If you saw the movie Midway, this story takes place at about the twenty minute mark in that timeline. It is loosely based on actual circumstances reported to exist in the Solomon Islands. See: https://inquisitivewonder.com/the-solomon-island-giants-and-biblical-gold/
NOTE: This video is best viewed with a good audio system or headphones to really appreciate the production quality. That said, it is only meant to serve as a proof of concept animation for the Teaser of the Pilot Episode of SEED the series. A Teaser plays right before the opening title credits. After the commercial break, we move into Act 1.
While I think this video came out really good, it’s not perfect. But then, as a proof of concept pilot, it was never intended to be. Yes, it does have some continuity issues and there are plenty of things that could be done better. We are all aware of these things. This project was done by a couple of dozen talented people, working on a shoestring budget (by industry standards) of about $110,000 – all of us doing what we could with what we had.
As good as I think this project turned out to be, I can’t help but imagine what we could do with 10 times the budget and the kind of creative manpower any comparable show currently on TV has. Good visual storytelling is not cheap. For instance, a 26 minute animated show like Star Wars: Clone Wars had a budget of $1 to $3 million per episode. Shows like The Mandalorian and Game of Thrones have budgets as high as $15 million per episode. That’s what we’re up against. Considering how well this came out for a fraction of the budgets they have, imagine what we could do with a much bigger budget and many more skilled artists working on it!
The thing is, it may actually be very reasonable for us to believe we could also have a budget of $2 to $4 million per episode. I currently have over 200,000 subscribers. If everyone were to contribute just $20, we’d be funded! Now, I’ve been producing 100% free content for over a decade. Is all that work that I’ve done for you worth at least $20? If it is, please consider contributing toward this project, which will enable me to take all of the same content I’ve become known for and put it into something that literally has the potential to reach the entire world. If you would like to see that happen, please go to:
https://seedtheseries.com/donations/youtube-gift
This may be a really short video, but a whole lot of work went into making it. To see what it took to get this done, please check out my three-part “SEED: A Filmmaker’s Journey” series, which chronicles the 11 year journey of going from ideas scribbled on napkins, to this finished production:
To see what this project looked like going from storyboards and previz to the completed project: https://youtu.be/jUTpIWv_PxU
If you’d like to know what happens next in the story and how you can help move this project forward and even get involved in the process, please go to:
https://seedtheseries.com/next
And the rest of the first full episode can be read for free here: https://seedtheseries.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/SEED-PilotEpisode.pdf
Video Source
Whoa this was so good!!
Wow, this is so awesome! Can’t wait to see more!!!
My ernest prayer and best wishes for great success of the SEED Series and your noble venture. Take care Rob.
3:35 I would assume that the information contained in this box is important to the plot?
5:24 This is how you are revealing the big bad guy? 5 minutes in and your main antagonist is revealed with zero fanfare. What a waste of a golden opportunity to build suspense and mystery.
7:14 Looks like two puppets squaring off. Why are they bouncing like marionettes? Overall, the animation is not bad. The exterior shots of the airplanes look great, but it is little things like this that make otherwise decent animation look like amatuer hour.
I'm a gamer. I love stories in games… really helps deliver the player into the experience. I'm also a huge fan of yours Rob! I believe truth is everything! In the eye's of today's generations… In love brother. This sucks… I had my 11 year-old, wife, and 5 year old all watch with me. This wouldn't hold up to anything more than a YouTube animated series and at that it wouldn't get much traffic. I get it… work in progress. But you need more than smoke up the wazoo here Rob. You need an honest opinion from a genre specific targeted audience fella. And I'm telling you, this isn't great.
You need a deeper hook. You already set the stage for giants with the opening biblical reference. So why not give a "shadowy figure's" perspective with creepy, scary, breathing reveal. Have only an arm grabbing the soldiers and a veiled one at that (covered in hair or gillie suit of island foliage)… It's a secondary development in the 'story.' Among other's like character development. What's this mystery of the giant? What does it look like? Make it Hebrew's facing Goliath scary. Member? none of those dudes wanted anything to do with that guy. You don't introduce your villain so soon. Make it part of your hook. Over the seasons leading up to a finale give more and more easter eggs of what this "thing" is … Hook your crowd to another season of show… even if they are coming back to only see the "beast!" But don't give it away, make them earn the glimpse to see your mystery.
Thank you for allowing us to see your creative development. I know the kinds of costs to get to this level already. But this sequence has no teeth. Consider a kicker for you main character(s) like a personal story. Wife at home, pregnant? Will you main character ever live to see his child? Make us suffer when he looses his friends in that airplane. These guys are stuck in a metal can for their every-day jobs… they know everything about each other. Loosing his friends has got to make us hurt too! Consider adding a long agony of screaming to really drive the stress up of your audience and the frantic desperate nature of your main character listening as the screaming slowly starts getting less and less all the while fighting off a failing plane and another that's shooting at it… Main character screaming back at gunner gunner screaming to belly gunner, "Stay with me, STAY WITH ME!" the whole time he's coughing, wheezing maybe? This has got to be intense! Like flash-backs or haunting in the future intense. We have to be put in that plane and really feel like were not going to make it.
Looks like your animation team knocked the water splashdown scene out of the park! The iguana… cheap gimmick.
If you want more opinion I'd be happy to share thoughts. I want to see you succeed but more the bible and people being exposed to it. Which I believe is THE mission?
I'm sure I'm going to get flamed out pretty hard for this, but you deserve the truth.