Darren's 'career' in short films came
to a end in 2012 with the completion of his film Red
(refer to Films). From there
he pursued a number of other projects and passions -
not all of which were video related - before
returning to video production under a different
business name in 2018. Unfortunately in March 2020
this new business venture came to a close due to the
Covid pandemic.
So beginning in May 2020, Darren opted
to resume video production as a 'bit of fun'.
However, it wasn't until 2024 when Darren opted to
promote some of his more serious productions under
the DMFilms banner.
.
SPECIAL VIDEOS (from
most recent)
The Making of the 'Star Trek Retro Action
Figures From Playmates' documentary
In 2023 Darren was given the
opportunity to make a special three part documentary
film chronicling the history of the Star Trek action
figure toy line produced by Playmates in the 1990's.
Yet prior to commencing work on the third and final
part of the series, Darren opted to create a special
video detailing all the work involved in making it.
The result was a special Making Of
featurette outlining the step-by-step creative
process required to produce the documentary. The
video itself was released in May 2024
Disturbance in the Force: The Fan Film
That Never Was
In
2001 Darren was recruited to be the Director of a
large and ambitious Star Wars fan film called
Disturbance in the Force. Despite Darren completing
all live action principle photography, the film
itself was never finished.
On
the eve of its 20th anniversary, Darren opted to
create a documentary discussing the making of the
film, the issues experienced during production, an
explaination as to why he believed it was never
finished and where it eventually ended up.
The
Fan Film That Never Was was completed in February
2024, but was backdated to 2021 in line with the
original film's 20th anniversary.
.
Sci-in 5 (Episode 1)
Throughout the pandemic period, Darren
had been broadcasting a number of live online shows
on Facebook and YouTube based around various pop
culture related topics. Despite the success of these
programmes, often they would have running times in
excess of two hours which really limited their replay
viewing value. As a consequence, Darren decided to
produce a new series of pre precorded videos which
would have a running time of no more than five
minutes.
The result was Sci-in 5 which was
produced as part of Sci-Fi Zone and released in April
2023. In addition, this particular episode is
featured to demonstrate the show's style and
atmosphere
For
more information, refer to the Sci-in 5 Sci-Fi
Zone website
.
Cooking for Nerds
Whilst in the process of making the
special videos below, Darren was keen to create an
episode of a TV cooking show where a real meal was
prepared and cooked on screen, even though it was all
done somewhat 'tongue in cheek'.
The result was Cooking for Nerds where
Darren appeared to make an actual chicken pasta dish
to show how easy it was, whilst making continual
references to various Science Fiction movies and TV
shows.
In the end the show took two days to
film and an extra day and half to finish.
Cooking
for Nerds was completed in June 2020.
..
..
The Phantom Nerd Revealed
Once social isolation restrictions
were relaxed Darren opted to have a few guests over
to his house for a catch up.
On the morning of the event Darren
conceived of an impromptu film to shoot that night as
a bit of fun. He then wrote the story while Lynne,
his partner, was out of the house taking their cat to
the Vet for a check up.
The only person who had any inkling of
what was to occur was the lead actress Clare McDonald
who was asked by Darren to supply her own costume for
the film. Everyone else, however, only became aware
of the impending production once they had arrived at
the house with no fore warning at all.
It was Darren's plan to shoot the film
in a 'film noir' style as fast as possible and as a
result principle photography was completed in less
than two hours. From there the guests sat in Darren's
Study and watched as he edited the first draft of the
film together. In the end the film took around 28
hours to complete.
The
Phantom Nerd Revealed was completed in May 2020.
.
..
The Rise of Skywalker - From a
Certain Point of View
During the middle of the Covid-19
crisis when self isolation was in full effect, Darren
combined his experience in making the Oneself Films
along with his production skills of Sci-Fi Zone to
create this video. However, unlike the Oneself films
which were fully scripted, this production used a
more adhoc approach and as a result took 11 hours to
shoot.
In the end Darren wanted the entire
project completed within a full 24 hour period which
is what occurred.
The
Rise of Skywalker - From a Certain Point of View was
completed in May 2020.
.
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LCA Productions - promo reel
When Darren was a professional
videographer between 2018-2020, he needed to create a
new website to promote his business. At the top of
the site was a quick 1 minute summary of his
production achievements which included some of his
film, corporate and TV commercial work.
.
Sci-Fi Zone (Episode 22)
In
2019 Darren was keen to create his own Science
Fiction TV talk show as inspired by programmes such
as The Project and The Front Bar. The result was
Sci-Fi Zone which ran for one season released on
YouTube.
Although
enjoyable to make for the cast and crew, the
production presented a number of challenges as it was
filmed before opening hours inside an actual comic
book store during the Winter months. Additional
challenges were caused by the store's industrial
metal ceiling which featured numerous skylights, a
consequence of which were a number of episodes being
hampered by changing lighting conditions due to the
moving of the clouds along with rain which impacted
the audio.
This
particular episode is featured to demonstrate the
show's style and atmosphere, however, please note it
was produced under the LCA Productions banner which
was Darren's business at the time.
25 episodes of
Sci-Fi Zone were completed between May-November 2019.
For more
information, refer to the Sci-Fi
Zone website
