Azureus Rising is a proof of concept developed by the San Diego production company Black Sun Entertainment. We know very little about them other than the fact they created a pretty epic piece in hopes of fleshing it out into a feature film trilogy. Independently, I might add.
The basic premise thus far involves a “heroic freedom fighter” pitted against a mecha-scorpion. We aren’t entirely sure about his motivations but he definitely has some impressive talents navigating his way through the hyper futuristic metropolis he inhabits.
Motionographer’s Harm got a little bit more info from the director, David Weinstein, when he asked him about how much story can be crammed into 5 minutes. A note we pulled, as it turns out, from the Q&A from Black Sun Entertainment’s site and not from conversation with the director.
That’s the thing. With 5 minutes—how much story can you really get? I knew I could not get a emotional reaction with only 5 minutes of screen time. There’s no time to set up the characters so you feel like you can relate to them, and then watch how they handle and react to the events that unfold around them. For me story is about showing change. The change in a character—or the changes in the world and the hero’s impact on those transformations. So instead of trying to half ass my story into a 5 minute short film, I opt to make a exciting visual display of the world and the character in action.
The 5 minutes do fly by rather fast, but in a good way. We look forward to seeing more from Black Sun Entertainment and the budding saga of Azureus.