I’ve got another awesome short film for you to watch today called "Echo Torch." This is a magnificent and eerie sci-fi film that tells the story of an inventor who creates an electrical torch. So what’s so special about this torch? Well, it reveals “a hidden world layered upon our own - filled with beautiful spirits, strange creatures, and dangerous phantoms.”
The short was written and directed by Chris Preksta, and it’s truly some beautifully amazing film work and storytelling. I absolutely love the concept, and it has a really cool haunting and classic vibe to it. It reminds me of a lot of those great '80s films that I grew up watching. On top of that, the VFX work that was done for it is pretty impressive stuff.
I loved this film! It’s a stunning piece of filmmaking that you need to watch as...
The short was written and directed by Chris Preksta, and it’s truly some beautifully amazing film work and storytelling. I absolutely love the concept, and it has a really cool haunting and classic vibe to it. It reminds me of a lot of those great '80s films that I grew up watching. On top of that, the VFX work that was done for it is pretty impressive stuff.
I loved this film! It’s a stunning piece of filmmaking that you need to watch as...
- 11/7/2016
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Another wicked cool short film discovery - another one you must watch. Echo Torch is a sci-fi short about an inventor who builds an "electrical torch that reveals a hidden world layered upon our own." The concept itself is quite unique, and I love the visuals - you can see the cool blue torch on the poster, but to actually see it work so flawlessly in this short is wonderful. Echo Torch is directed by Chris Preksta, starring James Fitzgerald as the torchbearer. This has an awesome old school vibe to it, almost like Ghostbusters, and the VFX work is magnificent - making it that much more believable. I also appreciate how the film doesn't rely on dialogue, only just silence and great sound design. There's also a beautiful story bringing it all together. Description from Vimeo: "An inventor creates an electrical torch that reveals a hidden world layered upon...
- 11/5/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
It was a few years back now that we first came across the work of writer-director Chris Preksta. The occasion at the time was his fabulous retro-futurist webseries The Mercury Men and he's back now with equally fabulous short film Echo Torch. While not a Mercury Men story this new effort appears to live in a very similar universe, one that appears to be technically now but a now as imagined by the science fiction films of the 50s. The story revolves around a man who has invented a sort of electrical torch with the ability to reveal a hidden dimension surrounding our own. Preksta's production design here is enormously impressive, the attention to detail and craft in the hand built props really remarkable, as...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 10/25/2016
- Screen Anarchy
For those who like their ghost stories with a side of sweetness, there’s “Echo Torch,” a new film directed by Chris Preksta. The cinematic short follows a photographer who creates a torch that can pierce the thin boundary between our world and a world of ghosts and phantoms. The photographer, stirred by motivations that will be revealed in time, dares to navigate this newfound boundary between worlds, discovering beautiful echoes of the past and a dangerous creature filled with evil intent.
Read More: ‘The Walking Dead’ Launches More ‘Fear’ With New Web Series
Preksta, known for the popular YouTube series “Pittsburg Dad” (over 35 million views), is also quite familiar with creating science fiction content for a digital format: Besides directing for “The Guild”, he created the online web series “The Mercury Men”, which premiered on Syfy in 2011, and has won accolades such as Best Director in 2011 at the Iawtv...
Read More: ‘The Walking Dead’ Launches More ‘Fear’ With New Web Series
Preksta, known for the popular YouTube series “Pittsburg Dad” (over 35 million views), is also quite familiar with creating science fiction content for a digital format: Besides directing for “The Guild”, he created the online web series “The Mercury Men”, which premiered on Syfy in 2011, and has won accolades such as Best Director in 2011 at the Iawtv...
- 10/20/2016
- by Zipporah Smith
- Indiewire
Season 6 of The Guild will finally arrive on October 2, almost a year after Cyd Sherman seemed to finally acquire a job opportunity she wouldn't squander in a blaze of fire. Recently, the cast of the multiple award winning smash hit have been gathered together to film the season, but now we have evidence to prove they're not just slacking off and playing WoW. Felicia Day is releasing daily diaries on her YouTube-funded channel, Geek & Sundry, with each blog taking us behind the scenes of what is sure to be another exciting and critically lauded season. Each day of the diary seems to profile a different team associated with The Guild, from production to set design to a scattered miscellany of other tasks. One by one, the various cast members are stopping by as well; Robin Thorson and Amy Okuda have already made cameo appearances. By far the most interesting part...
- 9/21/2012
- by Sam Gutelle
- Tubefilter.com
We’re on final countdown to Comic-Con 2011 in San Diego this week and for that matter, so is the much-anticipated noir sci-fi web series The Mercury Men. The series readies for its online debut a week from today on July 25 on Syfy.com, It was January when fans finally learned the fate of this indie series, as creator Christopher Preksta secured a paid distribution deal with Syfy.com. The 10-episode series is set in an alternative history version of 1975 where aliens inhabit the other planets in our solar system. When pure-light beings from the planet Mercury invade earth, it is up to him and action-hero Jack Yaeger (Curt Wootton) to stop them. We at Tubefilter talked Syfy into letting us show you an exclusive, never-before-released scene from The Mercury Men, and it’s a good one. All we really can say is, Light Bullets! Related News:‘The Mercury Men’ Heading to Syfy.
- 7/18/2011
- by Marc Hustvedt
- Tubefilter.com
SyFy has just announced that a new sci-fi web series called The Mercury Men is coming soon to Syfy.com, which is inspired by the same retro serials that gave us Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
Read the official announcement from SyFy:
Marking Major Expansion Of Original Digital Content Following The Success Of Riese: Kingdom Falling, Syfy.Com Announces New Sci-fi Web Series The Mercury Men Debuts In Early 2011
Riese: Kingdom Falling Delivers More Than One Million Streams In Just Two Months
New York - January 21, 2011 - Following the enormous success of the seriesRiese: Kingdom Falling - which generated 1.2 million streams in only two months - Syfy.com will expand its original digital content slate with the 10-part The Mercury Men, it was announced today by Craig Engler, Senior Vice President/General Manager, Syfy Digital.
Created by acclaimed director Christopher Preksta (Captain Blasto), The Mercury Men(each episode...
Read the official announcement from SyFy:
Marking Major Expansion Of Original Digital Content Following The Success Of Riese: Kingdom Falling, Syfy.Com Announces New Sci-fi Web Series The Mercury Men Debuts In Early 2011
Riese: Kingdom Falling Delivers More Than One Million Streams In Just Two Months
New York - January 21, 2011 - Following the enormous success of the seriesRiese: Kingdom Falling - which generated 1.2 million streams in only two months - Syfy.com will expand its original digital content slate with the 10-part The Mercury Men, it was announced today by Craig Engler, Senior Vice President/General Manager, Syfy Digital.
Created by acclaimed director Christopher Preksta (Captain Blasto), The Mercury Men(each episode...
- 1/22/2011
- by Tiberius
- GeekTyrant
The wait is finally over. Christopher Preksta’s noir sci-fi world that envelops The Mercury Men is now ready for prime time. In the parlor game of guessing just where the highly-anticapted web series would end up, Syfy was always high on the list. Now comes the official word out of the NBCu-owned network that it is licensing the series for exclusive distribution on its Syfy.com hub, in a similar deal to the steampunk drama Riese: Kingdom Falling. Set in an alternate version of 1975—where aliens really do inhabit the other planets of our solar system—the 10-art series picks up with pure-light beings from the planet Mercury invading earth. The story’s reluctant protagonist Edward Borman (Mark Tierno), a government office grunt finds himself in the middle of ground zero for defending the planet. Luckily he gets some help from clean-cut action hero Jack Yaeger (Curt Wootton) who...
- 1/21/2011
- by Marc Hustvedt
- Tubefilter.com
The 2nd Annual Streamy Awards are April 11, 2010. That's 180 days until the winners are announced live on stage, and we thought it's never too early to start handicapping the field. So it's nice to see that The Mercury Men posted a behind the scenes look at the pulp sci-fi web series' production design. Mercury Men creator Christopher Preksta released the documentary video (above) as part of his "Mercury Mondays" weekly production journals. "Design is really important to me," said Preksta in the video, "It's another tool that I as a filmmaker have to support my story and set the tone, the world and bring a unique vision to the story." In the video we learn that Mercury Men design pulls from three separate themes—the 30's/40's sci-fi pulp (Buck Rodgers, Flash Gordon), 1950's sci-fi movie's noir, and the early 60's Us Space program. Costumer Ricky Lyle, who also worked on Preksta's Streamy-nominated Captain Blasto,...
- 10/14/2009
- by Marc Hustvedt
- Tubefilter.com
Influenced by equal shares Hitchcock, The Twilight Zone and the pulp scifi of Star Wars, Chris Preksta's The Mercury Men looks like a rollicking return to the classic cliffhanger serials of the 20s and 30s. But don't expect "an homage with cheesy dialogue, corny characters, and bad special effects" says Prekstra." The Mercury Men has been designed "as a modern story with the great suspense, danger, and mystery the serials were known for at the time."
Edward Borman, a lowly government office drone, finds himself trapped, when the deadly Mercury Men seize his office building as a staging ground for their nefarious plot. Aided by a daring aerospace engineer from a mysterious organization known as “The League,” Edward must stop the invaders and their doomsday device, the Gravity Engine.
The new web series, written and directed by Christopher Preksta (Captain Blasto) stars Mark Tierno (Day of the Dead, The Road...
Edward Borman, a lowly government office drone, finds himself trapped, when the deadly Mercury Men seize his office building as a staging ground for their nefarious plot. Aided by a daring aerospace engineer from a mysterious organization known as “The League,” Edward must stop the invaders and their doomsday device, the Gravity Engine.
The new web series, written and directed by Christopher Preksta (Captain Blasto) stars Mark Tierno (Day of the Dead, The Road...
- 5/5/2009
- QuietEarth.us
When Christopher Preksta set out to make a movie in 2003, I don't think he ever would have imagined recutting it as a web series nearly three years after it's initial release. Originally shot in and around Pittsburgh, Pa for a modest budget of $7,000, Captain Blasto (the series) launched last June, a scant month-and-a-half before the sitebusting debut of Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible. Outside of the eerily familiar costuming (why do villain's always have to wear lab coats?), and the fact that both shows fall smack dab into the middle of the popular super-hero genre, Captain Blasto and Dr. Horrible have very little in common, and unlike the doctor, Blasto never quite found its audience online (it pulled in a total of twelve-thousand cumulative views on YouTube), despite coverage in io9 and a whole slew of other outlets. The series, whose finale went live on Nov. 10, follows the exploits of...
- 11/14/2008
- by Brady Brim-DeForest
- Tubefilter.com
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