired film, and I really think they pulled it of.

[northwindlowlander]

Very good, well done! Though, when did you ever hear a drone or a mind call itself a robot? That aside, very impressed.

[ahtaimo]

Got it in one! Here's to hoping you get to make a feature!

Beautifully done, elegant, captured the essence of "The Culture" for me.

Never mind the acting, cinematography, art direction, direction, and animations.

Brilliant!

[helixdq]

I really liked this, very well made.

And a few of the culture stories do have people sometimes leaving Culture and going native so i think the plotline is belivable.

[silverhawks]

This is PERFECT. Thanks for sharing!

[Vadrian7]

Thank you for sharing this.

I know this is someone else's interpretation but the drone having a female voice threw me off.

I've read all the novels and for some reason(and without consciously realizing it until now) I always imagined the drones as being male.

Anyway-this was quite nice--

loved the Orbital background scenery.

I would truly love to see a full film/big budget version someday

of one of the Culture novels--

even a new story set in the Culture universe would be welcome.

[hughes945]

Thankyou!

[soffa93]

I REALLY need to get to reading the Culture novels

[TedShatner10]

Thanks for this, rjb99, I've heard of it but couldn't get this.

[rjb99]

Your welcome. I went to search for it on the web several months back with no luck but remembered that I saved a copy on my hard drive last time I viewed it and thought I should put it up so others can enjoy.

[SonsOfBansky]

Usually, book adaptations into a film go very....wrong. If you saw the The Northern Lights (Or the golden compass if you may) adaptation then you may know what I am talking about. But Ian Banks has such originality which completley obliterates the word "cliched" that a film adaptation of say The Player Of Games, Use Of Weapons or even Consider Phlebas may not be such a bad idea.....just a little thought there...

[steeloavenger]

LOL i really enjoyed that!

[StonedogTBSV]

Although I liked this.. and thought it encapsulated the hedonistic nature of the Culture quite nicely.. I resented the notion that ignorance is bliss. Ian Banks would hate that idea as well. When I originally watched this, I thought the drone was going to suggest he join Contact. This would have been a much more convincing Culture based plot line... as the good works of Contact provide the Culture's more thoughtful citizens with their moral right and justification for the lifestyle they enjoy.

[ATiredDogsMouth]

Good point

[aculturemind]

@StonedogTBSV

You have to understand that while The Culture is SF, it's also what Banks enjoys writing about. Because he does enjoy accomplishing things. He just wants a social system that better promotes it.

In contrast, while I would certainly take advantage of the available resources of the Culture, it wouldn't be to achieve anything or attain any sense of accomplishment - but merely to realise (as in think of and make real) things in my mind and enjoy them.

[Sneaklemming]

@aculturemind Do you mean like how the great civilisations that appear near the end of "Starmaker" were - the contemplative ones?

[aculturemind]

@Sneaklemming

Possbily. I know of Stapledon, but I haven't read any of his books.

[Dumpaccount23]

@StonedogTBSV I think the point is that he thinks he'll be happier as a cave man, but as Kastor said, he'll be back in a week, this time with a bit more appreciation for the utopia they've constructed.

[Chazzie13]

That was AMAZING, I have always wanted a culture novel to be turned into a film (consider phlebas would be my pick), but its a real shame that no one in the business has taken an interest into it.

If there are any more fan made films about the culture can someone please send me a link.

[TomPayne101]

I actually am moved to tears by this.

I see the sentience of the Cultures species.

And it touches me.

All my best

The VFP Gettin' up amongst it.

AKA TomPayne101.

[roblivingstone23]

Give these people a blockbuster budget and let them run wild with Use of Weapons or The Player of Games!

[DukeOfQueens]

i have wondered why none of the culture novels has ever been made into a feature film, i liked this a lot. Although its not what i imagined a culture drone to look

[myroseaccount]

Hollywood would have a serious problem with a future highly evolved anarchist and socialistic utopia! The player of games is disparaging to an to AZAD that is imperialist, money grubbing and obssessed with ownership and property! I don't think I need to go on as to why this hasn't made the big screen, or any screen for that matter!

[sketchcast]

Another problem is that Hollywood is unwilling to do Science Fiction films that don't have a massive established Franchise behind them. It's a shame really.

[formless777]

That's very true, anything post-scarcity terrifies capitalists. Unless you can hold the whip hand over people's basic needs and desires you cannot make them your slaves. Returning to the Socratic idea that technology could liberate humans from the dismal science must terrify them.

[shadowshian]

nice fan film :) almost a shame that it doesnt have a continuation