Contact:

Hard Light Films
Jon Griggs
(917)951 3825
jon@hardlightfilms.com

Synopsis:

The short film Deviation was shot using an online game engine with the virtual actors and director never having met one another.

Macintyre, an online-game character and member of a four-man counter-terrorist squad, attempts to break out of the cycle of futile violence that has been his sole existence.

Dropped into the middle of a mission and faced with the prospect of climbing into an ambush at the end of a manhole tunnel, Macintyre strives to convince the other squad members that there is another way...

Director's Statement:

What started out as a novel (and inexpensive) way to tell a short, darkly comedic story took a turn towards a political statement about choice and the need for individual questioning of the status quo. As an avid games-player, I used the relatively unknown medium of machinima (muh-sheen-eh-mah) the convergence of filmmaking, animation and game development, to tell a story about one individual's attempt to break out of the cycle of futile violence that has been his sole existence. The film was shot using an online game environment and a cast comprised of four virtual actors whom I had never met in the real world. Using an ingame voice-chat program and a virtual camera I blocked, directed and shot the scenes using little more than a mouse, keyboard and a record button.

One definition of deviation is an expressed belief, within a totalitarian regime, which is not in accordance with official party doctrine for the time and area. Scrape away at the surface of Deviation and my hope is that you will see a message that holds relevance for all of us in these dangerous times of countrywide apathy and state-engendered fear.