"ROAM" Short Film

design Film FUI futuristic HUD motion motion graphics sci-fi title sequence UI

“In a world where the wealthy can go for joyrides or outright steal the bodies of the young, one former victim, a young woman, raises an underground resistance to fight back.”

[ E N G A G E M E N T ]

Director David Jung, (The Possession of Michael King, 2014 & Genre Summit, 2016) and Producer Cain Angelle reached out to Eric Jordan in 2018 with an ambitious short film they had in development entitled “ROAM” (Rider of Another Mortal). The film is set in a science fiction cyberpunk universe where the wealthy inhabit the bodies of the young via a consciousness-projection technology developed by a nefarious mega-corporation called “ROAM”. Catering to the extremely wealthy and privileged, ROAM Corporation offers a very elite service in which their cutting edge technology can place you into another body. ROAM harvests the bodies of young adults, often the homeless that won’t be missed, but soon, their operation will branch out and everyone will be at risk. The only one that can stop them is a young woman named November. Once a victim of their operation, she plans to destroy the technology, before it destroys humanity. David Jung had written and developed the concept of ROAM as a labor of love, with a vision of evolving it into a full length feature and/or a future series. The goal was to direct and produce a short film pilot on a near shoestring budget which would prove the viability of the universe and expand it further into the future on a larger platform. The live-action filming took place across an array of locations in Los Angeles, including numerous urban aerial shots. Eric Jordan collaborated intimately with Director David Jung to help him accomplish the over 300 VFX shots, comprising an array elements including animated UI displays, internal heads-up displays, technological devices composited in 3D, and tracked VFX. The post-production process was also transformed into an opportunity to educate many upcoming VFX artists by bringing them onto a working production and involve them in the pipeline – this allowed for solving many of the VFX hurdles from a budgetary level, and gave entry level visual effects artists a chance to gain real-world skill. Above and beyond the screen elements, Eric Jordan assisted with additional VFX design and concept design for many key technologies featured in the ROAM realm. Drawing on a wealth of knowledge gained from years of studying the nature of consciousness, gnostic philosophy, and alchemy, Eric’s production roll further expanded into helping the director flesh out the underlying mechanisms of the ROAM Universe and how bodies are transferred through the etheric plane. Upon completion of the post-production elements, Eric Jordan shifted focus to the development and animation of a main title sequence to open the short film, which is built strongly on gnostic themes and symbolism. ROAM has since gone on to win over 30+ awards and several nominations at numerous film festivals.

[ W A T C H T H E S H O R T F I L M ]

[ T I T L E S E Q U E N C E ]

The film’s opening title sequence, produced by Eric Jordan after VFX post-production wrapped in 2018, consists of scenes and elements designed, modelled and animated in Cinema 4D and the Redshift render engine. The sequence incorporates deep metaphysical, hermetic, and gnostic themes of the various levels of reality to tie together the themes of death, the netherworld, and the astral realm.

[ M O T I O N G R A P H I C S &. U I A N I M A T I O N ]

After initial filming production has wrapped in Los Angeles, David Jung and producer Cain Angelle reached out to Eric Jordan to produce the motion graphics elements needed for the film. In 2018, Eric Jordan joined a stealth team of VFX artists to assist with over 300 visual effects shots needed to complete the film, a process which took close to two years to complete – as much of the team was working on other core projects at the time. The film makes use of a wide array of technologies, from wrist-watches which control special bodily functions and power-ups, special multi-camera surveillance systems, laptop systems that initiate bodily transfer procedures, and mask units which use projectiles to overtake the ocular nerve. Eric designed and animated a huge series of UI HUD screens for all aspects of the film which required digital interfaces – all of which had a key role to play in moving the film forward. Many aspects of the film are told via the action indicators that occur within the various UI screens.

[ V F X, 3 D A N I M A T I O N, & D E V E L O P I N G T H E. M E T A P H Y S I C S O F T H E R O A M U N I V E R S E ]

Over the course of post-production, Director David Jung and Eric Jordan worked closely together to discuss and flesh out many of the metaphysical aspects that underly the film’s premise – including how the consciousness is projected into the body within the astral plane. Eric Jordan helped to develop and visualize the esoteric mechanisms by which the bodies are overtaken in the etheric realm via an ocular injection that literally turns the soul shard of the consciousness inside out within the target body. In several sequences, the characters eyes are exposed to reveal that their pupils had been subjected to a procedure which causes the eyes to leak fragments of the consciousness, and are digitally-tagged with a holographic ROAM numeric. Eric worked to refine the look of this element so that it could be tracked by VFX artists in post production. Additionally, Eric assisted to develop the look of the ROAM transfer desk, as well as the ocular projectile units within the mask units that are used to transfer from one body to another – which were modelled and rendered in 3D utilizing the Redshift render engine.

[ I N I T I A L C O N C E P T D E S I G N ]

The Astral Realm

Band Wave Nanotech

Consciousness Tunnel Into Etheric Plane

Eye Injection Procedure

Injection Module

Mask Lens

Roam Transfer Computer

Transfer Lab

Transport Container

Watch Unit - Initial Design

[ B E H I N D T H E S C E N E S: ]

Podcast Interview With The Director

[ B E H I N D T H E S C E N E S: ]

A look behind the scenes of the live-action shoot.

[ C R E D I T S ]

Writer/Director: David Jung
Producer: Cain Angelle
Starring: Josh Connor, Christie Claude and Melinda Dekay
Casting: Crystal Lujan
Composer: Tedi Sarafian
Costume Designer: Constance Wick Angelle
Production Designer: Jessee J. Clarkson
Director of Photography: Matthew Plaxco
Producer: Aaron Billet

Co-Producers: Monica Zaffarano and Curtis A. Koller

Associate Producer: Brett Erik Johnson
Executive Producers: Erik Hatchett, Emily Leventis Hatchett, Brian Dickman and Jon Jacobs

Motion Graphics: Eric Jordan
Title Sequence: Eric Jordan
UI Design & Animation: Eric Jordan
Additional Concept Design: Eric Jordan
Additional VFX Design: Eric Jordan

[ A W A R D S ]

Milan Gold Awards
Winner, Best Director, Short Film

Bloodstained Indie Film Festival
Winner, Best Sci-Fi Short
Nominee, Coolest Scene

Festigious International Film Festival
Winner, Best Sci-Fi
Winner, Best Visual Effects

Golden Gate International Film Festival
Winner, Best Horror/Sci-Fi
Winner, Best Visual Effects
Nominee, Best Actor, Female
Nominee, Best Thriller/Action
Nominee, Best Editing
Nominee, Best Director
Nominee, Best Original Score

Great Lakes Film Festival
Winner, Narrative Shorts

Hollywood Verge Film Awards
Winner, Best Sci-Fi Film
Nominee, Best Director
Nominee, Best Production Design

Independent Shorts Awards
Winner, Film of the Month: Award of Excellence (Special Jury Mention)
Winner, Best Sci-Fi Short

International Independent Film Awards
Winner, Best Narrative Short

London Independent Film Awards
Winner, Best Horror/Thriller/Sci-Fi Short

Los Angeles Film Awards
Winner, LAFA October Award, Best Sci-Fi

Montreal Independent Film Festival
Winner, Best Science Fiction

Sicily Independent Film Awards
Winner, Sicily Independent Film Award, Best Science Fiction

Sweden Film Awards
Nominee, Sweden Film Award, Best Short Film

Top Shorts Film Festival
Winner, October Award, Best Film of the Month, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Sci-Fi

Venice Film Awards
Winner, October Award, Best Director, Best Short Film

NYC TV Film Festival
Winner, Best Sci-Fi TV Pilot

NYC TV Film Festival
Winner, Best Director

New Jersey Film Festival
Winner, Best Film

NEXGN International Short Film Festival
Winner, Certificate of Excellence

Great Lakes State Film Festival
Winner, Bert Director

El Grito Venezuela
Winner, Bert Editing

Cannes Indie Short Awards
Honourable Mention, Best Editing

Jersey City Popup Film Festival
Winner, Best Film

Flickfair International Film Festival
Winner, Best Live Action

Tokyo International Short Film Festival
Winner, Best Sci-Fi Film

[ T H A N K S ]

Deepest thanks to David Jung, Cain Angelle, Brady Hallongren @ RocketPanda Post, and the entire ROAM team who worked passionately and tirelessly to bring this new world to life.

Portfolio Link: https://www.ericjordan.com/portfolios/roam/

"ROAM" Short Film

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