Today we take a look at The Underwater Realm from Realm Pictures. UWR, as they call it, is a five part series. (Watch the rest here.) It is important to know going in that these are not short films. Apparently they were always intended to be teasers. A little taste of (presumably) larger stories they had in mind that could also showcase the technical skills of all involved.
If you're interested in the particulars and the intent, I highly recommend reading this interview with several of the filmmakers. There are so many people involved with this including Director David Reynolds, Producer Jonathan Dupont, and DP Eve Hazelton and we are featuring them primarily because the undertaking of this project was incredibly ambitious and while I don't know if all their goals for UWR will be realized, I am certain that they should be very proud.
The Underwater Realm is also another interesting examination of crowdfunding. UWR waged an immensely successful Kickstarter campaign to the tune of $101,000. All the donations made will basically amount to exactly that: donations. Kickstarter is difficult for me to wrap my mind around. (I sometimes wonder exactly what type of project it would take for me to consider waging such a campaign. Asking for that kind of money is scary even though the concept of crowdfunding makes it slightly less so. And the pressure to produce after those dollars roll in has to be immense.) Of course, all budgets are relative. Although 100K is an amount I can't even imagine at the disposal of Walk Softly Films, and I certainly doubt we would use it on teasers rather than a complete short or feature film at the least, the Realm Pictures gang points out that just the coffee budget on a film like The Hobbit was higher.
To be fair, this was their plan from the start. Do something no one had ever seen before. Give people a taste of productions shot completely underwater. Trust me, the logistics are mind boggling and I'm actually impressed that they were able to do all of this for that price. They were creating a promise to sell. They intentionally modeled UWR after other successful shorts on the web that had garnered big deals for the filmmakers responsible.
So, what do you think? Did they succeed? Was it a good plan? Was it the best use of their funds? Some of the feedback on YouTube has been downright ridiculous and cruel (as is to be expected). But I will say I tend to agree with those that think a more complete story could have helped immensely. There are five pieces, but none of them feel like a complete segment or that there is even a significant connecting thread between them to create that story.
Nonetheless... Congratulations to Realm Pictures. UWR is impressive and they should be very proud at what they were able to do.