Everything Involved with the
"Victims of the Multiverse" Project
While this project has gone though multiple tentative working titles, it is currently being called "Victims of the Multiverse" as of May 2024.
Promotional concept art created in October 2023. Characters from left to right: Kuro, Walter Hatman, Felix Holdo, Barbara Fisher, Ivanna Hotdog
Inspired by films such as The Wizard of Oz, Gravity, Mad Max: Fury Road, the Victims of the Multiverse project is a sci-fi action/adventure epic currently in development that serves as a sequel to the 2021 short film Locked Out. The project is being created with live-action footage, digital 2D and 3D animation, stop-motion animation, puppets, and practical models.
Set in 1970, five years following the events of Locked Out, Walter Hatman, an Ohio Highway Patrol officer trying to find a new life after serving in Vietnam, is forced back into service to prevent the onset of a multiverse civil war. With the threat of annihilation looming, order breaks down and conflict ripples across the multiverse as special units, rogue entities, freedom fighters, and double agents fight to survive in the new age of technology and reality.
Set in 1970, five years following the events of Locked Out, Walter Hatman, an Ohio Highway Patrol officer trying to find a new life after serving in Vietnam, is forced back into service to prevent the onset of a multiverse civil war. With the threat of annihilation looming, order breaks down and conflict ripples across the multiverse as special units, rogue entities, freedom fighters, and double agents fight to survive in the new age of technology and reality.
How This Project Started
Locked Out is a found footage/ analog horror short film I created in a narrative film course when studying at the University of Tampa.
The short film is told through the recovered footage of a live television show called "Theodicy Theater," an anthology science fiction show that was performed and broadcasted from Station 9, a television and radio broadcast station in the upper Appalachian mountains of Pennsylvania. However, within minutes, the entire television station and it's employees vanished off the face of the Earth.
The short film is told through the recovered footage of a live television show called "Theodicy Theater," an anthology science fiction show that was performed and broadcasted from Station 9, a television and radio broadcast station in the upper Appalachian mountains of Pennsylvania. However, within minutes, the entire television station and it's employees vanished off the face of the Earth.
Festivals
Following the completion of Locked Out, the short would go on to win the "Best of the Fest" award at the University of Tampa's Black Box Film Festival in Spring 2022, showcased at the Gasparilla International Film Festival in March 2023, and nominated for Best Student Film at the 2023 Fear Fame Film Festival.
Sequel Development
Characters from left to right: Kuro, President Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Felix Holdo, Alexander Haig, The Unknown, Walter Hatman, Mother Slay, Vineyard Isador, Opal Hoolahan
Principal photography lasted from September through November 2023, primarily filmed at the University of Tampa's Virtual Production studio.
Update: April 2024
Development has been put on hold as of April 2024 due to needing higher quality rendering capabilities than the MSI Z16 laptop I had been using this far. My current plans are to continue developing this project/series with smaller scale, anthology online content; with room to revive or reshoot Victims of the Multiverse with better production quality in the future.
Development has been put on hold as of April 2024 due to needing higher quality rendering capabilities than the MSI Z16 laptop I had been using this far. My current plans are to continue developing this project/series with smaller scale, anthology online content; with room to revive or reshoot Victims of the Multiverse with better production quality in the future.
Screenshot used as historical bases from a currently unknown YouTube video, likely somewhere on the Periscope YouTube channel. This screenshot was taken on 8/17/2023. It is possible that this video was taken down.
Graphic created to be used in Victims of the Multiverse materials.
Logo of the LUSADAM (League of United States of America Delegates from Across the Multiverse) Coalition, depicting of an American Eagle encapsulated in circles representing different worlds of the multiverse, and the ability to travel between them. For branding and categorization, projects and renders online will likely have this logo to indicate the theming or connection between them.
The logo is modeled after seals and logo used in 1960s - 70s period informative and recruitment films and presentations.
The logo is modeled after seals and logo used in 1960s - 70s period informative and recruitment films and presentations.
The logo was created with the intention of being almost statical with the overtly anatomist symbolism, taking other inspiration from the themes and imagery of the Empire in 1977's "Star Wars."
Promotional concept art for the Locked Out sequel "multiverse" project.
Behind-the-scenes image of the University of Tampa Virtual Production Studio being set up with an Unreal Engine environment.
Environment Development
Crisis Catalog anthology series
The "Crisis Catalog" is an anthology webseries featuring both historical footage and original media depicting non-historical, fictious people, places, and events that can take place anywhere before or after the main "Victims of the Multiverse" story. Named after the original project's title "Crisis Across the Multiverse," the series was initially developed as a way to help spread awareness of the project's creation, develop and use digital assets, and practice/experience with different animation, editing, and VFX.
Hat Man sighting in the Backrooms
NEDLA # 3844U - 39G95
Footage of Entity 4DA74: Hatman aka The Hat Man
Recorded During Operation Over Kilroy,
June 23, 19##.
Footage of Entity 4DA74: Hatman aka The Hat Man
Recorded During Operation Over Kilroy,
June 23, 19##.
Footage of the Device, Circa 1966
NEDLA # 73952H - T839E
Two angles of a Frame Device being tested in an unknown location.
Source of the footage remains unknown.
Two angles of a Frame Device being tested in an unknown location.
Source of the footage remains unknown.
Pool Room Footage Interference
NEDLA # 10924K-25QYA
Footage of a newly discovered Pool Room contaminated by old signals from persons and origin unknown, possibly decades-old.
Recorded during Expedition Altan Zero, circa July 1992.
Footage of a newly discovered Pool Room contaminated by old signals from persons and origin unknown, possibly decades-old.
Recorded during Expedition Altan Zero, circa July 1992.
Backrooms Encounter
NEDLA #78296C-10FPA
Found footage of teams Charlie and Delta following an ambush of "Kissingers" and other unidentified entities.
March 30, 19##.
Found footage of teams Charlie and Delta following an ambush of "Kissingers" and other unidentified entities.
March 30, 19##.
Projection mapping project created for a class at the University of Tampa featuring Unreal Engine models of President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, planning their course of action for mass bombings of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Following my own realization that the laptop I had been using from the start of this project, a MSI z16 Creator, was slowing down and unable to render at the capacity it had been able to prior, I created this short video as a way for myself to point to the time period where production had drastically halted until I had the means to upgrade and possibly begin again.
