“Headspace Inc” is a live action Neo-Noir Sci-Fi short film written and directed by myself, Rhys Sherring, and being produced by Mark Harris and Anastasia Kouloukas. The film touches on today’s level of escapism in the form of near infinite TV, film and video game content so easily accessible from anywhere around the globe. The constructive and ambitious side of me is constantly fighting the endless desire to sit down in front of a screen all day devouring content. With the amount of Game of Thrones now available on Blu-ray, I could lose a week of my life in the blink of an eye (but it would be a pretty epic blink, hey). Instead, I’m forcing myself outside my comfort zone and down the challenging path of creator, producing that of what I love so much: original content.

The Story

Logline:

In the near future, a private cybercrime investigator risks his freedom to release a teenager's consciousness from the grasp of an enthralled old film director hiding in virtual reality.

Synopsis:

Set in the near future, a conglomerate known as Headspace Inc dominates the new virtual reality tech market. A concerned company man of Headspace Inc, Arthur Eames, calls in private cybercrime investigator, and former friend with past feuds, Holden for aid in dealing with an issue the company wants nothing to do with. A teenager’s consciousness, Brian Sullivan’s, has gone missing in the virtual world, and Arthur can’t figure out how to bring him back without threat to his own being. Holden has a knack for self-disregard when it comes to the virtual world, always eager to escape the confines of reality. He risks his freedom by diving in after Brian and attempting to release his consciousness from the grasp of a failed old film director’s virtual world, a booby trapped cinema where he has caught unwitting audience members. Holden confronts the old director, Victor Crawford, about each of their reasons for wanting to escape while calculating how to free Brian and the rest of the audience.

List of influences:

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002 – 2003)

Blade Runner (1982)

Paprika (2006)
The Matrix (1999)

Ready Player One (2011 novel)

Major props in the film

The Psyche Dive Unit props are vital to the story’s success, and the main component providing the story with its Sci-Fi element. Without them, there’d be no Headspace Inc. With that said, without the utterly talented creator of said props, Mark Holland, this Pozible campaign wouldn’t exist and the film wouldn’t even be possible. There are two models:

The older Psyche Dive U-VI unit that Holden uses is intended to have been a prototype model that Holden walked out with back in the day after leaving Headspace on unsteady terms.

The newly released U-IX series are what all the kids, like Brian, are lining up for outside the Headspace Inc stores (Siri not included).

Here’s an overview of where your highly appreciated donations will be going: a major portion of the budget will go to supporting the cast and crew in the form of quality catering and expense coverage. It's always a surprise how much it costs to feed over 10 people across any amount of days!

Another big portion of funds will go towards costs for shooting at the beautiful Rivoli Cinemas down in Hawthorn East.

The rest of the expenses span across props creation, quality production design and set piece hire, detailed costumes, specific equipment hire, VFX work, sound mixing, an original music score, and finally, film festival submission fees.

I have successfully crowd funded one other film: my alternate reality short ‘Phantom Lapse’ back in 2014 that I wrote, directed and produced. Feel free to watch it via my personal website on the Film page at http://r-sherring.net/

Make sure to follow the film’s official Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/HeadspaceIncFilm/ for a number of updates and posts about the production including cast and crew profiles, cast interviews, a poster design competition and more!

In my life, there has been nothing more challenging than putting together the production of a short film. Now, with the help of crowdfunding, one of the huge burdens is taken off our shoulders in the form of audience financial support. For those of us creatives without over flowing wallets, the guaranteed extra dollar not only allows us to challenge ourselves that little bit further, but also provides motivation knowing that there are people out there who are genuinely intrerested in seeing the end result. And with knowing an audience is invested already, expectations are set, automatically raising the stakes to succeed.