Boxer Films director Robert Groenwold and digital studio Radium/Reel FX imagines child warriors of the future in a stirring new 3:00 short film, "Iris," a Philips Cinema Parallel Lines Competition finalist. The futuristic short, using the same seven lines of dialogue mandated for all entries to the YouTube-based shorts competition, was selected by Ridley Scott's production company RSA, BAFTA and the public as one of the top 10 films.
"I wanted to find a unique, interesting take on what the dialogue should mean," said Groenwold. "What I came up with was sci-fi meets Oliver Twist."
Shot in Hong Kong, Iris unfolds in dark, cinematic shades of black and grey highlighted by pricks of intense color and features two children - a boy and a teen girl, taking aim against the robot drones who have taken over their war-torn world. "These child survivors are the street urchins of the future," Groenwold noted.
Boxer flew their production team to Hong Kong. "Hong Kong provided the perfect match for our desired aesthetic," noted Producer John Quinn. Radium/Reel FX's team, headed up by Creative Leads Dale Carman and Kevin Althans, helped design the look of the vfx shots including the film's visually arresting 'bullet shot' and the scene where the drone spaceship appears and is shot from the sky to crash down to a Hong Kong street.
"Radium/Reel FX stepped up to do pre-visualization and executions that made Iris' effects visually outstanding," said Boxer's Beth George. "Their visual effects contribution is one of the aspects that made it a finalist in the competition."
The Philips Cinema Parallel Lines Competition drew over 600 entries from across the globe, with the winning entry being a short entitled, "The Gift."