A Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: The Immortal (short)
Genre: Sci-fi Fantasy
Date: 2020
Director: Carl Firth
Producer: Guy Edmonds, Augusta Miller, and Carl Firth
Writer: Carl Firth
Cinematographer: Simon Ozolins and Goldie Soetianto
Editor: Carl Firth, Antonio Mestres
Composer: Mike Newport
Production: The Immortal was six years in the making, with 23 shoot days at over thirty locations.
Budget: 70k (AUD)
Financing: The Immortal was supported by the AFTRS Creative Fellowship for ‘daring and adventurous work’, Creative Partnerships Australia’s MATCH Lab initiative, and a crowdfunding campaign.
Shooting Format: A mixture of Red Dragon, Arri Alexa, and Panasonic GH5
Screening Format: N/A
World Premiere: N/A
Awards: N/A
Website: http://www.carlfirth.com/
The Official Trailer for THE IMMORTAL written and directed by Carl Firth
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Carl Firth (CF): The Immortal is a sci-fi fantasy short film about a man who wants to overcome death. After years of searching, he finds the secret of eternal life but comes to regret his decision when he discovers that eventually, everything dies – everything except him. The themes of the film – anxiety about death, and a desire for immortality – have been a part of human culture since recorded storytelling began. But what if we could really do it? What would it actually be like? These questions captured our imaginations as we explored taking them to their furthest extent – what if someone outlived the Earth, the solar system, and even the universe itself?
Tell us about the festival run, marketing and sales?
Carl Firth (CF): The Immortal has just begun its festival run, premiering at Cinefest OZ in Australia and having its American premiere at Hollyshorts. It has been accepted into more festivals that will be announced soon.
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Carl Firth (CF): If you had the chance to live forever, would you take it? A man who wants to overcome death learns the secret of immortality but comes to regret his decision when he discovers that eventually, everything dies – everything except him. Six years in the making, The Immortal takes you from the present day to the end of the universe in fifteen minutes.
Development & Financing?
Carl Firth (CF): The Immortal began with a daydream – an image of a man floating in front of the sun. I brainstormed around this idea and came up with the seed of a story about a man who couldn’t die, who outlived everything, including the Earth. I developed and fleshed it out further, and applied for and received support from the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School’s Creative Fellowship for ‘daring and adventurous work’, which gave me the resources to actually take something as crazy as this on. I began the process of getting a team together, reaching out first to Guy Edmonds, who I’d worked with on my previous short The Witching Hour.
Guy had been tracking The Immortal in its early development and agreed to come on board as the lead actor as well as a producer. He also introduced me to Augusta Miller who also came on board to produce. We were very lucky to secure an amazing cast – in addition to Guy, we had Maeve Dermody and Academy Award nominee James Cromwell, who learned about the project while he and Guy were working together on stage (in David Williamson’s Rupert). It was an absolute pleasure to work with him and everyone upped their game a bit when he was on set.
Production?
Carl Firth (CF): A film with a scope as ambitious as The Immortal’s of course meant an ambitious production! With the story requiring so many locations, we broke the film down into several blocks where we could combine as many similar areas together as possible, as well as giving us time to create the many props (crafted by the amazing Dane Hallet, the illustrator behind Michael’s laboratory sketches in Alien: Covenant) and costumes (created by the talented and resourceful Bec Sheedy) that the story required.
Anyone who’s made a short can appreciate how getting a team together is a minor miracle – we had to do that again and again, navigating around our team’s schedules and commitments, as well as our own day jobs, and the production ended up stretching to over three years. Working with cinematographers Simon Ozolins and Goldie Soetianto, we traveled out to some amazing, but far-flung, locations – forests, deserts, junkyards, ruins, as well as studio days with wirework and moving lights to simulate a time-lapse sun. And piece by piece, the film slowly came together. We were incredibly fortunate to have such a hard-working and generous team who gave their time to the project again and again.
The post-production period was a whole other adventure as we found ourselves with a significant amount of visual effects to get through. We received support from Creative Partnerships Australia’s MATCH Lab initiative, as well as some crowdfunding, to help us raise the funds to finish the film. Over nearly two years, we worked with a combination of VFX freelancers, lead by Lucas Newton, as well as Fin Design, who really saved us when they agreed to come on board. We heavily interrogated the edit and worked with a great sound team – Mike Newport composing the film’s sweeping score and Michael Newton creating its visceral sound design.
Advice from the Filmmaker?
CF: Use previz! It allows you to put your ideas on their feet to see if they’re working, and it gets everyone on the same page about what you’re doing. Apart from that, you just have to go out there and do it. It’s that easy and that hard. But everything’s impossible until it’s not.
Tell us what you think of the Case Study for THE IMMORTAL What do you think of it? Let’s have your comments below and/or on Facebook or Instagram! Or join me on Twitter.
MORE STORIES FOR YOU
