Crowdfunding Spotlight: Angelina:10 [IndieGoGo]

Welcome, one and all, to another Crowdfunding Spotlight. This time around, I was invited by to check out the IndieGoGo campaign for the new sci-fi film, Angelina:10. Let’s check out what the film is about:

 

Campaign Info:

• IndiGoGo Page: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/angelina-10-a-science-fiction-short-film
• Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/Angelina10moviehttps://twitter.com/Angelina10movie
• Genre: Sci-Fi / AI

My thoughts:

The general idea here is that the short film follows Angelina:10, a new type of AI. The previous nine incarnations of the project failed, but this one appears to have worked … until it becomes self-destructive.

Now, if you’ve been following my books at all, you’ll know that I do like a good AI tale. Why, a great deal of The Spark Form Chronicles deals with the concept of whether an AI can be viewed as alive. Then there are shows like Digimon which have a similar set-up, and recent films like Chappie and Ex Machina.

The thing is, so much ground has been covered by past AI based media, that it would be easy to almost expect anything new to seem like a rehash of other pieces. As real life research into artificial intelligence continues though, so too do new ideas appear in fictional explorations. Will this short film cover new ground? It’s hard to tell from the concept pieces on the campaign. That in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing though, as as much as I like to see new things tried, a good interpretation of an old theme is just as enjoyable. Regardless though, there are some interesting things to note here.

First of all, the team behind the project has a decent pedigree. Concept artist Nick Ainsworth for example has worked on The Last Jedi, Avengers Age of Ultron and X-Men First Class, and writer/director Tim Hewitt actually featured in the BBC comedy series Love Soup. Meanwhile, cinematographer Luke Palmer has an extensive catalogue of prior work, and designer Debbie Burton worked on the popular TV show, Misfits. This is a team that knows what it takes to make a film, and have the experience behind them to make it work.

Second, not only is it described as a short film, but the budget is pretty modest at £13,000. The reason I think that this is significant is because it forces some restrictions. The ‘story’ section of the campaign page shows that the fictional Angelina Project started as a military one. That it’s exploring potential military uses for AI, as well as the effects on emotions on machines, makes it an ambitious project in terms of both the length and cost that have been set out. Of course, I’m sure that there is other funding available too, but it does still mean that this needs to be a stripped back piece in some ways. With the aforementioned experience of the team, I rather suspect that they’re aware of this, and that having these restrictions in place will help guide them into an all-killer-no-filler situation.

So, in summary, I think that the story is intriguing, the production team seem strong, and the overall cost isn’t unobtainable. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for this project, and hope to see the film go into production after the campaign ends. If you want to see more, check out teh IndieGoGo campaign HERE.