Long time lurker on this here forum but finally got registered to share the below - hope it’s okay (admins let me know if an issue!)
I'm working towards making a short film called A Boy And His Space Llama - it's set in the mid 80s and is about a kid who is a huge Jeff Minter fan, had made his own game and he thinks his mum has booked him a stall at the gaming expo at Earl's Court...so he tootles off in his spacesuit and with his space llama (which is a kinda Calvin and Hobbes thing - alive to him, but possibly a soft toy) and his box of homemade copies of his game to stand at the stall and hopefully meet Jeff Minter. Things unsurprisingly don't go to plan...
I'm wanting to make it a mixture of live action and video game elements of which are homages to various games and which also help me plug the gaps of budget limitations (ie I can't film him traversing London, certainly not as a period piece, so the game elements take over that...a chase around the stalls at Earl's Court is a video game as I can't recreate a PCW show)
I know I'm using some artistic licence of the game being on a Speccy, as that's the machine I had and THAT colour palette and 256x128 resolution means so much to me - I know really it should be a C64 being Minter related, but equally by rights my kid should be obsessed with Joffa Smiff's games if I wanted to make it a completely personal piece
Although I'm looking to apply for a very very small fund which puts up some money upfront (and would help cover the below the line costs of llama puppet/ miniature pantomime llama, space suit, use of old bus etc) it would mean I'm looking for collaborators who can give their time for free to be involved in a retro game themed short film and help create the video game elements/ homages...and up for anyone contributing in anyway possible (chiptune musicians who can use a 128k Speccy for the soundtrack?)
On the game dev front it's a bit of a flight of fancy, but was wondering how feasible some tie in game of the game the boy has made - more a shoot 'em up - but also a game of the film utilising some of the graphics and elements from the video game scenes (maybe made with something like Cauldwell's video game maker software...but I've never used that)
For the funding application I'm looking for any help with concept art/ examples of the video game elements to help storyboard what I mean to the funding board...and ideally would love a Spectrum style loading screen as a title page to pitch the film (though I may just do a drawing myself and run it through a Speccy photo filter app) (I do follow Andy Green’s incredible work on Twitter!)
Anyone who's interested please drop me a line at [email protected] - be lovely to have the Speccy/ retro community involved in this...and hoping it will help set up a relevant feature length/ biopic I'm scripting as well as something else Speccy related on the filmic front
Ta!
PS I've emailed Jeff Minter about this and have his blessing for his name and stuff to be used
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