What is Depth?
Depth is a full length live action science fiction horror movie based on the game SOMA. The story in the movie will be different but connected to the story in the game. Most of the movie was shot against a green screen and sets are made with CGI.
These video clips gives us hints about the possible direction the movie will go in... There is speculation that there will be more viral videos at a later date.
So, what do you think? What are your hopes and fears about the movie? Your predictions?
I will contribute my opinions later, as I feel the thread start should only contain information. Speaking of which, do you have any suggestions for more info I should include here?
(08-09-2014, 01:06 PM)spukrian Wrote: I will contribute my opinions later, as I feel the thread start should only contain information. Speaking of which, do you have any suggestions for more info I should include here?
I think that the information you added is sufficient as an "introduction". Most people who are interested in the films have probably been following the discussion in the SOMA thread anyway.
However, I agree with Chrysler that most of "Depth" doesn't seem to have been filmed against a green screen, only some parts of it.
(08-10-2014, 06:17 PM)Alardem Wrote: Just a note about the Depth casting call:
Spoiler below!
Golaski's 13-year-old daughter is apparently "in love with her father". I wonder if that means we'll see some one-sided incestuous undertones in her role as a robotic manifestation of Golaski's memory.
When I read that part,
Spoiler below!
I interpreted it as the normal kind of love that a daughter feels for her father, I didn't think of it as a romantic/incestuous feeling (although I agree that the way it was worded might give that impression).
Regarding the possibility of future live action films: I think given the speed with which the first two were made (a couple of weeks to produce and a few days to shoot) I don't see why they wouldn't do more teasers. In his blog post about the announcement of SOMA, Thomas wrote this about the films:
Thomas Wrote:It has to be mentioned how quickly these films were put together. The first script drafts + instructions were sent on the 2nd of september. This meant they had a less than a month to produce the first movie. Then another movie needed to be done a week after that. Given the amount steps needed to go from script to final film, this is insanely fast.
In this interview with Don Thacker (the director) he says:
Don Thacker Wrote:There's a secret, that I think I can tell a little bit of; there will be more of those videos for you guys, a lot more, and I'm not saying that there might be a long enough video to go see in a movie theatre - but there might!
Of course the long video he mentions is "Depth", but I'm encouraged by his comment about "[a lot] more of those videos". Given how huge of a gap there would be between now and the release of the game/Depth if nothing else were produced, and how relatively quickly/easily the teasers can be made, and considering the 5 empty slots on the SOMA website, I'm inclined to believe that more videos are due.
"Depth" will have taken way more effort to organise and manage, given the number of actors (with their individual schedules which need to be worked around), the much larger crew, the stunt training, the extra resources required for shooting on location, etc. That it was filmed now but won't be released until next year doesn't necessarily tell us that no other films will come; the size of that production demanded coordination which made it necessary to get it done sooner rather than later. After the post-production phase I think they'll be free to do plenty more 2-week teaser shoots with tiny crews in a green box at LeftJet Studios
(08-12-2014, 10:35 AM)Paddy™ Wrote: In this interview with Don Thacker (the director) he says:
Don Thacker Wrote:There's a secret, that I think I can tell a little bit of; there will be more of those videos for you guys, a lot more, and I'm not saying that there might be a long enough video to go see in a movie theatre - but there might!
Interesting, when I think more about it, it could make sense. But I wouldn't take the number of slots on the website as an indicator of how many videos will be published. I'm sure when they designed the website they did not know yet how many they'll produce.
What the director says there is interesting, though. What I had assumed was that FG first planned to do more of these short teasers, but then decided to do one big feature instead. I'd think they would then want to spend all available budget on that one project.
(08-12-2014, 01:07 PM)Chrysler Wrote: But I wouldn't take the number of slots on the website as an indicator of how many videos will be published. I'm sure when they designed the website they did not know yet how many they'll produce.
Yeah, that's true. Although the site was revealed after the first two teasers were already "in the can" (only a week before Vivarium was uploaded), so it's possible they designed the site with a vague idea that they'd commission at least a few more films, even if they didn't have any concrete ideas in mind. I guess time will tell!
Something interesting Ashtoreth pointed out to me about the Technical Specifications page on IMDb for each of the films (note the Aspect Ratio section):
Spoiler below!
Theatrical Ratio, eh? I'm reminded of the Thacker quote from my last post:
Don Thacker Wrote:[...] I'm not saying that there might be a long enough video to go see in a movie theatre - but there might!
Could this really end up in theatres? If it does I would assume it will be specialist theatres, or maybe a limited festival tour?
Not sure if this has been discussed before, but from the photographs shared by the crew, it seems that there will be at least one "behind the scenes" featurette to accompany Depth:
(08-12-2014, 03:11 PM)Paddy™ Wrote: Could this really end up in theatres? If it does I would assume it will be specialist theatres, or maybe a limited festival tour?
I guess in addition to a web release it'll screen at some smaller festivals, similar to Imagos Film's last feature Motivational Growth (although that one doesn't even appear to be available on DVD or on the web, yet).
He shares some cool pics and info about the props.
The following has probably already been discussed, but after searching for about 15 minutes I couldn't find anything conclusive about it, so bear with me
Spoiler below!
When "Vivarium" was first released, I remember there being some interest in figuring out what the code was on the side of the table on which the CRT was sitting. There are pics on Sean Farbolin's website which show the code very clearly:
I think that I might have found something relevant about the story of "Depth".
Spoiler below!
I was rereading the characters information available in the casting calls from February and May*, and Martin Fisher's description states that he's a "Mechatronics Wrangler / Large Frame Toolpusher". I wasn't familiar with these terms, so I looked up "toolpusher" and it turns out that it's a specific job within the oil drilling industry.
*It might have been just a coincidence, but this casting call got removed the day after I posted about it in the SOMA discussion thread (probably because it revealed too many spoilers, including information about which characters die on-screen). It's not even available on Google's cache anymore. Fortunately, I saved a copy of the page before it was taken down.
A few photos from the set show the actors covered in a black substance, and there's also the Lambda mug filled with a black viscous liquid, which resembles petroleum: