Hamish Downie Developing New Animated Film
The Two Gay Geeks received this press release from our very own Hamish Downie about a film he is developing with several others you may recognize.
Have a read and look for updates from Hamish in his News Sushi column and here.
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Hamish Downie Developing New Animated Film
Matcha & Vanilla filmmaker, Hamish Downie, would like to let the proverbial cat out of the bag… the animated short film, Anomaly has entered pre-production and will officially be his next project after his debut feature film.
Synopsis: After a major calamity, Daniel finds himself in limbo, face-to-face with St. Peter, the Heavenly Accountant. A battle of wits ensues when Daniel negotiates to spend eternity with his husband, Joshua.
Hamish will be working with some old and new faces to complete this project. Adam J Yeend (An American Piano, Matcha & Vanilla) is on board to play Daniel. Plus, we are in talks with some amazing people to play St Peter and Joshua.
NZ based Savannah Animator, Ross Ozarka has come on board to do the animation and is currently working on the animatic. Says Hamish, “I’ve been wanting to do something with Ross ever since I first saw his film Oops! I Murdered the Person I like likes and interviewed him for TGGeeks.” Ross has already completed a temp track, and Hamish is “ecstatic with it”.
Ross’ Demo Reel
Ross Ozarka – 2020 Demo
Reel from Ross Ozarka
on Vimeo.
The idea for this film came from a philosophical debate Hamish was having with himself while thinking about the TV series The Good Place and films like The Seventh Seal. Says Hamish, “A lot of my ideas for movies come from my own fears, and this is no different. I’m afraid of death and the afterlife. Particularly, not being able to spend it with my partner. Aside from ‘What dreams may come’ I feel like a lot of Afterlife stories forget that their main characters have loved ones that they want to be with. As great as The Good Place was, I feel like that was the one thing they dropped the ball on. So, I got thinking about it, and eventually, I realised that I had a story I wanted to tell. I initially wrote it as a radio play for my podcast, ‘The Fizz Popcast Radio Show’, but my co-host recommended that it would be better served as a short animation. As soon as she said that, I knew that I wanted Ross to make it.”
Hamish’s original plan was to make a web series after Matcha & Vanilla, but with everything that’s going on right now, he felt uncomfortable making live-action. This probably seems like a hard left for Hamish, but this was his initial plan when going into filmmaking. Back in 2010, he took meetings in Japan and was under consideration at Australia’s National Broadcaster to make two Animated TV Series.
Animation works by Hamish, from the student short, Master Martian (2000) to Spirulina (concept art for the TV Series), to his latest short Moovie Star:
For updates, please follow my column “News Sushi” as well as my twitter @hamishdownie
“The script was written by Hamish Downie, Ross Ozarka, and Adrian Austin. Hamish wrote the first draft based on his existential crisis, which was developed by Ross to be less of a radio drama and more cinematic and comedic. Then, Hamish brought Adrian (his co-writer on the Spirulina project) on board to polish and unify the voice of the script. Hamish believes that together as a writing team, they’ve managed to balance the blend of comedy, philosophy, and pathos.”
