EN MACHINA
Los Angeles, California | VR Experience
Comedy, Sci-Fi
Two inventors, Steve and Steve, create the world's first true artificial intelligence in their garage. VIEW 'EN MACHINA' HERE: https://bit.ly/2wvICN6 Link through the YouTube app on your phone for optimized mobile experience. For a more immersive experience, we recommend using a VR headset.
EN MACHINA
Los Angeles, California | VR Experience
Comedy, Sci-Fi
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $7,145 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
57 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
Two inventors, Steve and Steve, create the world's first true artificial intelligence in their garage. VIEW 'EN MACHINA' HERE: https://bit.ly/2wvICN6 Link through the YouTube app on your phone for optimized mobile experience. For a more immersive experience, we recommend using a VR headset.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
EN MACHINA is the comedic telling of two inventors, Steve and Steve, who create the world's first true artificial intelligence in their garage. But there's a twist, and here's how we arrived at it.
In our initial exploration of the possibilities for virtual reality storytelling, we asked ourselves a series of questions:
- What if the viewer is a character in the story as opposed to just an observer?
- Given this character's ability only to look around, what kind of character could they be?
- What if they had no body to move, and no vocal chords to talk with? What if they were just a set of eyes, ears, and of course, a mind?
- And finally, what if we made a film about artificial intelligence where the viewer is the artificial intelligence?
And thus, the idea for EN MACHINA was born.
This idea immediately excited us for several reasons:
- It’s a great use of virtual reality, a medium that immerses the audience by making them a participant on some level in the virtual world.
- It provides a new perspective to a well-known science-fiction genre. Most films about AI explore the possibility of whether a machine can be truly conscious; EN MACHINA takes this as a given.
- We are big fans of science fiction.
After we arriving at the core idea, we began to carve out the basic story about our two inventors, Steve and Steve, and as the story and comedic core began to take shape through multiple drafts, we were able to budget and plan. Now, finally, we are ready to crowdfund for the production budget that will allow us to shoot EN MACHINA.
Please consider supporting this project, either with money or sharing. We hope it sounds as exciting to you as it does to us.
WHERE WILL I BE ABLE TO EXPERIENCE 'EN MACHINA'?
The short answer is: anywhere you can get your hands on a VR headset, or Google Cardboard, or even just YouTube, which now allows for the 360 viewing experience.
However, as you may be aware, a project such as this requires much more than just shooting it. After our shoot in mid-January, we'll then have to harness the necessary post-production resources to finish the project properly.
From there, we will decide between our various distribution options: film festivals, emerging VR distribution channels, YouTube release, or some combination thereof.
So thank you for coming on this journey with us! We can't wait to eventually share EN MACHINA with you when the time is right.
VISUAL REFERENCES
The world we plan to create will feel something like these reference images, which were collected online:
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Camera Rental
Costs $700
We're planning to shoot for virtual reality on the Kodak PIXPRO SP360 4K Dual Action Camera.
Share this update!
About This Team
CHARLES is sketch comedy duo Chuck Armstrong and Charlie Stockman. A cerebral and imaginative sketch duo from Seattle, Charles is intelligent without sacrificing accessibility, seamlessly combining highbrow and lowbrow sensibilities into a brand of humor they call unibrow. Charles has performed throughout the US and Canada, including the San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, and Toronto Sketchfests; the Los Angeles Comedy Festival; the People’s Improv Theater New York; the Toronto, Victoria, Winnipeg and Edmonton Fringe Festivals; the UCB Los Angeles; the Groundlings Main Stage Los Angeles; and the Comedy Central Stage Hollywood. Outside the group, Chuck has worked as a contributing writer for The Onion, and Charlie served as editor-in-chief of Stanford University’s humor magazine The Chaparral.
LIAM is a filmmaker & writer from San Francisco, CA. His short film FOG CITY has won awards at festivals across the US, and received grants from the Spike Lee Production Fund and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The film served to complete his MFA in directing from Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, where it was recognized for Best Cinematography at the 2016 First Run Film Festival. In 2012, before graduating from NYU, Liam co-founded SEED&SPARK, the innovative funding and distribution platform for independent film, where he worked as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. Before attending film school, he worked four years in the Bay Area construction industry. He holds an MA in English and a BA in English/creative writing, both from Stanford University. Liam currently lives in California, USA.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
EN MACHINA is the comedic telling of two inventors, Steve and Steve, who create the world's first true artificial intelligence in their garage. But there's a twist, and here's how we arrived at it.
In our initial exploration of the possibilities for virtual reality storytelling, we asked ourselves a series of questions:
- What if the viewer is a character in the story as opposed to just an observer?
- Given this character's ability only to look around, what kind of character could they be?
- What if they had no body to move, and no vocal chords to talk with? What if they were just a set of eyes, ears, and of course, a mind?
- And finally, what if we made a film about artificial intelligence where the viewer is the artificial intelligence?
And thus, the idea for EN MACHINA was born.
This idea immediately excited us for several reasons:
- It’s a great use of virtual reality, a medium that immerses the audience by making them a participant on some level in the virtual world.
- It provides a new perspective to a well-known science-fiction genre. Most films about AI explore the possibility of whether a machine can be truly conscious; EN MACHINA takes this as a given.
- We are big fans of science fiction.
After we arriving at the core idea, we began to carve out the basic story about our two inventors, Steve and Steve, and as the story and comedic core began to take shape through multiple drafts, we were able to budget and plan. Now, finally, we are ready to crowdfund for the production budget that will allow us to shoot EN MACHINA.
Please consider supporting this project, either with money or sharing. We hope it sounds as exciting to you as it does to us.
WHERE WILL I BE ABLE TO EXPERIENCE 'EN MACHINA'?
The short answer is: anywhere you can get your hands on a VR headset, or Google Cardboard, or even just YouTube, which now allows for the 360 viewing experience.
However, as you may be aware, a project such as this requires much more than just shooting it. After our shoot in mid-January, we'll then have to harness the necessary post-production resources to finish the project properly.
From there, we will decide between our various distribution options: film festivals, emerging VR distribution channels, YouTube release, or some combination thereof.
So thank you for coming on this journey with us! We can't wait to eventually share EN MACHINA with you when the time is right.
VISUAL REFERENCES
The world we plan to create will feel something like these reference images, which were collected online:
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Camera Rental
Costs $700
We're planning to shoot for virtual reality on the Kodak PIXPRO SP360 4K Dual Action Camera.
Share this update!
About This Team
CHARLES is sketch comedy duo Chuck Armstrong and Charlie Stockman. A cerebral and imaginative sketch duo from Seattle, Charles is intelligent without sacrificing accessibility, seamlessly combining highbrow and lowbrow sensibilities into a brand of humor they call unibrow. Charles has performed throughout the US and Canada, including the San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, and Toronto Sketchfests; the Los Angeles Comedy Festival; the People’s Improv Theater New York; the Toronto, Victoria, Winnipeg and Edmonton Fringe Festivals; the UCB Los Angeles; the Groundlings Main Stage Los Angeles; and the Comedy Central Stage Hollywood. Outside the group, Chuck has worked as a contributing writer for The Onion, and Charlie served as editor-in-chief of Stanford University’s humor magazine The Chaparral.
LIAM is a filmmaker & writer from San Francisco, CA. His short film FOG CITY has won awards at festivals across the US, and received grants from the Spike Lee Production Fund and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The film served to complete his MFA in directing from Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, where it was recognized for Best Cinematography at the 2016 First Run Film Festival. In 2012, before graduating from NYU, Liam co-founded SEED&SPARK, the innovative funding and distribution platform for independent film, where he worked as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. Before attending film school, he worked four years in the Bay Area construction industry. He holds an MA in English and a BA in English/creative writing, both from Stanford University. Liam currently lives in California, USA.