Neill Blomkamp has released his first volume from Oats Studios, the production company he’s set up to put out his own series of “experimental” shorts. Though, as seen in this first 22-minute outing, titled Rakka, it seems the District 9 must somehow consider his entire catalogue of features to be quite avant-garde.
Co-written and directed by Blomkamp, the film plays out more like modern video game cinematics as it does a fully-formed short. Through a woman’s plodding voice-over exposition, we’re given a story of how some lizard-men from another planet have taken over Earth and want to wipe out humanity. A group of fighters, led by Sigourney Weaver, hope to drive out these A-hole aliens.
Anyway, while the short itself isn’t very experimental, Blomkamp’s release plan indeed is. Instead of charging for the works themselves, he’s putting out those for free but charging for the film’s assets—including 3D models, concept art, soundtrack, and the original video dailies. The idea is that aspiring filmmakers can (non-commercially) remix and add to the worlds imagined in the Oats shorts. But first, some internet weirdo is definitely going to make the 3D alien models fuck. That’s not even a question.
If you’re that weirdo, you can support Oats Studios on Steam.
