Dissonant Minds is a film we started work on in 2012, it was originally envisioned to lead directly into a feature length Intrepid titled The Conviction of Demons. We began and completed exterior filming in 2012. Unfortunately, that shoot was hampered by bad weather, and in hindsight, some ill-advised decisions on my part. The shoot itself was productive, but we lost a lot of time due to the weather, which meant a lot of very rapid rewrites on the spot to try and cut down the amount of dialogue and save us some time. To add insult to injury, the footage we ended up with wasn’t up to our usual standards.
About this time it became obvious that the demands of real life, and the scope of the script itself, meant that The Conviction of Demons was unlikely to move forward. The few scenes we had shot for it were solid, and while the complete film will never materialise, I’m confident we’ll be able to make use of the footage we have somewhere down the road.
Of course this too had an impact on Dissonant Minds, which was supposed to set up the story to be continued in Conviction. Now we had to somehow wrap that plot up using what we had, which meant the story had to be rewritten in the edit. And that was assuming we could salvage enough of the footage we had to piece it together. I’ll be honest, I struggled to find that revised story, and the footage sat on my hard drive for a few years as I made several attempts to rework it. I did eventually find something that sort of works, which lead to us shooting some short pick up scenes around about 2015 or so, but the film itself was a long way from done.
We had a story, but it was missing a lot of complicated and time-consuming effects work. Steve Gilson helped us out at first, doing the initial keying for one of the opening scenes. Later, Star Trek Deception’s Leo Tierney, who had done some pretty amazing work on Nemo Me Impune Lacessit, rebuilt and lit our bridge model and keyed those scenes for us. Martin Lejeune, who has been with us since almost the beginning, very graciously provided our transporter effects.
We were also incredibly lucky to have the very talented Samuel Cockings of Trekyards volunteer to do all our space shots (as well as one fairly critical live action shot) His work is amazing, and quite frankly Sam’s enthusiasm was the spark that reignited my own fire. I’m not sure this film would ever have been finished if not for Sam’s encouragement, and for that I am immensely grateful.
But we still weren’t there. Steve, Leo and Sam had done wonders, but there were still a few important effects missing. Enter Jon Carling and Henry Gibbens. Jon provided all the crucial HUD and panel overlays. Henry, meanwhile, provided one of our most important effects shots, building and animating, well let’s just say a pivotal character that helps sell the whole story.
Last, but by no means least, credit has to be given to Tony Lynn, who provided us with a really quite lovely score that helps set the tone so well. And to Tony Raymond, who having never worked with video before, so kindly agreed to do the sound effects and design. Special shout out to Kallin Tomsen, who recommended and introduced me to Tony. Thank you!
I’d also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the entire cast and crew of Intrepid. I’m still never sure why you all keep coming back for more. I’m pretty sure I’ve broken most of you at one point or another, and I’m particularly grateful that Steve Hammond keeps coming back, despite the horrors of working with me. I’m not sure he knows how much he is genuinely appreciated, especially when we’re butting heads over a shot or some such thing. But every one of these films has his touch on them, and none of them would exist without his efforts. Thank you Steve. And thank you all.
And finally, I can’t talk about this film without mentioning the late Gordon Dickson. Gordon doesn’t appear in Dissonant Minds, but it was the last of our films he worked on, and almost certainly the last physical credit he will have on one of these films. Which makes this just a little bittersweet.
Dissonant Minds may not be a perfect film, but it is done and it exists. Thank you to each and every one of you who has invested your time and your energy bring it to life. And thank you to all of you who take the time to watch it. Hopefully you will find something to enjoy.
About this time it became obvious that the demands of real life, and the scope of the script itself, meant that The Conviction of Demons was unlikely to move forward. The few scenes we had shot for it were solid, and while the complete film will never materialise, I’m confident we’ll be able to make use of the footage we have somewhere down the road.
Of course this too had an impact on Dissonant Minds, which was supposed to set up the story to be continued in Conviction. Now we had to somehow wrap that plot up using what we had, which meant the story had to be rewritten in the edit. And that was assuming we could salvage enough of the footage we had to piece it together. I’ll be honest, I struggled to find that revised story, and the footage sat on my hard drive for a few years as I made several attempts to rework it. I did eventually find something that sort of works, which lead to us shooting some short pick up scenes around about 2015 or so, but the film itself was a long way from done.
We had a story, but it was missing a lot of complicated and time-consuming effects work. Steve Gilson helped us out at first, doing the initial keying for one of the opening scenes. Later, Star Trek Deception’s Leo Tierney, who had done some pretty amazing work on Nemo Me Impune Lacessit, rebuilt and lit our bridge model and keyed those scenes for us. Martin Lejeune, who has been with us since almost the beginning, very graciously provided our transporter effects.
We were also incredibly lucky to have the very talented Samuel Cockings of Trekyards volunteer to do all our space shots (as well as one fairly critical live action shot) His work is amazing, and quite frankly Sam’s enthusiasm was the spark that reignited my own fire. I’m not sure this film would ever have been finished if not for Sam’s encouragement, and for that I am immensely grateful.
But we still weren’t there. Steve, Leo and Sam had done wonders, but there were still a few important effects missing. Enter Jon Carling and Henry Gibbens. Jon provided all the crucial HUD and panel overlays. Henry, meanwhile, provided one of our most important effects shots, building and animating, well let’s just say a pivotal character that helps sell the whole story.
Last, but by no means least, credit has to be given to Tony Lynn, who provided us with a really quite lovely score that helps set the tone so well. And to Tony Raymond, who having never worked with video before, so kindly agreed to do the sound effects and design. Special shout out to Kallin Tomsen, who recommended and introduced me to Tony. Thank you!
I’d also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the entire cast and crew of Intrepid. I’m still never sure why you all keep coming back for more. I’m pretty sure I’ve broken most of you at one point or another, and I’m particularly grateful that Steve Hammond keeps coming back, despite the horrors of working with me. I’m not sure he knows how much he is genuinely appreciated, especially when we’re butting heads over a shot or some such thing. But every one of these films has his touch on them, and none of them would exist without his efforts. Thank you Steve. And thank you all.
And finally, I can’t talk about this film without mentioning the late Gordon Dickson. Gordon doesn’t appear in Dissonant Minds, but it was the last of our films he worked on, and almost certainly the last physical credit he will have on one of these films. Which makes this just a little bittersweet.
Dissonant Minds may not be a perfect film, but it is done and it exists. Thank you to each and every one of you who has invested your time and your energy bring it to life. And thank you to all of you who take the time to watch it. Hopefully you will find something to enjoy.
