Hello, Giant Bombers! The website I co-run, DotSwoof.com, is putting together a live action Gears of War fan film. We're looking for people to act in it, promote it, and to donate to it by Friday, August 5th! Any donation and/or support is greatly appreciated! Thank you.

DotSwoof.com, the creators of Gears of War machinima series, Out of Service, and the leading force behind the 24-hour Gears of War charity marathon, Waves of Charity, are pulling together all their resources and will be shooting a live action Gears of War fan film, Project Stranded, in early August. DotSwoof will be teaming up with Undefined Films, the creators of Beta Withdrawals, and GCON, the world’s largest Gears of War fan community, for the project.

The film is positioned after the sinking of Jacinto, at the end of Gears of War 2, and will focus on the lives of the Stranded and their relationship with the COG army. The film’s opening starts with COG soldiers showing up at a Stranded camp attempting to recruit people in the fight against the Locust horde.

The filming will be taking place in Columbus, Ohio. Shooting begins Friday, August 5th, and will run through Monday, August 8th. This project will be DotSwoof’s biggest production to date, featuring over 50 actors and extras, the highest quality audio and video equipment around, and top of the line CG effects. With that said, we need your help to make this film a reality!

If you head on over to bit.ly/projectstranded (via Kickstarter.com), you can make a donation to the film that will help pay for food, transportation, on-set equipment, and post-production costs. DotSwoof has also added a multitude of incentives and giveaways for people donating money, including Project Stranded T-shirts and DVDs, COG tags used on-set, producing credits, and even an one of a kind COG helmet created for the film, plus a whole lot more!

Keep in mind, though, that if the $1,000 dollar goal is not met by Friday, August 5th, at 12am EST (that’s midnight) then DotSwoof and the rest of their crew will get none of the proceeds!

Everybody involved with the project is hoping to bring the Gears of War universe to life with this film, so your support, whether that be through a donation or a shout out on Twitter, brings us one step closer to our goal!

If you would like to stay up to date with the film, make sure to head on over to Twitter and follow @OutofGears, or, if you are on Facebook, Like us at facebook.com/OutofGears. Also, make sure to follow the #ProjectStranded hashtag on Twitter!

This will not end well.

@big_jon said:

This will not end well.

Exactly my thoughts. No disrespect to the OP but no fan film I've ever seen has exceeded the heights of 'that was O.K' so I can't, in good conscience, give any money towards this project however I hope it goes well for all involved.

@Jonny7892: @big_jon: Fair enough. We'll be premiering the film, or at the very least the first of three episodes, during PAX Prime at the Gears of War community panel; so if you're at the con and you're still skeptical, come check it out!

I hope you have done your research into the Gears Universe, etc. Because I have, and I will be first to point out all your mistakes, as and when they appear.

No pressure ;)

@Sweep: Oh, boy! Well, we've got a lot of eyes looking over the script with tons and tons of Gears knowledge behind each pair. :)

Also, I didn't wanna double post or update the first post, but here's a picture of the COG armors we created. These pictures are a little old by now, we took them a little after PAX East earlier this year, so the images aren't 100 percent representative of what the armors look like now; but here you go!

Gallery

@Sweep: Oh, boy! Well, we've got a lot of eyes looking over the script with tons and tons of Gears knowledge behind each pair. :)

Also, I didn't wanna double post or update the first post, but here's a picture of the COG armors we created. These pictures are a little old by now, we took them a little after PAX East earlier this year, so the images aren't 100 percent representative of what the armors look like now; but here you go!

Gallery

I wonder if you can find enough GoW fanboys that have taken enough roids to actually look like Gears.

@PeasantAbuse: Not a bad idea, actually! I know our top priority with the suits right now are to make them look snappier overall and to look beat to shit, right now they look right off the assembly line. We've already got some of the stuff to make them look all scuffed up and whatnot, I seriously cannot wait to see them in the final film, seeing as my buddy is the one with the physical suits.

We're really happy with how they came out otherwise, we met Cliff at PAX and he loved the look and color of the armors.

@texaseanacre: I'm curious, what are you guys shooting on?

@cinemandrew: I'm working with two cameras and a ton other stuff. Here's the audio and video equipment that we'll have during the shoot, so far. Still figuring out exactly what audio equipment I'll have one site):

Camera 1

- Canon 5D Mark 2 (Storage 32Gb)

Lenses

- Canon EF 24mm-105mm L (4)

- Canon EF 50mm (1.4)

- Canon EF 70mm-200mm L (2.8)

Mic (backup)

- Azden SGM 1x

Camera 2

- Canon Rebel t2i (Built in mic)

Lenses

- 18-55mm lens

- 28mm Wide Angle lens

- 75-300 lens (tentative)

Other Equipment

- Crane

- Dolly (tentative)

- Shoulder stabilizer

- Glidecam

- Reflector

- XLR wires (Backup)

@texaseanacre: Any lights, or just daylight?

@cinemandrew: We're also getting a bunch of lights, but I don't have that information on hand. We're filming during the day, regardless, but definitely using movie lights to make the best possible film.

@texaseanacre: Cool. That's not a bad list for a short. How long is it going to be? I'm guessing not more that 15 minutes since you've got 3 days to shoot, and a lot of moving parts.

BTW, If you're having trouble finding a dolly, you could always build one for about the same cost as a rental. It would be kind of ghetto, and you won't be able to effectively use it with a porta-jib, but in a pinch, it should do the trick. Just google DIY doorway dolly.

@cinemandrew: Yeah, each "episode" (three of them) is gonna be around the 10 minute mark tops, since we'll be giving these to Machinima.com in the end. They've featured live films on their channel in the past that have surpassed 3 million view mark, so hopefully that should help us out a bunch.

I hope you have done your research into the Gears Universe, etc. Because I have, and I will be first to point out all your mistakes, as and when they appear.

No pressure ;)

As an up and coming film make-ologist myself, I can't wait. Love the Gears lore as well :D

We just wrapped the film shoot yesterday and I seriously cannot wait to get the film put together and out there! During the shoot, we held a live stream in our break room, a little tiny air conditioned thing, over at our Twitch.Tv and gathered 20,000 views on that alone! People are hyped for this thing and everything looks great, super excited (in case you can't tell).

I'll post some pics in the thread once I'm given the go-ahead from everyone.

The hardest part is gonna be the armor. I've never played the games but from what I've seen, it's huge.

@avidwriter: We tried bulking it up for the shoot and I think what we did was really effective, I'll definitely post some pics in the next week for everybody to see!

@big_jon said:

This will not end well.

Exactly my thoughts. No disrespect to the OP but no fan film I've ever seen has exceeded the heights of 'that was O.K' so I can't, in good conscience, give any money towards this project however I hope it goes well for all involved.

I don't think you can make a good Gears of War film even with a 300 million dollar budget. This can not turn out well.

I do wish you the best of luck though. I just don't really like Gears of War's atmosphere.

@Axxol: If we didn't ask for funding for the film, we couldn't have afforded to make it. If you don't think it will be good because no fan film is good, fair enough, but I think what we created is really going to surprise people! Have you ever see Nuka Break?

@Wolverine: Well, I would tend to disagree but once we release the film, at least give a chance before writing it off completely. We'll be premiering it at PAX Prime during the Brothers to the End panel, Saturday at 6pm, so if you're in the least bit interested, come out and see the panel!