THE SUPERVILLAIN

What if one filmmaker could make an entire animated feature film?

That’s what I’m about to do.

The Supervillain is a PG animated action-comedy about a teenage secret agent who is forced to team up with an animated supervillain to stop a tech genius armed with a weapon capable of turning internet memes into reality.

The screenplay is finished. The characters have been created. I’ve already produced a proof of concept demonstrating the production process.

Now I’m making the movie.

And I’m making it in a way that would have been nearly impossible for an independent filmmaker just a few years ago.

THE MOVIE

At its heart, The Supervillain is a big, funny animated adventure.

It has secret agents, supervillains, crazy technology, car chases, action, absurd characters and a threat that gets increasingly out of control as the movie goes along.

I want this to be the kind of movie kids and adults can watch together—a fast, funny PG adventure with enough action and visual insanity to play on a big screen.

But what's happening behind the screen is almost as interesting as what's happening on it.

HOW AM I MAKING AN ANIMATED FEATURE FILM?

I'm approaching The Supervillain much more like a traditional filmmaker than someone simply typing prompts into an AI generator.

For many scenes, I physically perform the characters myself in front of a camera.

I perform their movements, gestures, reactions, body language and comedic timing. Using performance and motion-control technology, that performance becomes the foundation for the animated character.

In other words, there is an actual performance underneath the animation.

For scenes requiring elaborate action, vehicles, larger environments or complex camera movement, I construct the characters and environments digitally and build the scene in 3D.

That allows me to determine where the characters are standing, where objects exist within the environment, how they interact with each other and—most importantly for me as a filmmaker—where I put the camera.

From there, I use a combination of tools including Kling Motion Control, Higgsfield JUTSU, Cinema Studio, Seedance and Blender to move from performance and scene construction into the finished animated image.

I can make the same kinds of decisions I would make while shooting a traditional movie: camera position, composition, movement, focal length, lens characteristics, lighting, depth of field and framing.

There are essentially two production pipelines working together.

Performance-driven scenes begin with me actually performing the scene. The movement and timing of that performance are transferred to the animated character and developed into the finished shot.

Complex action and cinematic sequences begin in a 3D environment, where I construct the scene, position the characters and camera, choreograph the action and create the movement before developing the finished animation.

Those two approaches can then live together inside the same movie.

Dialogue, character performances, voices, lip synchronization, music and sound are built into the production process, and the finished material comes back to me for editing.

The movie is ultimately assembled and edited in Adobe Premiere Pro, just as I would edit a traditionally produced feature film.

Then comes professional post-production: sound design, ADR, Foley, final mixing, color and everything necessary to turn those individual shots into a finished movie.

AI is part of the toolset. The filmmaking is still mine.

WHY I'M MAKING THE MOVIE THIS WAY

I've spent years working in film as an actor, writer, director, producer, editor and camera operator.

I've directed an independent feature. I've worked in front of the camera on studio films. I've worked behind the camera. I've edited professionally. I've spent a large part of my life learning how movies are actually put together.

And now filmmaking technology has reached an extraordinary point.

Tools that didn't exist—or weren't capable of doing this kind of work—even a short time ago are giving independent filmmakers access to production capabilities that once required enormous crews, specialized facilities and budgets reaching into the millions.

I don't see that as a replacement for filmmaking.

I see it as another way to make films.

The camera changed filmmaking. Digital editing changed filmmaking. CGI changed filmmaking. Digital cameras changed filmmaking.

Now we're entering another one of those periods.

And rather than talk about what might eventually be possible, I'm making a movie with it.

I'VE ALREADY STARTED

This isn't an idea sitting on a piece of paper waiting for someone to give me permission to make it.

The screenplay is complete.

The characters are being developed.

The production workflow has been tested.

And I've already created a proof-of-concept sequence using an earlier version of this process.

WATCH THE PROOF OF CONCEPT

THE SUPERVILLAIN - proof of concept

The technology has continued moving forward since I created that test, which means the feature itself can go considerably further.

Production on The Supervillain is moving forward now.

WHAT YOUR CONTRIBUTION DOES

Animation may be changing, but making a feature film still requires resources.

Contributions to this campaign go directly toward producing and completing The Supervillain, including the production technology and credits required to generate the animation, computer equipment and storage, production expenses, sound, music, ADR, color, professional post-production, legal and insurance expenses, and the months of work required to complete the film.

One of the reasons I'm using Crowdfundr is that we don't have to wait until the entire movie is financed before production can move forward.

Every milestone helps finance the next stage of the movie.

We build.

We shoot.

We animate.

We edit.

And you'll be able to watch it happen.

COME ALONG FOR THE RIDE

This isn't a campaign where I'm going to disappear for a year and come back someday saying, "Here's the movie."

I want the people supporting The Supervillain to watch this thing being made.

I'll be sharing production updates, animation tests, behind-the-scenes material, character development, finished shots, clips and some completely unnecessary appearances from the Supervillain himself.

As production progresses, the campaign progresses with it.

You'll see what your contribution is helping create.

And through the rewards on this campaign, supporters can become an even bigger part of the production.

LET'S MAKE A MOVIE.

The tools have changed.

The size of the crew has changed.

The way we're making it has changed.

But the goal hasn't.

Tell a great story. Make people laugh. Give them something they haven't seen before. And make a movie worth watching.

That's exactly what I'm doing with The Supervillain.

Welcome to the production.