Check out the introduction of Anton and Toph Karrento, the Silk Gatherers, the latest clip from my lo-fi sci-fi feature Ghosts With Shit Jobs.

This is actually the segment I directed, and although I did it reluctantly (I figure my real skill sets are producing/writing), it was a joy to work with these two super-talented guys. Fantastic at improv, they totally internalized the 2040 world in a way that just floored me. And I felt they nailed the dysfunctional brothers dynamic. After we wrapped I made a text adventure game starring them that you can play here, just so I could spend some more time hanging out in my head with them. Is that weird, bro?

A. The only thing we could do, really… trash the defectives and start pumping out a new batch.

Check out the introduction of Gary and Karen, the Baby Makers, the latest clip from my lo-fi sci-fi feature Ghosts With Shit Jobs.

This month we’re releasing the first 5 minutes of the new lo-fi sci-fi movie, which introduces the digital janitor. In each of the coming three months we will be introducing a new character from our mockumentary. Check it out here.

It’s also a part of the Celtx Seeds program, where we’ve additionally posted a little quick-and-dirty interview with a couple of us. We focused on a tips/how-to approach rather than, y’know, our motivations and artistic aesthetic. Not that that’s irrelevant, but since Celtx is a scriptwriting app we figured most of the people watching would be fellow filmmakers.

In 2040, jobs suck in a whole new way.

Our new lo-fi sci-fi mockumentary, Ghosts With Shit Jobs, is finally finished! Check out the brand new trailer above or at the official site. Click through for my exec producer/writer/co-director notes.

The idea was to build on the amazing response we got from Infest Wisely, a feature that took six months and $700 to make, and make something where the production values weren’t as distracting.

Two-and-a-half years and $4000 later, we’ve got that with Ghosts With Shit Jobs. (Turns out that extra bit of polish, and the time it takes to find the people who know how to apply that polish, is a non-inconsequential thing.)

And already, even though we’re a way from releasing it, we’ve received some excellent support last week from the Celtx Seeds program which gave us $2000 in funding. We’ll be starting to post portions of the feature-length movie episodically with them in October.

To keep tabs on it you’ll want to check out our oddly foreign-yet-familiar social media buttons at the official www.ghostswithshitjobs.com site. Poke around… each flavour has a different take on the movie.

So if you’re up for a bit of transmedia fun, you can play the game before the movie’s released. Check out the cover art, a description of the game, and some info about the competition after the jump.

You and your brother’s job — scouring the city’s highest spots for a rare building material in the year 2040 — is already hard enough. Now Anton’s gone and gotten you trapped on a rooftop. Your acrobat bloodline will help you with the deadly heights, and your brain will figure out the genmodded plants — but will you be able to cope with having the most annoying big brother alive?

Play it now.

The jayisgames Casual Game Design Competition #7 gave people two months to make a text game with an “escape-the-room” theme. It’s got a cash prize of $1000, pretty high for a IF comp, and an engaged audience of game players. I’m looking forward to checking out the other 30 or so entries! UPDATE: My game placed fifth. I think my favorite game this comp was Ka — it starts off pretty sparse, but by the time it gets to the sphere puzzle you’re entered a rich and weird world.

* soundtrack composition
* special effects and titling
* colour correction
* audio post and ADR

If you or someone you know are into finding out more, drop us a line! We unfortunately can’t pay up front, but click through to see if you’re excited enough by what we’ve shot so far to help us out anyway.

In 2040, a generation of Torontonians have grown up after the economic collapse of the west. The movie consists of episodes of a documentary series popular in mainland China about the bad jobs some white people have — the plucky and resilient souls unlucky enough to be born into the slums of North America are both amusing and moving to the Chinese audience.

Oscar is a digital janitor, and has to manually cover up logos for copyright reasons in the future’s answer to Google StreetView maps.

He doesn’t really know why he’s on a show about bad jobs, because he thinks his job is pretty great — he gets to see history come alive in front of his eyes, like the garbagemen who fancy themselves like archaeologists.

But the long hours and loneliness are getting to him, especially since the death of his mother.

Gary and Karen are babymakers. They assemble robot baby dolls for the children of the wealthy in Asia.

They’re so indistinguishable from real babies that the crying, diapers and feeding of a half-dozen units at once is driving the couple a little crazy and straining their relationship. Both of them are hugely overqualified for the job, but while Gary has a reasonable ten-year plan, the more ambitious Karen would do anything to be making battlebots now.

Anton and Toph are silk collectors. Twenty years ago a herd of gigantic spiders ran amok over the eastern seaboard after a genelab outbreak, leaving behind buildings swathed in spider web silk.

Although highly toxic and difficult to collect, people like Anton and Toph risk their lives to get it — it’s worth its weight in gold as an ultrastrong building material.

Anton, the enthusiastic and delusional older brother, loves the idea of becoming famous for collecting the Tower silk. Toph, the more intelligent younger brother who actually does the collecting, knows it’s a deathtrap.

Serina is human spam. She makes a living by mentioning brands and products in casual conversation, and is credited based on their status and wealth.

Because of the life she’s chosen, she’s disconnected from friends and family but protected by a lipstick-sized tazer and her “people” in the Nigerian cartel.

A chameleon and professionally skilled at reinvention, her good humour and friendliness is only skin deep — beneath it is a cold and ruthless survivor.

Click through to see the list and Sanford Kong‘s awesome concept art. Get in touch at casting@lofiscifi.com with any questions/ideas.




Actors

• The Documentarian: An older Asian man, 40+.
• The restaurant owner: A 30+ Asian man or woman.
• The down-on-her-luck lady: A 40+ Caucasian woman.
• The high-flying businesswoman: A 30+ Asian woman.
• A well-off older gent: A 50+ man.
• Extras/Backgrounders: If you don’t fit any of these, we’d love to have you as one of the crowd of doodlefaces.

Art Dept./Crew

• Sound: if you’re available and reliable, we can train you.
• Lighting: If you like to sculpt with shadows, let us know.
• Wardrobe: Can you imagine what folks will be wearing in 2040? Know how to customize Value Village finds?
• Set dec: We have to dress up locations so they look different. Hopefully you have better ideas than “a lot of tin foil”.
• P.A.s: If you’re willing to be an extra pair of hands for the experience.

Locations
We have insurance.

• a luxury car/limo
• a bar
• a doctor’s office
• a doctor’s waiting room
• a convenience store
• a toy store

Get in touch at casting@lofiscifi.com.

In 2040, a generation of Torontonians have grown up after the economic collapse of the west. The movie consists of episodes of a documentary series popular in mainland China about the bad jobs some white people have — the plucky and resilient souls unlucky enough to be born into the slums of North America are both amusing and moving to the Chinese audience.

We’re doing auditions on Saturday, June 6, 12-4. If you’re in Toronto, please check out the roles we’re trying to fill — there’s a variety of ethnicities and ages.

We are looking for non-union actors for the following roles. If you have any questions or are interested in trying out email your details to casting@lofiscifi.com and we’ll give you the details for the auditions on Saturday, June 6, 12-4pm in Parkdale, Toronto.

Oscar is a digital janitor in his 20s/30s, and has to manually cover up logos for copyright reasons in the future’s answer to Google StreetView maps. He doesn’t really know why he’s on a show about bad jobs, because he thinks his job is pretty great — he gets to see history come alive in front of his eyes, like the garbagemen who fancy themselves like archaeologists. But the long hours and loneliness are getting to him, especially since the death of his mother.

Gary and Karen are baby-makers in their 20s/30s. They assemble robot baby dolls for the children of the wealthy in Asia. They’re so indistinguishable from real babies that the crying, diapers and feeding of a half-dozen units at once is driving the couple a little crazy and straining their relationship. Both of them are hugely overqualified for the job, but while Gary has a reasonable ten-year plan, the more ambitious Karen would do anything to be making battlebots now.

Anton and Toph are silk collectors in their 20s. Twenty years ago a herd of gigantic spiders ran amok over the eastern seaboard after a genelab outbreak, leaving behind buildings swathed in spider web silk. Although highly toxic and difficult to collect, people like Anton and Toph risk their lives to get it — it’s worth its weight in gold as an ultrastrong building material. Anton, the enthusiastic and delusional older brother, loves the idea of becoming famous for collecting the Tower silk. Toph, the more intelligent younger brother who actually does the collecting, knows it’s a deathtrap.

Serina is human spam in her 20s/30s. She makes a living by mentioning brands and products in casual conversation, and is credited based on their status and wealth. Because of the life she’s chosen, she’s disconnected from friends and family but protected by a lipstick-sized tazer and her “people” in the Nigerian cartel. A chameleon and professionally skilled at reinvention, her good humour and friendliness is only skin deep — beneath it is a cold and ruthless survivor.

Other parts

• the Documentarian, an Asian man (Mandarin speaking a plus)
• the show host, an Asian woman (Mandarin speaking a plus)
• Harry, a heavyset Caucasian in 40s/50s/60s
• Tom, an alpha male office worker in his 20s/30s
• Leo, a beta male office worker in his 20s/30s
• Avinash, an east Indian male in his 30s/40s
• Nat, a Caucasian male in his 20s/30s
• Mr. Wilson, a Caucasian male in his 40s/50s
• two eight year old boys
• two Asian men, 30s-40s
• a man in his 60s-70s

This is such an ambitious project that if you’re interested, I’m pretty sure we’ll find a part for you to play — it might be as a background extra or it might be as a Director of Photography, but you won’t know if you don’t get in touch!

That video (part of my Pleasure Circuit Overload series of vids about videogames) has gotten a ridonkulous amount of attention for what it is and it seems to keeps bumbling into places it doesn’t belong. (CTheory? The New York Times? Whaa…?)

But just so my head doesn’t inflate too much — I didn’t win the Shuster award for best comics writing I was nominated for last week. My new pal Cecil Castellucci won it for her excellent P.L.A.I.N. Janes graphic novel about a clique of nerdy girls transforming their town with art-terrorism.

Undeterred, I’m diving into researching and writing a new comics project, Time Management for Anarchists: The Comic. Which is gonna be drawn by Marc Ngui, the genius behind the My Trip avatar skins (pictured below).

It seems random, but everything in my life connects if you have enough time and graph paper to map it out.

Top: Canadian Tourist skin. Middle: Attack Mime skin. Bottom: Street Priest skin. Created by Marc Ngui for My Trip to Liberty City.

TORONTO, ON – April 30th, 2008 – For Immediate Release

Infest Wisely, a lo-fi sci-fi movie about chewing-gum delivered nanotechnology, is coming out on DVD May 15th with a launch screening at The Royal Cinema.

The movie was shot in Toronto for $700 by seven directors, each contributing one episode to the intertwining story, all written by indie producer Jim Munroe.

“It’s been all over the continent at this point,” said Munroe, “We were flown out for the world premiere at a hacker convention in Las Vegas, it was shown under a bridge at a bike-in in Montreal, it was screened at a new media festival in Vancouver and a political science fiction conference in Chicago. But this will be the first time since the sneak preview that we’ll be screening it in Toronto, and we’re super excited it’s showing at the Royal.”

The Royal, one of the last independent cinemas in the city, is a College Street institution that was recently saved and renovated back to its art deco glory. “There’s nothing like seeing a movie in a theatre,” said Craig Macnaughton, who co-produced and directed one of the Infest Wisely episodes. “The lights go down, the sound of the people around you… it’s a great experience.”

But the creators haven’t limited the movie’s distribution to theatrical screenings. Thousands of people have downloaded the movie via BitTorrent and podcast from www.infestwisely.com. Then why bother with a DVD version? “It’s kind of funny — it’s costing twice as much to press the DVD as it did to shoot the movie,” Munroe pointed out, going on to explain that sponsored screenings allowed them to raise the funds required. “But as a physical object it gets out into the world in a completely different way, and to different people.”

Munroe has released videos via his website and on disc and so has a basis for comparison — in fact he’s worked in so many formats and mediums he’s been dubbed “a pop culture provocateur” by the Austin Chronicle. “It was also fun to get to include director’s commentaries from everyone.” The audio track includes do-it-yourself tips and tricks from each of the directors, who all have different takes on indie filmmaking.

The DVD is being distributed by KRK Media, based out of Waterloo, ON with over a hundred retail clients across Canada. “They really understood the spirit of the project,” Munroe said. “They distro a really eclectic mix — everything from B-movies like the Troma films to docs like End of Suburbia to arthouse movies that don’t get wide release. Since Infest Wisely is somewhere between B-movie and arthouse, it’s a good match.”

Thurs. May 15, 9pm
The Royal (608 College St, Toronto)
$10 admission or $15 admission and DVD

REVIEWS

“Infest Wisely is a great lo-fi sci-fi nanopunk flick” -Wired.com

“If only there were more people like Jim Munroe making movies like Infest Wisely.” -The Globe and Mail

“The film is chock full of interesting ideas and images.” -The Toronto Star

For more reviews: http://infestwisely.com/news.html
For more background: http://infestwisely.com/about.html
For the trailer: http://infestwisely.com/trailer.html
For the presskit: http://infestwisely.com/presskit.html

CONTACT

Screeners available upon request.